Anticipation

    With sufficient reading matter to keep me going for several months, I oughtn't to be looking at what is yet to be published, but I noticed a couple of books, due out in April and May respectively, which despite the reproachful piles I shall be very keen to read at the earliest opportunity.
    Above is the gorgeous cover of A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book, a "vivid, rich and moving saga" set in Edwardian England and moving to Paris, Munich and the Somme, (the link there gives all the details). For all those of us who loved Possession, this book sounds like a must-read, don't you think?  

 

     To another very fine writer, and William Fiennes' second book (after the memorable The Snow Geese) is The Music Room, "a tribute to place, memory and the permanence of love". This is another 'memoir' - for want of a better description - but this time concerning home (a seven hundred year-old moated castle) and family.

Are you anticipating any forthcoming publications? Simon S. certainly is!

Comments

[Rhys]

I am your original A S Byatt groupie. She has the distinction of being the only novelist who has written a book that made my cry (Still Life, Tenerife, 1987)...mind you I also happen to think Possession her least interesting book...and what about my wish not to read novels with more than 200 pages? ...maybe I shall have to make an exception of this one.

[adele geras]

This sounds like my Ideal and Perfect Book. As though ASB, whose work I love, had taken every single thing I want in a book and stirred it all up. Including the length. I cannot wait for May.....and yes, Rhys, Still life has one of the very saddest moments in fiction in it. Time to reread all those books again, starting with The virgin in the garden. But first, this new one!

[Tara]

The Children's Book sounds very good! I have to admit to never having made it past the poetry in Possession.

[Frances]

Loved Possession, loved everything ASB has written that I've read. Ridiculously picky about book cover design, and this is gorgeous. How will I wait that long? Off to check US release date!

[Simon S]

I have to say that I wanted to put AS Byatt on the list but havent read Possesion yet which makes me feel a bit of a fraud. The cover is beautiful!

Thanks for the link, I wasnt expecting that at all!

[LINDA from EACH LITTLE WORLD]

That is my all-time favorite piece of jewelry on the cover of the Byatt book — which gives me a second reason for adding it to my list.

[Gondal-Girl]

very excited now. Thanks CF

[Evie]

I have been enjoying reading all the newspaper lists about upcoming books in 2009. I have read Possession and many of Byatt's short story collections, and there are a few of her books in my TBR pile, so I'll also be looking forward to this one :).

Aside from the books I've read about in the overseas press, there are quite a few Australian books I'm looking forward to this year:

Butterfly by Sonya Hartnett due out in February. Hartnett is a talented Young Adult author.

Ransom by David Malouf due out in April. Malouf is best known for his short stories, though he has also written novels and poetry. This will be his first novel in a long time.

This is How by M. J. Hyland due out in July. Hyland's psychological novel, Carry Me Down, was nominated for the 2006 Man Booker prize.

Truth by Peter Temple due out in August. This is the sequel to The Broken Shore. Temple's one of my favourite crime writers, and I think one of the best living crime writers.

The People's Train by Thomas Keneally due out in September. I haven't read nearly enough Keneally but from what I have read, am excited about a new novel. Keneally is one of Australia's more important writers, and is probably best known for writing Schindler's Ark on which Schindler's List was based.

The World Beneath by Cate Kennedy due out in September. Kennedy is a talented short story writer who has been highly-praised in Australia.

Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak due out in November. I'm guessing the author of The Book Thief needs no introduction :).

As for international books, I'm looking forward to Denis Lehane's The Given Day, Amos Oz's Rhyming Life and Death, Anita Brookner's Strangers, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's The Thing Around Your Neck, Colm Toibin's Brooklyn, Kazuo Ishiguro's Nocturnes: Five Stories of Music and Nightfall, A L Kennedy's What Becomes, and Orhan Pamuk's The Museum of Innocence.