TBR 1: The Hired Man

   

    Today's clutch of books from the TBR piles begins with The Hired Man by Aminatta Forna, author of the Orange Prize shortlisted The Memory of Love.

    "Gost is surrounded by mountains and fields of wild flowers. The summer sun burns. The winter brings freezing winds. Beyond the boundaries of the town an old house which has lain empty for years is showing signs of life. One of the windows, glass darkened with dirt, today stands open, and the lively chatter of English voices carries across the fallow fields. Laura and her teenage children have arrived.

    A short distance away lies the hut of Duro Kolak who lives alone with his two hunting dogs. As he helps Laura with repairs to the old house, they uncover a mosaic beneath the ruined plaster and, in the rising heat of summer, painstakingly restore it. But Gost is not all it seems; conflicts long past still suppurate beneath the scars."

    "A beautiful, moving story about the aftermath of civil war in the Balkans, its descriptions of the Croatian landscape are breath-taking and the novel's gentle pace reflects the trepidation with which the characters face the horrors of the past."

    Before I leave this book for now I must comment on its jacket - another strikingly beautiful design by Holly Macdonald, whose cover for Kate Worsley's She Rises (among others) was remarked upon last week.           

Comments

[marina]

I have a feeling that I'm going to buy this book based on the cover alone. It's so beautiful! Why don't they give such beautiful covers to more books? Or maybe, it's just as well they don't!

[Cornflower]

It is beautiful, isn't it - definitely one you'd be drawn to in a shop.