AUGUST READS

August is proving to be an exciting month for new releases, here are some of the highlights hitting the shelves this month.

WORDS ALICIA DUGGAN

THE MEMORY POLICE BY YOKO OGAWA

Originally released in 1994 in Japan, this is the first English translation of this remarkable, Orwellian novel. On an unnamed island objects are disappearing. From roses to ribbons, perfume to songbirds, once the objects have been destroyed the memories of those objects must also disappear. Some people on the island are immune to forgetting and are taken by the brutal, authoritarian Memory Police and never seen again. The protagonist of the piece is a young female author who is writing a novel about a woman who has lost her voice. She discovers her editor is in danger as he is a ‘rememberer’, so she hides him in a secret chamber in her house. As more things are removed from the collective memory, the inhabitants seem to lose parts of themselves. This beautiful and simple novel explores the power of memory and its importance to the soul.

INVISIBLE GIRL BY LISA JEWELL

At the age of 10, Saffyre Maddox suffers a terrible trauma that leaves her haunted and self-harming. Her uncle, who she lives with, sends her to therapist Roan Fours for help. After three years Roan decides Saffyre no longer needs his help, despite not having touched on the trauma that scarred her as a child. When Saffyre is 17 she goes missing in the vicinity of Roan Four’s house, in a neighbourhood already suffering at the hands of a sexual predator who is assaulting women. Suspicion is eventually levelled at the door of Roan’s neighbour Owen Pick, a 33-year-old loner virgin who lives with his aunt and is seen by locals as creepy. What unfolds is a dark, intensely thrilling, and unsettling story of secrets, lies and deceit.

WE ARE ALL THE SAME IN THE DARK BY JULIA HEABERLIN

In small town Texas, Trumanelle Branson disappears leaving only a bloody handprint behind. Her brother, Wyatt, is cleared of all wrongdoing but found guilty in the court of public opinion and left to live as an outcast. A decade later, Wyatt discovers a mute, one-eyed girl abandoned in a field and asks young cop and Trumanelle’s former friend, Odette Tucker for help. Odette has always been determined to discover the truth about the disappearance and vows to help the newly discovered child. However, Odette may be putting herself in danger without realising it. A darkly gothic psychological thriller that explores the darker side of humanity.

UTOPIA AVENUE BY DAVID MITCHELL

Meet Utopia Avenue – the biggest band you have never heard of. Utopia Avenue takes place in the swinging 60’s where free love, sex and drugs clash with war, death and riots, and follows the eponymous band’s rise to the heady heights of stardom over a two year period before suddenly disappearing into obscurity. Using colloquialisms and popular references from the time and place, David Mitchell is particularly talented at transporting the reader to a specific moment in history. You would be hard pushed to think of a musical act or artist from ’67-’68 who does not get at least a cameo. Slightly less eclectic than his previous novels, Utopia Avenue is no less captivating.

THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY BY MATT HAIG

‘Between life and death there is a library… and every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?’ Nora Seed has lived her life trying to please others, however, her own life has left her feeling desperate and suicidal. When she finds herself in The Midnight Library, she finds that all her possible lives are stored in books, all the different scenarios had she made different decisions and choices along the way. Nora gets the opportunity to ‘try on’ different versions of her own life, from rock star to Olympic athlete, to glaciologist, but ultimately Nora must decide what makes life worth living for her. Nietzsche meets It’s a Wonderful Life meets Doctor Who in this poignant, nuanced and eloquent new novel from the masterful Matt Haig.

ALL BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE FROM THE BOOKSHOP IN SAN PEDRO DE ALCÁNTARA, CC LA COLONIA LOCAL 21, SAN PEDRO DE ALCANTARA. TEL: 951 779 785. WWW.THEBOOKSHOP.ES