{"id":129409,"date":"2023-09-03T20:36:58","date_gmt":"2023-09-03T20:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluemull.com\/?p=129409"},"modified":"2023-09-03T20:36:58","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T20:36:58","slug":"literary-fiction-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluemull.com\/lifestyle\/literary-fiction-3\/","title":{"rendered":"LITERARY FICTION"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Fraud<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hamish Hamilton \u00a320, 464pp<\/p>\n by Zadie Smith<\/p>\n (Hamish Hamilton \u00a320, 464pp)<\/p>\n At the centre of Smith\u2019s first historical novel is the real-life Tichborne Trial, a case that gripped Victorian Britain in which a grossly overweight butcher from Australia outrageously insisted he was heir to a baronetcy.<\/p>\n Observing proceedings is Scottish widow Eliza Touchet, housekeeper and cousin of novelist William Harrison Ainsworth, whose inclination for purple prose Smith has great fun with. But it\u2019s the star witness, Andrew Bogle, a former Jamaican sugar-plantation slave, who fascinates Eliza.<\/p>\n Dickensian in more ways than one \u2014 the man himself crops up at intervals \u2014 this is a slyly funny, nuanced and many-stranded yarn, set against the backdrop of the slave trade.<\/p>\n At its heart, would-be journalist Eliza is both fascinating and enigmatic \u2014 witness blink-and-you\u2019ll-miss-it references to her fondness for light S&M, as she conducts affairs with both William and his tragic wife. But if she ultimately remains elusive, it\u2019s perhaps only fitting in a novel concerned not least with the endless unknowability of others.<\/p>\n All the little Bird-Hearts<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tinder Press \u00a318.99, 304pp<\/p>\n by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow<\/p>\n (Tinder Press \u00a318.99, 304pp)<\/p>\n One of four debuts to be catapulted into the spotlight, thanks to this year\u2019s Booker longlist, this is the story of Sunday Forrester \u2014 who, like Lloyd-Barlow herself, is autistic.<\/p>\n For single mother Sunday, every social situation is a trial, which can only be navigated with reference to an ancient etiquette guide. But when Vita and Rollo, a posh pair of spiv-like Londoners, move in next door, Sunday is instantly smitten.<\/p>\n Soon she and her beloved 16-year-old daughter are attending exotic dinner parties that break all of Sunday\u2019s rules \u2014 but beneath their high-gloss veneer, the newcomers (of course) harbour sinister secrets.<\/p>\n While some elements seem rather sketched in \u2014 Sunday\u2019s tragic past among them \u2014 it ultimately matters little. Bravely eschewing cosier tropes, this is a memorably authentic, at times painfully affecting, portrait of a singular woman navigating life\u2019s challenges and still finding her way to happiness on her own terms.<\/p>\n No Be from Hia<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Legend Press \u00a39.99, 224pp<\/p>\n by Natasha Omokhodion-Kalulu Banda<\/p>\n (Legend Press \u00a39.99, 224pp)<\/p>\n Originally self-published in Zambia, where the author was raised, this family saga follows cousins Maggie and Bupe.<\/p>\n While Maggie grows up in Lusaka in Zambia, home for Bupe is her Nana\u2019s curry house in London\u2019s Brixton \u2014 until, that is, the threat of gang violence sees her parents shipping her off to Africa for her safety.<\/p>\n United, the chalk-and-cheese cousins are soon excelling at their studies, but two dark secrets hang over their families \u2014 their grandmother\u2019s mysterious death and the disappearance of Maggie\u2019s father.<\/p>\n While the storytelling tends towards the summary, this is a novel of family and country in which the personal and political are truly intertwined, written with verve and feeling.<\/p>\n