Lily's Blog

Patrick recommended Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro in a comment on a previous post. The Sunday Times rated it ‘the year’s most remarkable novel’ and it was runner-up for for the 2005 Booker Prize. (beaten by John Banville’s The Sea). Told through the eyes of Kathy, now thirty one, the story is a recollection of her schooldays and the years after finishing at Hailsham School. Eventually we discover the fate that awaits Kathy and her classmates. The book tells of the friendships and relationships which develop in this strange setting. Never Let Me Go is an unusual book and took me a little to get into, but I was so glad I persisted. Well worth reading.

The outcast by Sadie Jones is a good read. This novel was shortlisted for the 2008 Orange Broadband Prize for fiction (awarded for the best original full-length novel by a female author published in the UK in the preceding year). ‘The Outcast’ was set in 1950’s rural England and tells the story of Lewis Aldridge, a young boy who becomes an outcast in his local community. The story winds around a drowning, church on Sunday, excessive drinking, lunch parties, self-harm, arson, cocktails at six-thirty … It tells of how events shaped Lewis’s life. This is Jones’ first novel and I hope she continues to write.

Tenderwire is the second novel by Irish writer Claire Kilroy. It tells the story of Irish violinist, Eva Tyne living and working in New York. It describes her search to become the owner of a rare violin of dubious origin and the effect the violin subsequently has on her life. Beautifully written. I haven’t yet read her debut novel, All Summer, but it’s on my list.

My problem it to make enough time for reading, roll on the holidays.