sprawling, ambitious affair. It is
also an epic masterpiece. At its
beating heart is Ailey Pearl Gar-
field, a young African American
woman who, after growing up
and coming of age in Georgia,
decides to trawl through her
family’s checkered history to
learn what befell her ancestors
in the Deep South. Multigen-
erational, multivoiced, and filled
with darkness and light, this is
a remarkable feat of storytell-
ing.
‘GREAT CIRCLE’
by Maggie Shipstead
Shipstead’s immersive third
novel braids together the life
stories of two memorable
women. “Born to be a wan-
derer,” Marian Graves grows up
to become a pioneering aviator
but disappears in Antarctica in
1950 in an ill-fated attempt to
circle the globe. In 2014, dis-
graced Hollywood star Hadley
Baxter seeks to restore her
dignity and revive her career
by playing Marian in a movie.
The book’s scope, detail and
single-minded heroines allow it
to truly soar.
17
FROM THE SHELF
CHECKING OUT THE
WORLD OF BOOKS
‘KLARA AND THE SUN’
by Kazuo Ishiguro
Ishiguro’s fi rst novel since
being awarded the Nobel Prize
in Literature is narrated by an
android — an “Artifi cial Friend.”
Klara draws nourishment from
the sun and in turn provides
strength and comfort for Josie,
a teenager suff ering from what
could be a life-threatening
illness. The more time Klara
spends with her ailing compan-
ion, the more she learns about
the frailty of life, the nature of
love and what it takes to be hu-
man. Ishiguro’s brave new world
and the inhabitants within it cast
a mesmerizing spell.
‘OH WILLIAM!’
by Elizabeth Strout
Successful sixty-something
writer Lucy Barton agrees to
accompany her ex-husband
William on a trip to Maine to
meet the half-sister he never
knew he had. But in doing so
she ends up on a journey of
discovery of her own, one that
sees her refl ecting on the highs
and lows (or “Diffi culties”) of
her decades-long relationship,
together with the current state
of her life. Strout’s third outing
for her much-loved creation is a
bittersweet delight.
DECEMBER 29, 2021�JANUARY 5, 2022
dler, Man. An existential thriller
packed with mayhem, absurdity
and big ideas.
‘CROSSROADS’
‘A LINE TO KILL’
‘THE COMMITTED’
by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Starting where his Pulit-
zer Prize-winning debut “The
Sympathizer” left off , Nguyen’s
sequel follows his unnamed
double agent — “a man of two
faces” — out of Vietnam and
into Paris in 1981. There he
deals drugs and settles scores
for Chinese gangsters, loses
himself in philosophical de-
bates with his “aunt” and other
intellectuals, and communes
with ghosts from his past — all
while dreading an impending
showdown with his former han-
that Horowitz is king of the con-
temporary whodunit.
by Anthony Horowitz
Ex-Detective Inspector Daniel
Hawthorne and his sidekick,
writer Anthony Horowitz, return
for a third case, this time on
the tiny island of Alderney in
the English Channel — a place
where there has never been
a murder. That track record is
ruined when the wealthy spon-
sor of a literary festival there
meets a violent end. Soon the
crime-solving duo are unearth-
ing clues and sifting secrets and
grudges of the islanders and the
visiting authors. Funny, fi endish
and thrilling, this mystery proves
by Jonathan Franzen
The fi rst volume in a proposed
trilogy, “Crossroads” is one of
those books Franzen is so good
at: an involving and enthralling
family saga. This one revolves
around the Hildebrandts in small-
town Illinois in the early 1970s.
Pastor Russ and his unhappy
wife, Marion, harbor secret de-
sires, hidden agendas and unpro-
cessed pain in their disintegrat-
ing marriage. Meanwhile, their
children take drastic steps to go
their own way. The fl awed char-
acters and high-stakes plotlines
make for superlative drama. Roll
on the next installment.
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