2017 BOOK Page-turners
As the year
comes to a close, here’s a list of the best books I read in 2017
In
another decade or so, What Happened will be essential reading for all students
of politics
Yes, it’s that time of
year again. When newspapers and magazines begin doing their year-end round-ups.
The political highlights of the year. The top 10 people of the year. The 20
best places to eat at. The highest-rated holiday destinations. And so on and so
forth.
So, in that same spirit
of year-end nostalgia, I present to you my own list: the top five books I have
read through the year. Needless to say, this is an entirely subjective list,
far from comprehensive, and does not include many superb books that came out in
2017. But it is stuff that I read and loved – and I hope you will read and love
too.
NOVEL
Little Fires Everywhere: This is Celeste Ng’s second
Everything I Never Told
You. Set in American suburbia, the story starts with a fire that burns down the
home of Richardson family. But the fire is not at the heart of the book, family
is. Or rather, families. There are the Richardsons with their picture-perfect
house, home to four teenagers. There is peripatetic single mother Mia Warren
and her 15-year-old daughter Mia who have a mystery at the centre of their
lives. And then, there is a third plot line that involves a custody battle for
a baby whose birth mother returns to claim her. It’s takes a rare talent to sew
all these multiple strands together without losing control of the plot. But Ng
is that rare talent, so you are in safe hands.
Book by
Domenico Starnone for ulterior motives.
No, not because it has
been translated from Italian by Jhumpa Lahiri (who has also written a
foreword). But because Starnone is married to Anita Raja who was recently
‘outed’ as Elena Ferrante, one of my favourite writers and there had been some
speculation that the Neapolitan Novels I so loved were actually the work of
Starnone. Well, having read Ties ,Ihavemy doubts about that theory. But that
said, this book stands up on its own merits, sketching out the life of an
ageing couple, with<Ties: I
have to confess that I downloaded this
all the indignities of
growing old, juxtaposed brilliantly with flashbacks of their young selves.
A
Legacy of Spies: revolved around how
John Le Carre was bringing back George Smiley in this book. But frankly, that
was a bit of a red herring. Smiley is referenced constantly through the book
but remains offstage, emerging for a cameo at the very end. But that doesn’t
make this spy thriller (in the loosest sense of the term) any less enjoyable.
You have to be a Le Carre aficionado to truly appreciate how the back story is
woven in. But even if you are coming to Le Carre for the first time ever, you
will be caught up in the sheer skill with which he swings from past to present.
Speaking for myself, I was a bit disappointed with the end, but you can read
and make up your own mind.<All the
pre-release publicity
mark at the end but I always hear one as I
imagine Hillary Clinton saying in plaintive tones, What the (expletive deleted) Happened?
Maybe that’s because the author’s voice comes through so strongly and clearly
as she dissects all that went wrong in her 2016 presidential bid. Many critics
have scoffed at the fact that Clinton blames everyone but herself for her
electoral loss in this book. But that wasn’t how I read it. To me, the book
portrayed a woman, who had nothing more to lose, coming clean on how the
mistakes she and her campaign made changed the course of American history even
as she acknowledged the damage misogyny and sexism had done to her cause. In
another decade or so, this will be essential reading for all students of
politics.<What Happened: The title doesn’t have a question
Widow
by Daniel Silva, then drop everything you are doing and read it now.
Because Silva’s latest, House<House
of Spies: If you haven’t read The Black of Spies, takes off from where The
Black Widow left off. The central character is, as always, the legendary
Israeli spy, Gabriel Allon, now ensconced at the head of his country’s secret
service. But even the demands of that job can’t keep the intrepid Allon off the
field, as he tries to track down and destroy the lynchpin of ISIS, a shadowy
character who goes by the name of Saladin. After a momentary dip, when his
novels became a tad formulaic, Silva is on top form again, weaving suspenseful
stories that will have you up till the early hours of the morning, telling
yourself, “Okay, just one more chapter!” Remember, you have been warned.
HTBR31DEC17
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