There are several additions to the TBR pile to talk about, so I'll do the first three today and begin with Guernica by Dave Boling.
If the name means most to you as the title of Picasso's painting then here is the story behind it: the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica by the Luftwaffe in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The book is a family drama, plotting the lives of the people caught up in that dreadful event, and it comes very highly praised.
Next, a long-lost final novella by Stefan Zweig. Journey into the Past is "a poignant examination of the angst of nostalgia and the fragility of love". Ludwig returns home after the First World War to meet the woman he loved passionately and who had promised to wait for him. "But circumstances have changed...."
I've seen many recommendations recently for Zweig's The Post Office Girl, so I shall be very interested to read this short work by "an incomparable storyteller".
Lastly, a book which has been on my wishlist for a while and which has won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction this year. Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge is about an "indomitable, compassionate and often unpredictable ... retired schoolteacher in a small coastal town in Maine, struggling to make sense of the changes in her life as she grows older". It's "a penetrating, vibrant exploration of the human soul in need, and will make you laugh, nod in recognition, wince in pain and shed a tear or two".
More on it soon.
