Four by four

 

 

    Four authors, four new books you may like to hear about.

Helena McEwen is an artist as well as a writer, and her latest novel, Invisible River, is about Evie, a young woman who has left her Cornish home and her childhood behind her to study art in London. This passage is enough to draw me to the book:

"I squeeze the tubes of oil paint on to the palette, one by one. I love the colours and their secret singing. Aureolin, a gentle golden yellow that is soft and hums, and high-pitched lemon yellow, sharp and startling, then the low velvet tone of alizarin crimson, and the seductive cobalt blue. It fills me with longing, if cobalt blue was a man I'd run away with him."

Amy Chua is a professor of Law at Yale and the mother of two daughters. Her book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, much talked about at the moment, is a memoir on parenting that looks to be fascinating reading. If you have ever wondered how Chinese parents typically raise high-achieving children and how their model differs from Western ones, this book will tell you, but crucially it's also about "a bitter clash of cultures, a fleeting taste of glory, and how you can be humbled by a thirteen-year-old."

Elizabeth Day is an award-winning journalist, and Scissors, Paper, Stone is her first novel. Described by Jennie Rooney as "a daring, absorbing and beautifully-written story of damage and betrayal", this tale of family secrets which eventually come to light is told by means of writing "both delicate and direct".

Lastly today, classicist Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles. You'll have a bit of a wait for this one as it is not due out until September, but no apologies for the advance notice as this version of the story of the Trojan War is billed as "a breathtakingly original debut". Achilles, Thetis, Helen, Patroclus, a love story, a battle between gods and kings: truly an epic.

Comments

[Dark Puss]

Is the Miller the same as In the Armor of Achilles but with a title change? I note that Publishers Weekly stated:

"Ecco's Lee Boudreaux bought U.S., Canadian, and open market rights, at auction, to Madeline Miller's debut, In the Armor of Achilles. Julie Barer, at Barer Literary, handled the deal for the novel, which is set during the Trojan War and narrated by Achilles' lover, Patroclus. Pulling heavily from Greek mythology, and The Iliad in particular, the work delves into the relationship between the two men as Patroclus follows Achilles into battle. Ecco is planning a summer 2012 publication, and rights have also been pre-empted in the U.K., where the book was acquired by Bloomsbury."

[Cornflower]

You're on the ball as ever, DP! I don't know for sure, but it sounds like it.

[Julie Fredericksen]

"Too many books, too little time."

ALAS

[Cornflower]

Sadly, you are right, Julie!