Recently, Shepherd.com asked for my three favourite reads of 2023. Shepherd is a site created to link readers to books highlighted by authors as opposed to algorithms.
1. The Wolf and the Watchman by Niklas Natt Och Dag.
A captivating whodunit written with literary flare. The descriptions are lyrical yet on point. You get a heartrending page-turner peopled by characters you won’t forget, driven by motivations as dark as a Stockholm winter night.
2. The Sweet Goodbye by Ron Corbett.
What’s a crime thriller without complex perpetrators and victims, powerful descriptive passages that pull me into the action, and subterfuge that keeps me guessing until the end? A book I put down. No danger of that with The Sweet Goodbye.
3. The Tao of Travel: Enlightenments from Lives on the Road by Paul Theroux.
For years, I’ve been rereading my favourite travel writers, such as Robert Macfarlane, Pico Iyer, Jan Morris, and Paul Theroux. In 2023, I reread The Tao of Travel, a compendium of pithy quotes that spans the globe. You can open it at any page and instantly enjoy the banquet you encounter. When you’re hungry again, simply turn the page.
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To give a book is to give a window into another world. Here are five gift ideas for the 2023 Holidays.
First, two mystery/detective suggestions:
The Wolf and the Watchman by Niklas Natt och Dag, English translation from the Swedish, 2019. The Wolf and the Watchman should please any fan of historical crime/mystery fiction. The novel (set in 1793, in Sweden) presents a captivating tale, beautifully told. The whodunit angle alternates between darkness and light, judiciously balancing good and evil. The Wolf and the Watchman is the first book in the Jean Mickel Cardell trilogy, which includes The City Between the Bridges and The Order of the Furies.
Muskie Falls by Ron Corbett, 2023. The first novel in Corbett’s Detective Yakabuski series, Ragged Lake, revealed that Corbett (from Ottawa, Canada) was a born storyteller. With Muskie Falls, the fourth novel in the series, his story-telling virtuosity becomes even clearer. Muskie Falls is equal parts riveting mystery and stylistic tour-de-force. The plot unfolds on the fictionalized Northern Divide, an unforgettable locale, perfectly rendered. The story is delivered with nuanced authenticity and the rip-roaring drive of a northern river.
All The Colour In The World by C.S. Richardson, 2023. All The Colour In The World is lean, fast-paced, and atmospheric, more prose poem than traditional novel. If your giftee prefers expansive, detailed novels, this won’t likely be their cup of cheer. On the other hand, if they like reading outside the box, this could be their cuppa, a spare yet powerful story, anchored in Toronto but displaying all the colours of the world.
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton, 2023. Birnam Wood is both a beguiling story and a novel of ideas, a crucible of eco-idealism, survivalism, and human striving. The novel transports the reader to NZ’s South Island. Catton, a previous Booker Prize winner, knows how to hook an audience. The plot unfolds slowly (perhaps too slowly for some) but cleverly, reaching a thriller-type crescendo.
The Tao of Travel by Paul Theroux, 2011. Some travel books are timeless. Theroux’s The Tao of Travel is one of them. It contains a collection of evocative quotes whose origins span the globe. The reader can open itat any page. They’ll be instantly transported to the quote’s location. When they’re ready to venture off again, they can simply turn the page.
To give a book is to give a window into another world. Here are five gift ideas for the 2022 Holidays. Today, North American authors. See last week for British authors.
First, a mystery/detective suggestion:
The Sweet Goodbye by Ron Corbett, 2022. Corbett has been nominated for both the Edgar and Arthur Ellis awards. The Sweet Goodbye is a complex tale of deceit and retribution set in the wild timberlands of Maine. Like Ian Rankin, Corbett doesn’t dish out genteel whodunits. However, Corbett’s fictional violence isn’t gratuitous; it’s part of life in the hinterland. [NB: The Sweet Goodbye may not suit fans of cozy mysteries.]
On Foot to Canterbury: A Son’s Pilgrimageby Ken Haigh, 2021. Shortlisted for the 2021 Hilary Weston Prize (Nonfiction). Do you have a traveler, hiker, or lover of English history and literature on your gift list? On Foot to Canterbury recounts a walk from Winchester to Canterbury, England, hiking the Pilgrims’ Way. The book delves deeply into England’s past. Haigh weaves together three main threads — travel memoir, English literature, and English history — producing a vibrant tapestry.
Stray Dogs by Rawi Hage, 2022. Shortlisted for the Giller Prize. Stray Dogs is a collection of sharply-etched stories ranging from Beirut to Montreal to Baghdad. All are sparsely told; all unfold with a quick, addictive pace. Full disclosure: A few of the stories didn’t grab me, but I’m hard to please. 😉 Regardless, Stray Dogs delivers far more delights than disappointments.
American War by Omar El Akkad, 2017. El Akkad won the 2021 Giller Prize for What Strange Paradise. American War is told with taut, clean prose. The novel’s apocalyptic post-oil storyline brings to mind Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. The plot is inventive and disquieting. The post-oil world is artfully rendered. NB: The first 100 pages get mired in a few ruts. After that, the novel takes off.
A Season on Vancouver Island by Bill Arnott, 2022. Arnott is the award-winning author of numerous travel books and novellas. If your prospective giftee has visited Vancouver Island or plans to, present them with A Season on Vancouver Island, a travel memoir for all seasons. Arnott’s writing is humorous, poetical, and illuminating. For those yet to visit one of the world’s most majestic islands (and its surrounding archipelago), the book will whet their appetite and inform their journey. For those who’ve been there, the book will bring them back – to, as Arnott describes it, the language of ravens and the sound of sea-wash.
To give a book is to give a window into another world. Here are four gift ideas for the 2022 Holidays. Today, British authors; next week, North American authors.
First, a mystery/detective suggestion:
Arthur & George by Julian Barnes, 2005. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize (Barnes won it for The Sense of an Ending, 2011). Arthur & George should appeal to aficionados of detective fiction as well as literary fiction. The novel retells the story of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes’ creator) championing a lowly solicitor named George Edalji. Arthur & George aired as a TV mini-series in 2015.
Lessons by Ian McEwan, 2022. If you know someone who likes long, contemplative novels, Lessons could fit the bill. {NB: It weighs in at 448 pages, which could be too long for some.} Like Julian Barnes, Booker-prize winner McEwan is an elegant stylist. Lessons features a worldly plot and vivid detail, such that a social anthropologist could read it hundreds of years from now and form a solid picture of the novel’s era: post-WW II.
Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes, 2022. In Elizabeth Finch, Barnes has created a memorable character, a stoic, erudite Londoner. Finch is a beacon of light to the novel’s protagonist. She propels him to write a study of Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate. NB: The novel is a philosophical exploration as much as a contemporary narrative. If your prospective giftee favours novels salted with metaphysics or antiquity, Elizabeth Finch is sure to please them.
Inside Story by Martin Amis, 2020. McEwan, Barnes, and Amis are considered three of the best British authors of the post-war period. Although subtitled A Novel, Inside Story is largely biographical. Amis regales readers with unique insights, both frivolous and cerebral. He grew up in a time and place of, let’s say, amorous exuberance (Swinging London, 1960s-70s). The novel uncorks womanizing and braggadocio, but also poignancy, self-doubt, and generosity of spirit. If your giftee admires inventive prose and unabashed characters, this is a book for them.
A century ago, in the time of Arthur Conan Doyle (of Sherlock Holmes fame), there were relatively few detective novelists. Not so today. There are hundreds of excellent (and prolific) detective/mystery novelists. Take Canadian Ron Corbett, an Ottawa-based author whose novels have been nominated for both the Edgar and Arthur Ellis awards.
Corbett is the epitome of prolific; he’s published four novels in the last five years. The first, Ragged Lake (2017), set in an abandoned village on the Northern Divide, is the opening salvo in the Detective Yakabuski series. The Divide, a fictionalized Canadian hinterland, is beautiful but unforgiving. Frank Yakabuski is as no-nonsense as Ian Rankin’s John Rebus. He’s also as well-drawn. Ragged Lake is a paragon of descriptive prose, as are the next two novels in the series, Cape Diamond (2018) and Mission Road (2020).
Continuing the Ian Rankin comparison, like the master of Scottish Noir, Corbett doesn’t dish out genteel whodunits. [Fans of cozy mysteries, be aware.] Corbett’s fictional violence isn’t gratuitous; it’s part of life on the Northern Divide. Yakabuski is the perfect cop for the region: hard-nosed yet imbued with a deep, one could say, mystical sense of the Divide.
After the Yakabuski trilogy, Corbett moved to the wild timberlands of Maine with The Sweet Goodbye (2022). The protagonist, Danny Barrett, is an undercover FBI agent. Like the Yakabuski novels, The Sweet Goodbye is a complex tale of deceit and retribution. Unlike them, the Maine novel has a major female character, which softens the plotline — in my view, to good effect.
At the risk of stepping into quicksand, let’s look at male vs female characters in the detective/mystery genre. {If you don’t want to step with me, please go to the last paragraph.} Consider Ian Rankin’s fictional world. He portrays women deftly, but the cops, murderers, and victims are mostly male. In my reading experience, the more hard-boiled a novel, the smaller the role women play in it. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule, such as the Dragon-Tattoo series with Lisbeth Salander.
I realize there’s an element of sexism in what I’m saying. ‘What, AMP, women can’t be tough or bad-ass?’ Sure they can. Take Salander again. I tend to look at the male-female continuum in terms of realism, not sexism. If females dominate an author’s fictional world, the reader shouldn’t expect males to play main roles. And vice versa. When males dominate a fictional world, you don’t often find numerous influential females. In my view, that’s fictional realism, not gender myopia. It’s up to the author to decide where they want to fall on the continuum. Readers will follow if they wish.
Bottom line: As a reader, when I’m not interested in a story, when the male-female continuum doesn’t ring true, I drop the book. Which I didn’t do with Corbett’s novels. I read all of them to their vivid ends.
For more information on Ron Corbett, see his website.
North Noir 