Book of the month

THE DOCTOR FROM BOMBAY

By Gos Jilani

Publisher: Independently published

Genre: Based on experience

This book is wonderful! Rich and vibrant, completely believable and real, depicting a clash of cultures. There’s drama, romance, heartbreak, passion, lust, friendship, loyalty, betrayal, and life changing decisions to be made by a young Indian doctor, Saj, who comes to work for the National Health Service in the UK.

When he arrives in England from Bombay in the late 80s, Saj is full of hopes and dreams. But, the cultural differences mean that he struggles to adapt to western life. His experiences of long working hours in the NHS and racial abuse from a few of his colleagues truly shock him.

Conversely, Saj is pleasantly surprised by the freedom of western society, compared to India, which leads him to explore his sexuality from his first-time experiences through to his more passionate and confident encounters with women.

When Saj falls in love with Lea, an English nurse, he finds himself in the middle of two worlds, and must decide where his heart belongs; with his family back in Bombay, or in England, with the woman he loves.

I can’t begin to imagine the challenges a young, newly-qualified doctor would face having moved continents for work. I loved this book, which is full of situations the bravest of us would struggle with. An absolutely marvellous read.

Heresy

By S J Parris

Publisher: Harper Collins

Genre: Historical fiction

I do love a good murder mystery and this one certainly ticks all the boxes. Add a historical setting, a soggy old romance, politics, goodies and baddies and bingo! What a recipe for success. The only thing I wasn’t particularly keen on was the audio narration, which was a bit tricky as the main protagonist is Italian and therefore the accent was a little difficult to follow at times.

The body of the story is set in 1583 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Our hero, Giordano Bruno, has travelled to Oxford on behalf of Sir Francis Walsingham, the principal secretary to Queen Elizabeth I. Walsingham is also Elizabeth’s spymaster; the equivalent of a modern day chief of MI5 and MI6 combined.

Giordano has a mission to root out the Catholic Fellows who could possibly influence the impressionable Oxford Scholars. He is also on a personal mission; to discover the whereabouts of a precious book written in the times of the ancient Egyptians, which is heretical, but which will help him prove his theory that the Earth revolves around the sun.

The savage murder on the first night Giordano stays at Oxford, the smouldering forbidden passion between Giordano and Sophia, the Rector’s daughter, coupled with oodles of Elizabethan intrigue all add up to an absolutely brilliant read.

The Spy And The Traitor

By Ben Macintyre

Publisher: Penguin

Genre: War

The Spy and the Traitor is a thrilling Cold War story about a KGB double agent, by one of Britain’s greatest historians, and set far too recently to be comfortable. On a warm July evening in 1985, a middle-aged man stood on the pavement of a busy avenue in the heart of Moscow, holding a plastic carrier bag. In his grey suit and tie, he looked like any other Soviet citizen. The bag alone was mildly conspicuous, printed with the red logo of Safeway, the British supermarket.

The man was a spy. A senior KGB officer, for more than a decade, he had supplied his British spymasters with a stream of priceless secrets from deep within the Soviet intelligence machine. No spy had done more to damage the KGB. The Safeway bag was a signal: to activate his escape plan to be smuggled out of Soviet Russia. So began one of the boldest and most extraordinary episodes in the history of spying. Ben Macintyre reveals a tale of espionage, betrayal and raw courage that changed the course of the Cold War forever.

Ben Macintyre is a wonderful story-teller. This book reads like a novel when it is a factual account of the beginning of the end of the Soviet Union.

Behind Closed Doors

By Catherine Alliott

Publisher: Penguin

Genre: Chicklit

Escapism, easy reading and a generous helping of romance. A delightful holiday read which will eventually make you happy.

From the outside, anyone would think that Lucy Palmer has it all: loving children, a dashing husband and a gorgeous home. But when her marriage to Michael comes to an abrupt and unexpected end, her life is turned upside down in a flash.

As the truth of her marriage threatens to surface, Lucy seizes the opportunity to swap her house in London – and the stories it hides – for a rural escape to her parents’ farmhouse in the Chilterns. But, Lucy gets more than she bargained for when she moves back to her childhood home. With her parents growing older disgracefully, she can hardly keep up with their social life – especially when it throws her into the path of an old flame. Coming face-to-face with her mistakes, Lucy is forced to confront the secrets she’s been keeping from herself and those she loves.

The Ferryman

By Justin Cronin

Publisher: Orion

Genre: Science fiction

Whilst this does feel like a trip to the underworld and one might expect to see Hades and Persephone, the story is really quite interesting, and introduces a different take on the whole afterworld question.

Proctor Bennett is a ferryman, whose duty is to guide unhappy citizens from the utopian Prospersa to the Nursery, where they retire their old selves before returning in younger bodies with no memories of their former lives. But, when Proctor is assigned to retire his own father, the troubling encounter sends him careening off the path of conformity. He begins questioning prescribed truths and confronting the darker side of Prospera, which runs off the work of a disenfranchised support staff whose discontent is building towards a revolution that pulls Proctor into its orbit.

This tightly-wound, atmospheric thriller weaves together layers of knotted mystery with Proctor’s haunting ideas as he grapples with his relationship to grief, happiness, family and identity. It’s a sharply complex mystery with a cinematic quality to it. I could imagine this being made into a blockbuster movie with fabulous special effects. Different, it held my interest and I will definitely look out for more by this author.

Gardens Of The World

Publisher: DK Eyewitness

Genre: Gardening

A truly beautiful large coffee-table book which, although fairly pricy, is worth every penny. It is split into five chapters, each of which focus on a different theme.

From the intricately-planned and carefullycurated French formal gardens of Versailles to the surrealist jungle dreamland of Mexico’s Las Pozas, these gardens prove that greenfingered ingenuity comes in many forms and thrives in even the most unlikely of locations.

I particularly liked the expert tips and, despite my love of gardening, I’m still a raw beginner keen to learn. I could envisage planning a holiday to various destnations, taking in the incredible gardens and green spaces depicted in this book. And what makes it particularly special is that the focus is not just on formal gardens but on wild gardens, too.

The history and development of each garden is interesting and, whilst this is not a gardening book per se, it would be a great gift for anyone looking for inspiration.