The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love was a self-indulgent bit of fluff. In this book, she’s more disciplined and makes a good attempt at building a terrific character, Alma, a botanist who rivals Charles Darwin in developing a theory of evolution. However I do wish the editor had been a bit harsher with the blue pencil – far too long, far too wordy and lots of extraneous waffle.

The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks

This is the surprising, shocking, incredible story of King David. Historical fiction at its best, really. Not having had a religious education, and not being Jewish more to the point I think, I knew nothing about David except for the Goliath story and an awareness of passing references to the City of David. I was also aware that the Old Testament stories are bloody and violent. So I wasn’t quite prepared for the scope and action of this story, which strikes me as rather like a biblical version of Game of Thrones with its murder and incest, homosexuality, rape, wars and mysticism. As always Geraldine Brooks has done her homework, even if the sources are limited secondaries. She tells the story of David’s life with welcome embroideries, from the time he is a shunned child sent to mind the goats through his rise on the battlefield to power to his failings and ultimate punishment. The word of ‘the Name’ runs right through the story, lending some terrific mysticism to the story. This isn’t March, though. It’s a great rollicking yarn, without the subtlety of March or the insight into its tortured protagonist. All the same, it’s a gripping read and not to be missed.

The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante

I’m now officially hooked on Elena Ferrante. This is the second of the four novels charting the lives of Lina (My Brilliant Friend) and Lenu, the girls from Naples whose lives take such different paths yet whose friendships remains intact. In this novel Lenu continues on to university in Pisa, struggling to accommodate the two very different cultures she finds herself living in. The emotion in these books, the suffering, the sense of loss and loss of hope, the glimmers of a possible future for Lenu, are gut wrenching but marvelous. Onto the next in the series.