THE MAYFLOWER MAID
Sue Allan, domtom, 2006, £8.98/$24.84 (postpaid), pb, 302pp, 9781906070007
It’s always a treat to get a book from a small publishing house, and an even bigger treat if the book turns out to be a good one. This is the tale of the Mayflower Maid, an obscure servant who is mentioned as being on that ship and arriving in the New World. We don’t know much about her, but in this novel her life as this author imagines it is laid before us: her unhappy beginnings in rural Lincolnshire, her involvement with the Separatists, years in service, engagement, and subsequent departure on the Mayflower.
    Ms Allan has endeavoured to get under the skin of everyday life in the early 17th century and manages it well, conveying a sense of immediacy and excitement. I particularly enjoyed seeing the viewpoint of a minor player in this well-known story, making this grand drama seen very human and fresh. Life on board the Mayflower and after making landfall are described in unflinching detail, making it one of those important and useful historical novels which, I felt, tells is like it actually was without idealising it. This is not a long book, but it is crammed with incident and manages to make history – and a story that we all think we know well – seem close and exciting. It looks as if there is going to be a sequel too…  -- Rachel A Hyde

INÉS OF MY SOUL
Isabel Allende (trans. Margaret Sayers Peden), HarperCollins, 2006, $25.95, hb, 336pp, 0061161535 / Fourth Estate, 2007, £17.99, hb, 336pp, 000724116X
Doña Inés Suárez tells the epic story of her life and the conquest of Chile in this fictional biography. Inés, a Spanish seamstress, makes her way to the new world in search of her wandering husband. She arrives only to discover that he has been killed, and fate throws her together with the first real love of her life, conquistador Pedro de Valdivia. This power couple endures political machinations, the harshness of the South American landscape, and the enmity of the fierce Mapuche natives in order to found the nation of Chile.
    A Chilean native herself, Allende easily conjures the beautiful but turbulent people and landscape of the country. Inés is an amazingly brave, passionate, and independent woman, and the panoramic tale she tells is both captivating and engrossing. The story is told through a letter/memoir the elderly Inés is writing for her adopted daughter, and thus allows for both foreshadowing and hindsight. Inés’s voice is powerful and her story epic, but she tells it with an engaging frankness and discernment which spares no one, not even herself or the loves of her life. All the characters are vividly drawn, and Allende uses them to illustrate the motivations behind and the human costs of conquest.
    Like much of Allende’s work, Inés of My Soul often delves into dark territory—war, death, torture, murder, greed, and betrayal abound, but this is tempered by humor and Inés’s can-do attitude. Inés is perhaps a little more forward-thinking than seems probable for her time, but this allows Allende to show both sides of the conflict between the Spanish and Mapuche with sensitivity and perception. This story of Chile’s often-overlooked founding mother is an epic, absorbing read, and is highly recommended. -- Bethany Latham

DAWN OF EMPIRE
Sam Barone, Century, 2007, £12.99, pb, 483pp, 9781846050510 / Morrow, 2006, $25.95/C$33.50, hb, 479pp, 0060892447
On the eastern bank of the Tigris five thousand years ago, Orak grew into a rich and powerful village, settled by merchants, traders and farmers. These “dirt-diggers,” despised by the nomad barbarian clans, were the target of many ferocious, murderous attacks. But this time the people of Orak decide to fight back. Under the guidance of a lowly soldier, Eskkar, and his woman, Trella, the citizens decide to build a defensive wall against the attackers and train its menfolk as soldiers and archers. It’s a bold plan with no guarantee of success, but the dirt-diggers will not be running away this time.
    For Eskkar the task is a more personal one. If he succeeds he will not only win power and influence over Orak, but he’ll also be avenging the death of his family at the hands of the barbarians. For one lacking in knowledge and diplomacy, it proves an awesome task, and without the wise guidance of Trella, it would have been an impossible one. The pair fall in love against a backdrop of terror, brutality and betrayal. If they can survive the odds stacking up against them, their future might just be assured.
    Dawn of Empire is a rattling good adventure story, full of blood, slaughter and sex. With the barbarian hordes at the gates, the tension virtually hums through the pages, and the battle scenes, when they come, are as powerful and brutal as expected. A swift pace and heaps of colourful action turn this into a page-turner of the first quality. This great debut novel is bound to win Sam Barone a large following. -- Sara Wilson

THE SCARLET LION
Elizabeth Chadwick, Sphere, 2006, £18.99, hb, 579pp, 0316728314
This novel is a sequel to The Greatest Knight which told the early story of William Marshal, although any reader can, as I did, come to it cold. It continues the story of William’s life throughout the reign of King John and his role as Lord Protector to the young king Henry III. Although he is little known today, he was the greatest man of his time: a warrior, a powerful and wealthy landowner, an advisor to kings – in other words, a politician, at a time when Parliament was in its very earliest infancy.
    Elizabeth Chadwick is a consummate historical novelist. All the political facts are here: King John and the Magna Carta, the wars with France, battles between English factions and Irish rebels. Where she fills in the gaps, she does so with total authority and plausibility. But what she does so well here is to tell us a moving story of a marriage. William ands his beloved Isabelle are not a modern couple in period costume but real people, fully alive within the customs and beliefs of their time. They argue, they make love, they celebrate and grieve; their children bring them joy and pain and not a little irritation, like all people have always done. But we never forget they are medieval people.
    The author’s detailed knowledge of the period is so secure it does not detract from the page-turning story. I never felt she was trying to impress readers by trotting out her research. Everything is woven seamlessly into the narrative.
    A period of history that was a dull monochrome to me at school bursts into colour within its pages, and now I fully understand the importance of the Magna Carta, why John was deemed a ‘bad’ king, and how people lived and loved during his reign. Can one ask for more in any historical novel?
-- Sally Zigmond

EYE OF THE SERPENT
Joanna Challis, Hale, 2006, £18.99, hb, 224pp, 9780709081302
1870: Christabel Brown leaves England, becoming governess to the teenage daughter of an Austrian count. Liesel von Holstein is a difficult charge; her last governess came to an untimely end. Max von Holstein, handsome, widowed, rich, with a mysterious past and an impossibly beautiful castle, is the kind of man romantic dreams are made of. Christabel, beautiful, brave, forthright and honourable, is both entranced by her new employer and bewildered by the secrecy surrounding him. Before Christabel left England, her Grandma entrusted her with the safekeeping of a precious family heirloom, an unusual bracelet in the form of serpents entwined. When Christabel realises this same serpent is the insignia of the Von Holstein family, she wonders about the history of her bracelet. Can it truly be hers? Or was it stolen? Before long, death occurs. Dark forces are gathering, and Christabel is plunged into danger, along with the Count. A not unusual pattern of events, the Von Holstein family history is littered with tragedies. Is history about to repeat itself? Or is Christabel strong enough to claim what is rightfully hers? An achingly beautiful tale, incurably romantic in every sense. Perfect from start to finish, deliciously pleasurable, and highly recommended.  -- Fiona Lowe

HEARTS OF STONE
Kathleen Ernst, Dutton, 2006, $16.99, hb, 256pp, 0525476865
Fifteen-year-old Hannah finds herself the head of her family when her Cumberland Mountain home is torn asunder by the ravages of the Civil War. Her best friend and neighbor Ben’s family is Confederate, while Hannah’s father becomes an early casualty on the Union side. When bushwhackers threaten and their mother dies, Hannah makes the monumental decision to keep her family together by walking to a Nashville aunt’s home – a walk that takes them through the very heart of the war.
    On the way they face dangers both natural and man-made, and continued animosity from Ben’s family. But Hannah sings to her twin sisters even when “worn to a nub.” They find kindness from both a former slave woman and Confederate gun runner. Cruelty comes by way of a desperate Union soldier.
    When they finally reach a crowded-with-refugees Nashville, they spend their first night huddled together in a coil of rope at the docks. A Union surgeon offers help at a terrible price, and an uneasy truce begins with neighbor Ben and his sister. Although she feels like “someone had taken a flax comb to my heart,” Hannah finds strength in the healing power of music, story, and family.
    Like an old-time ballad, Hearts of Stone transports readers into a lyrical, essential world brimming with life and spirit. It succeeds in that rarest of objectives – to both wrench and warm the heart. Highly recommended. Age 12 and up. -- Eileen Charbonneau

MISTRESS OF THE ART OF DEATH
Ariana Franklin, Putnam, 2007, $25.95, hb, 336pp, 0399154140 / Bantam, 2007, £12.99, hb, 320pp, 0593056493
Adelia, who has studied medicine in Salerno, Sicily, is selected by the King of Sicily to accompany Simon of Naples, a man renowned for his detecting skills, to England. In Cambridge, the Jews are accused of crucifying a young boy. Henry II is most displeased, as the Jews are now taking refuge in the castle, unable to attend to business and therefore increase the king’s coffers. He would have the true killer found. When Simon, Adelia, and Mansur, Adelia’s attendant, reach Cambridge, they find that not just one boy but three more children have been horribly murdered. It is inconceivable that a woman might be a doctor, so the three have to pretend that it is Mansur who is actually the physician. Adelia ministers to patients under his orders, while spending the rest of her time investigating the deaths.
    The author does a superb job of evoking Cambridge in the second half of the 12^th century. All strata of society are encountered, from lowly peasants to royalty, and readers get a vivid sense of their roles and their prejudices, most notably those against Jews, women, and Saracens. Nearing Cambridge, the trio travel in the company of a group who are just returning from pilgrimage or crusade to the Holy Land, and conditions there are tellingly evoked by a returning crusader. The hunt for the killer is gripping, but the tension is leavened by a romance and by Adelia’s growing fondness for several local inhabitants.
    The author’s note indicates where she took liberties with historical fact, and a set of questions for the author at the end of the volume provides the very welcome news that a sequel is planned. I have read many medieval mysteries over the years – this one falls in the very top tier. -- Trudi E. Jacobson

TROY: Shield of Thunder
David Gemmell, Bantam, 2006, £17.99, hb, 480pp, 0593052226 / Del Rey, 2007, $25.95, hb, 487pp, 0345477014
Plain-faced Helen sits behind the walls of Troy, married to Paris but never to Menelaus; Andromache loves another but is betrothed to Hektor, favourite son of Priam; Achilles is a bully and heir to the dissolute Peleus of Thessaly. David Gemmell makes us work to identify his fable with that of Homer. Shield of Thunder, the second book in his trilogy encompassing the Trojan War, is quite impossible to put down and achieves the same heights as Lord of the Silver Bow.
    Amid the glory that was ancient Greece, the western armies of the Great Green (which we know as the Mediterranean) are gathering under the leadership of Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, to invade the shores of Ilium and bring about the downfall of Troy. Legendary heroes return and are joined by new characters: Kalliades and Banokles, soldiers banished from their homeland with a price on their heads; Pira, a runaway priestess searching for her lost lover; and Ganny, a surprising companion to Odysseus. This is a passionate, elegant, ruthless and romantic historical novel. For those who have not yet read the earlier book, the author interweaves the storylines flawlessly, and all will enjoy the touches of humour.
    David Gemmell has a masterful ability to bring to life period and place: his characters are skilfully constructed, strong, and tangible, and his writing vivid and precise. Troy: Shield of Thunder is a worthy epitaph to a consummate storyteller. (Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow was reviewed in Issue 34, November 2005. –ed.) -- Gwen Sly

GHOST SEA
Ferenc Máté, Norton, 2006, $23.95/C$32.50, hb, 263pp, 09025649
    “He loved the sea, he loved a boat, he loved a woman,
     Some would say he loved wrongly or too much—or both.”
Ghost Sea is a wild chiaroscuro of raging storms and dense coastal mists set on the coast of British Columbia. S.V.Dugger, captain of the ketch Terrance Jordan, is hired to pursue Kwakiutl warriors to recover tribal masks they have stolen from a collector of ancient artifacts. Set shortly after World War II, the story is not only about tracking sacred masks—perhaps it is not much about tracking sacred masks—for the warriors have also taken the collector’s wife, Kate, who is Dugger’s lover. It is her husband who commissioned Dugger and who accompanies him on this foray. The storms and deep fogs through which Dugger navigates are not only marine in nature.
    This is a great story. It has all the ingredients an adventure should have: excitement, danger, romance. The narrative is strong and the dialogue is true. The story moves at rapid pace towards an incomparable climax. But Ghost Sea is not just a seagoing Indiana Jones tale. The author is a scholar of the Kwakiutl nation, and the story is through and through a story of the Kwakiutl people. Máté opens most chapters with quotations from Franz Boas’ ethnological studies of the Kwakiutl. He weaves extensive history into his narration, and introduces yet more through Dugger’s first mate, Nello, who is part Kwakiutl. He does all this without a break in the nonstop action of the tale. What adds even more to the storytelling is Máté´s thorough knowledge of sailing ships and the sea. He shares his love of both in passages that can only be described as poetry. Ghost Sea is a beautifully written intellectual thriller. I would rank it alongside Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s The Nautical Chart.
-- Lucille Cormier

THE SPARKS FLY UPWARD
Diana Norman, Berkley, 2006, $15.00, pb, 423 pp, 0425211584
As the waning days of the French Revolution evolve into the Reign of Terror, marked by indiscriminate beheadings, fear and the tyranny of the mob, things are not so dandy on the other side of the English Channel either. Makepeace Hedley, a headstrong widow, feminist and abolitionist who was born and raised in Boston (herself knowing a bit about the tyranny of the mob), tries to keep peace within her family. Her daughter, Philippa – a fiercely independent and smart woman – becomes engaged to a campaigner for the rights of slaves in the colonies, a man she does not love, hoping to quell the feelings she has for a man she cannot have. Both have strong ties to the nobility in France, and particularly to the de Condorcet family. It soon becomes obvious to Philippa that she can only save the Marquis if she crosses the Channel - with forged papers – carrying only her enormous courage as a shield against the daily executions in Paris.
    In Norman’s talented hands, what could have been a humdrum story comes so alive with passion, intrigue and sheer guts that it’s difficult to put this book down. As Makepeace creates her own personal drama – literally and figuratively – back in London trying to raise public awareness of the plight of African slaves, Philippa, in Paris, discovers just how powerful the forces of love and devotion can be. Every page of this novel is so chock full of historical detail, dialogue that literally jumps off the pages, romance, skullduggery, heroes, and villains that it is a sheer joy to read. What a pity when you reach the satisfying conclusion!
    I loved this book and highly recommend it. I just wish I could convince Diana Norman to revisit these characters in a sequel! -- Ilysa Magnus

THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX
Maggie O’Farrell, Headline, 2006, £14.99, hb, 245pp, 0755308433
Iris Lockhart is a stubbornly independent young woman in modern Edinburgh. Her only real connections with the past are Kitty, her Alzheimer’s-afflicted grandmother, and the beautiful vintage clothes she sells in her boutique. Out of the blue, she receives a phone call from a mental hospital, which is about to close down and must re-house all its inmates. Iris is asked whether she is willing to take on Esme Lennox, the great aunt she never knew existed. Esme is Kitty’s sister, yet Kitty had always insisted she was an only child. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn the story of Esme, a spirited woman, much like Iris, except that she had the misfortune to be born in a place and time that labelled her rebellious streak as madness. After a troubled childhood in colonial India and 1930s Edinburgh, Esme was incarcerated in a mental institution at the age of 16 and erased from her family history. By the time Iris discovers Esme’s existence, she has been in the asylum for 60 years.
    Iris is torn between her reluctance of taking on a mad and possibly dangerous old woman and her curiosity. Compassion overrides caution when she learns that in the 1930s, a G.P.’s signature sufficed for a father or a husband to have a woman committed for life. O’Farrell poignantly describes the growing bond that forms between Iris and Esme as Esme gathers her courage for her inevitable reunion with Kitty, who has betrayed her in the most unspeakable way. 
    Dark and disturbing, this cautionary tale is not for the faint-hearted. But this gorgeously written novel is subtle and elegantly drawn: a masterpiece.
-- Mary Sharratt

THE TENDERNESS OF WOLVES
Stef Penney, Quercus, 2006, £12.99, hb, 440pp, 1905204817 / Viking Canada, 2006, C$36, hb, 464pp, 9780670066100
If I had to review this book in six words, it would be “Stop everything and read this novel.” It is set in the remote Canadian settlement of Dove River in 1867. In a landscape of snow and ice, a trapper named Jammet is found murdered in his cabin by Mrs Ross, the wife of a settler. The Hudson’s Bay Company employees arrive to investigate. Mrs. Ross’s seventeen-year-old son is missing and there are others on the trail of the murderer, including Jammet’s friend and fellow trapper, William Parker. Mrs Ross and Parker set out across the snow together but with different intentions. Back in Dove River, various inhabitants are affected by the upheaval of the murder, and the narrative moves between Dove River and the journey northwards.
The writing has a beautiful wintry spareness and the swift undercurrent of a tense and urgent narrative. The characters are portrayed warts and all, but with sensitivity and an understanding of the complexity of human motives and aspirations. And the landscape matters, as it should! Although the plot does become a little (and I mean just a little) disjointed towards the centre of the book, it is soon ironed out. The interaction between Mrs Ross and William Parker is finely tuned and compelling, a superb lesson to all writers in conveying much with very few words.
    Lastly and most importantly, it is a thoroughly good story. My favourite novel of 2006. -- Geraldine Perriam

THE AFGHAN CAMPAIGN
Steven Pressfield, Doubleday, 2006, $24.95/$32.99, hb, 351pp, 038551641X / Doubleday, 2007, £12.99, hb, 336pp, 0385610645
Pressfield has penned an astonishing story about a young soldier coming of age during a brutal war. In the process, he opens a window into a past that looks very much like the present.
    Matthias is a Macedonian soldier eager to follow in his brothers’ footsteps by seeking glory in military service. As a mercenary, he voyages through Alexander the Great’s empire to join the army. By 330 BC, that army is struggling to subdue the tribes of Afghanistan. Though poor in resources, Afghanistan has plenty of fierce warriors who refuse to meet Alexander in open combat, melt away only to attack when least expected, and honor no promises made to the invader. Matthias makes friends among the Afghans, as well as implacable enemies, and neither in the way he expects: this is a place where Afghan men kill their own daughters for the slightest offense against their code of honor, and Macedonian prisoners are tortured in unspeakable ways. For three long years Alexander struggles to subdue the tribes, but peace comes only when the king chooses to marry the daughter of the strongest chieftain.
    The Afghan Campaign is a brilliant novel: clear, compelling, with cinematic descriptions of ancient battles, strong characterizations, and an honest look at a clash of cultures. The parallels to the current situation in that part of the world are undeniable and deftly made. Bravo to Pressfield for writing a novel about the ancient world that resonates so vividly in the current one. 
-- Lisa Ann Verge

THE OFFICER'S DAUGHTER
Zina Rohan, Portobello, 2007, £16.99, hb, 592pp, 9781846270673
Sixteen-year-old Marta always wanted to be a soldier like her father, an officer in the Polish army. Instead she has to settle for leading a group of girl guides on a camping trip into the forest on the Polish-German border on the day the Nazis invade her country. The girls are spirited away across Poland until they are billeted in a nunnery. When the Russians arrive and arrest Marta, her nightmare really begins.  She endures a perilous journey of thousands of miles from the logging camps of Siberia to the British field hospitals in Persia. The book ends in post-war England when she is a mature young woman of twenty-seven. During this epic book, Marta is forced to draw on reserves of courage and make impossible choices.  
    This is a huge book in every sense of the word. It transports the reader into a world of horror and deprivation so extreme that in places it is hard to read on. However, the power of the story is such that you are compelled to continue. The heroine, Marta, is not a sympathetic character; she is far too self obsessed, too opinionated. But she is totally credible, and the author drags you into her life to suffer alongside as she makes the transition from child-woman to adult.
    This is a tour de force, a wonderful book which will stay with you for years. Very highly recommended. -- Fenella Miller

THE LONGING SEASON
Christine Schaub, Bethany House, 2006, $12.99, pb, 248pp, 9780764200601
This is the most compelling novel about slavery that I have ever read, not because of horrific details, but because it reveals how deep-seated the human willingness to enslave other humans truly is. John Newton, who is renowned as the author of “Amazing Grace,” traveled a long road before joining the fervent group of Christians who successfully fought to abolish the British slave trade. Although he had been a wretched and mistreated slave himself, upon his redemption he rejected pity and embarked on his own lucrative career as a slaver. It truly was amazing grace that changed not only Newton’s heart but the course of history as well.
    This second book in Schaub’s series, which portrays the stories behind popular hymns, is as powerful and haunting as Newton’s lyrics. Conscripted into the royal navy in 1743, Newton is forced to leave behind the girl he loves. While he roams the world, cursing God for his miseries, she grows into a woman of wit and wisdom who prays for his safe return. Although occasionally slowed by unnecessary quotation marks, this is a fast-paced and often surprising inspirational novel that I recommend even to those who would not normally choose this genre. -- Nancy J. Attwell

THE RISING TIDE
Jeff Shaara, Ballantine, 2006, $27.95/C$36.95, hb, 536pp, 034546141X
After an introduction, which whisks the reader through the events leading up World War II and into the early years of the war, Shaara’s latest history lesson opens on the North African campaign in May 1942, just prior to the battle for Tobruk. Rommel has the British forces on the run, but he knows the entrance of the United States into the war will cause problems for the German war machine. He is already saddled with poor supply lines and shoddy leadership from the Italian high command. When Montgomery takes over command of the British forces and defeats Rommel at El Alamein, the tide in North Africa turns. The landing of American forces in the west, to Rommel’s rear, puts Rommel in an untenable situation. The rest, as they say, is history.
    Shaara’s trademark is his tight adherence to actual events and, where possible, actual conversations. The “fiction” comes in when he fills in the conversational blanks where no record exists. Still, he’s so good at it you have to believe his educated guesses must be close to spot on. This rare talent enables the reader to really get to know the people who made history and gain an appreciable insight into the dynamics and emotions involved: Rommel’s frustration with his superiors, the animosity between Patton and Montgomery, the awesome balancing act that Eisenhower had to maintain through the entire war. This is history as it should be learned, for it gives the reader a true understanding of events, rather than just memorization of dates and facts. When I reached the end of the book, which concludes in late 1943 as the Allies are planning Operation Overlord, I was still eager for more. I can’t wait for the next course. -- Mark F. Johnson

THE REBEL HEART
Martin Stephen, Sphere, 2006, £16.99, hb, 370pp, 0316726702
This is the fourth outing for Stephen’s charismatic anti-hero Sir Henry Gresham. It is 1598, and Elizabeth I is getting old. Her health is failing, but she resolutely resists all attempts to name an heir. Indeed it is treasonous to even discuss the possibility of her death. Her dalliance with the young Earl of Essex makes her feel young and lovable but he, handsome, exciting, arrogant and egocentric, has ideas above his station. Gresham, drawn to Essex as a friend, retains the needs of the country as his prime motivation. Around them the vultures gather, France, Spain, Scotland – everyone has a hand in the most devious of plots.
    As ever with Stephen, the plotline is complex and compelling. I would defy any reader without the keen training of the most Byzantine or Machiavellian court to work out where the storyline is going. Gresham, so authentic a fictional character that a reader may well spend time trawling through history to find him, winds his way through these plots. He risks his life, suffers the consequences of ill-advised actions, but retains throughout his own somewhat individualistic sense of honour.
    I am very fond of this character and of all of those who live and work in ‘The House’ on the Strand. But I am also hugely in awe of his creator, who has not only given him such realism as a character but also painted a totally believable and authentic Elizabethan and Jacobean landscape for him to live in. The books are not in chronological sequence, so we are seeing different aspects, and raisons d’être from Gresham’s life unfold and are explained in each book. This also means that they can easily be read as standalones. But personally, I would highly recommend that you read them all in whatever order you can find them. -- Towse Harrison

THE RUBY IN HER NAVEL
Barry Unsworth, Doubleday, 2006, $26/C$35, hb, 416pp, 0385509634 / Hamish Hamilton, 2006, £17.99, hb, 336pp, 0241142202
Set during the brief but glittering rule of the Norman kings, this beautifully written novel opens in Palermo where Arab, Christian and Jew live together in an uneasy truce. Thurstan Beauchamp is the Christian son of a Norman knight deprived of his status when his father forswears his worldly goods and becomes a monk; thus, he is driven by a vain ambition that seemingly knows no bounds. Thurstan works for a Muslim Arab in the palace’s central finance office, where bribes and blackmail are set in motion, and part of the job description is to gather secret information for King Roger of Sicily.
    Thurstan is dispatched to uncover the myriad conspiracies threatening to topple the kingdom, both from without and within. On his journeys, he rediscovers a woman he loved in his youth, pledging his troth to her, knowing little of her history. He then encounters a mysterious dance troupe which he engages and brings back to the Court to entertain the king. Thurstan’s literal journeys are triggers for the more significant, spiritual journey upon which he is about to embark. How the chivalric Thurstan deals with the deception and cruelty that surrounds him and his own unremitting ambition is at the crux of the story.
    This is a novel for our times. The tensions of tribe, race and religion which remain unresolved today are mirrored in the interactions between the questioning Thurstan and people who, like himself, are forced to deal with vast and often insoluble cultural differences. There is so much detail that this is by no means an easy and light read, but rather a complex novel that demands to be savored.
    A highly recommended, intense and demanding book. -- Ilysa Magnus

THE BOOK THIEF
Markus Zusak, Doubleday, 2007, £12.99, hb, 584pp, 9780385611 / Knopf, 2006, $16.95, 560pp, 0375831002
1939, Nazi Germany. Liesel Meminger, the daughter of a communist, is the eponymous Book Thief, and her story is told by Death. Even before she could read, Liesel loved words, and that is why she will steal three books and one of the reasons she hates Hitler and his book-burning regime. Fostered by the Hubermanns and living a rough and tumble life in the back streets of Munich, Liesel learns the value of books and the power of words from her foster father, Hans.
    The brief safety of life in Himmel Street, forever overshadowed by political unrest and tensions Liesel barely understands, is to be ended forever with the coming of the bombs.
    If we are all going to die, why is Death more afraid of us than we are of him? The Book Thief has the answer: because he can see the terrible things we do to each other. And that sums up the book in a nutshell. It is powerful, compelling and bleakly truthful. As Markus Zusak says himself, Liesel’s love of words is a statement on their importance for the Nazi regime and what they were able to make people do and believe.
    The Book Thief is a great read containing some startling imagery and truly inspired scenes. Liesel herself is a well-judged combination of naivety and resolution, an eloquent heroine in spite of her lack of education. This is a must-read for anyone who loves books and believes in their ability to influence mankind.
-- Sara Wilson

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