Islands
Mark Easton
Biteback, £20, pp384
Early in Easton’s thoughtful exploration of the personal and political boundaries that shorelines have thrown up throughout history, the BBC’s home editor introduces us to his muse. It’s a replica of a Neolithic “sleeping lady” statue he calls Pangaea, after the ancient supercontinent, and which he takes everywhere from Malta to Canvey. It’s a lovely device to frame his quest to understand island history and what living in places where isolation meets connectedness actually means. His conclusion? That island syndrome shapes us all – but real fulfilment comes from going beyond our personal shorelines.
The Fugitives
Jamal Mahjoub
Canongate, £8.99, pp400 (paperback)
This engaging tale of an old Khartoum jazz band who reform to play a gig in America was somewhat overlooked on its hardback release last year. In what often reads like a screenplay for a grown-up version of the animated film Sing, the young Rushdy and his idealistic friend Hisham battle to recreate the Kamanga Kings as a means of geographical, psychological and musical escape. The sections in America are less convincing, but Mahjoub weaves in interesting political and ethnic themes, amid some lovely writing about friendship and music.
Ghost Music
An Yu
Harvill Secker, £14.99, p240
The first chapter of An Yu’s follow-up to the similarly otherworldly Braised Pork finds our troubled narrator having a conversation with a mushroom. But Ghost Music is far from fanciful; this is a melancholic, mysterious exploration of a young Beijing pianist grappling with family secrets, a distant husband and the meaning of music and expression. Although Song Yan’s frequent moments of clarity trip between pompous and pop psychology, she remains an intriguing hero in her restrained, calm acceptance of her lot.
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