Back in our normal spot for July with two books that created plenty of good discussion. Both books went down well with Careless People scoring 70 and Mr Ma and Son 66.
For August we are returning to our most popular author (this is the 4th book of his we have read as a group, one more than any other author) and an American author we may well come back to again.
And, by way of reminder, we appreciate attendees making a contribution of £1.50 at the meeting to help cover meetup charges.
Happy Reading.
When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro (nominated by Jonathan)
England, 1930s. Christopher Banks has become the country's most celebrated detective, his cases the talk of London society. Yet one unsolved crime has always haunted him: the mysterious disappearance of his parents, in old Shanghai, when he was a small boy.
Moving between London and Shanghai of the interwar years, When We Were Orphans is a remarkable story of memory, intrigue and the need to return.
The Trees by Percival Everett (nominated by Chloe)
When the rural town of Money, Mississippi is beset by a series of brutal murders, a pair of detectives from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation arrive. Only to be met with resistance from the local sheriff, his deputy, the coroner, and a mob of racist white townsfolk.
This, they expect. Less predictable, however, is the second corpse which appears at each crime scene: that of a man resembling Emmett Till, the young Black boy lynched in the same town sixty-five years earlier.
As a spate of copycat killings spreads across the country, what begins as a murder investigation soon becomes a journey into the soul of America’s violent past.
Other books nominated were:
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
The Ferryman by Justin Cronin
Water Music by T.C. Boyle
Night Swimmers by Roisin Maguire
Diary of a Somebody by Brian Bilston
Beowulf: a new translation by Maria Dahvana Headley
Something Happened by Joseph Heller
The Convenience Store by the Sea by Sonoko Machida
Slow Horses by Mick Heron
