Between the Assassinations by Aravind Adiga

This is another in what seems to me to be a real Indian genre of books: gritty, heartbreaking, wryly amusing, beautifully crafted. It’s a collection of wonderful portraits of people living in a fictional Indian city. It’s grim but very, very human. These young Indian writers have never heard of Hollywood endings and while that’s great and, refreshingly, you never know what’s going to happen, you need to be feeling a bit stoic to get through the sadness of these people’s lives. The characters and their stories have such an extremely authentic feel about them – a middle aged Communist, a struggling coolie, child beggars, an idealistic newspaper editor … the people of real life. Together they build up a fascinating picture of life in modern India. 4 stars.

The Winter of Frankie Machine by Don Winslow

If you're going to read a thriller, enjoy this one. It's about Frankie Machine, a retired hit man for the mafia. Although I'm pretty sure Don Winslow is a dedicated Sopranos follower, I thoroughly enjoyed the references all the same. (It must be great to have had The Godfather and the Sopranos and all those other mafia movies as reference points - saves months of research and ensures that your readers immediately appreciate what you're talking about. I particularly loved the gumars!) I kept picturing Frankie as Roy Billing, who played Aussie Bob Trimbole in Underbelly. This was a great page turner, and excellent entertainment for an afternoon on the couch. 3 stars for entertainment

Lovesong by Alex Miller

How elegant is this little novel? It's a love story as told to a somewhat jaded 'retired' novelist by a man he meets at his local pastry shop. But of course it's a different take on the traditional sentimental love story. It's the story of Sabiha, a beautiful Tunisian woman, her Australian husband John, their life in Paris and their longing for a child. The jacket blurb says Miller is compassionate, and I think that describes his approach to this story nicely. It also describes the book as 'pitch-perfect'. I like Miller's clarity of language, his understatement and simplicity of approach. I enjoyed this almost as much as Conditions of Faith, the first of his books that I read and the one I find most remarkable. His approach is always fresh and his perspective of ordinary things quite original; he digs a little and finds the story beneath ordinary lives. Very, very nice story telling. Lovesong is a very quick read too - one day for me in between medical appointments, waiting for a lunchtime concert to begin and the bus ride home. I'd like to know what people think of the ending - did the writer betray John? 4 stars

Arabesques by Robert Dessaix

Aren't arabesques intricate dance movements? I think this is what Robert Dessaix thinks this book is about. It's really quite an odd book. He follows the footsteps of Andre Gide, a French writer who won the Nobel Prize for his writing but whose work was subsequently banned by the Vatican. Gide was an extremely wealthy homosexual writer who nevertheless married his cousin but who never consummated the marriage. He spent much of his time travelling to places like Algiers and Tunisia in search of voluptuous boys, not children but newly pubescent boys, and his books describe his sexual awakening (called his 'casbah moment' by Dessaix) at the instigation of his friend Oscar Wilde and his exploits into old age. Dessaix read him at 14 and I can imagine was immensely relieved to find someone who reflected and validated his own sexual longings. So, fascinated by him, Dessaix travels to all the places Gide stayed to absorb the atmosphere and ponder this man's life. Along the way he has some amazingly intellectual conversations with various people too and these can be a real pleasure to read, especially his comparison of Protestantism and Catholicism. He's really got a handle on the cultural basis of religion (as opposed to the belief basis.) The book is languid and slow and thoughtful and of course, like everything Dessaix writes, extraordinarily beautifully crafted, but nothing actually happens so if you're plot driven, give it a miss. And of course, it accepts without in any way confronting the fact of sexual tourism in another age, and that could disturb some readers. Towards the end of the book, Dessaix confronts the question of pederasty and concludes that while he doesn't approve of men prowling schoolyards, 'it is appropriate to love whoever knowingly invites our love and enjoys it.' He also emphasises that Gide's (rarely achieved) ideal was sensual chastity - hence the angst and guilt I guess. While Oscar Wilde and Andre Gide on the prowl for young goatherds and waiters might be a bit Dolly Dunn for some, Dessaix makes no judgment - he is an accepting and distanced observer of the writer and his life. I'd give this book four stars for Dessaix' gorgeous language alone.

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

What an extraordinary book. It’s a series of six or so strands written in different voices at different times in history that are unconnected yet connected in a pattern that you finally discern describes the rise, corruption and fall of western society. It’s very entertaining in parts, (for me, especially when it leaps into science fiction, where the language and concepts become extremely witty, albeit terrifying.) The structure, the memorable characters and the oddness of the connection between the narratives make it a pretty satisfying but quirky read.3 stars.

Leaving the World by Douglas Kennedy

This book needs a good editor. It just goes on and on and on with all sorts of mind numbing detail, like how much the grocery shopping is and what she pays for a pair of shoes. I mean, who cares. This woman has all sorts of terrible things happen to her – a mother who hates her, a father who took off when she was a kid, dead lovers, lost jobs, blah blah blah, and in between she gets more and more morose. I think it’s supposed to be a story about life overcoming all but really ….. and yet, there are half a dozen reserves on this in the library at the moment. One star.