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BOOK FESTIVAL BLOODY SCOTLAND Various venues, Stirling, Fri 9–Sun 11 Sep
Scotland’s crime writing festival returns for a fifth instalment in Stirling this September. The audience will be treated to a creepy menu of authors from ten different countries, including international superstars Martina Cole, Yrsa Sigurdardóttir and Brooke Magnanti. Among the tartan noir contingent will be Val McDermid (pictured), Ian Rankin, Caro Ramsay, Chris Brookmyre, Doug Johnstone and Louise Welsh, plus Bloody Scotland founders Lin Anderson and Alex Gray, and Booker- longlisted author Graeme Macrae Burnet.
‘Crime writers are a convivial bunch,’ says McDermid, ‘and this is like our Scottish AGM. I’ve got a full slate of activities, including a fascinating session talking about the great Scottish crime writer Josephine Tey.’ She is also excited about the new, interactive Escape Room she’s had a hand in, where members of the public are locked in a room in Stirling’s shopping centre and can only get out by solving clues and puzzles. ‘Apparently I have a sufficiently twisted mind to offer them the right possibilities for a dark and complex set of puzzles,’ she tells us. ‘They’ve chosen my Tony Hill and Carol Jordan novels as a template for the escape, so I’m going to be very embarrassed if I can’t set myself free!’
Among this year’s highlights are the annual Scotland v England crime writers’ football match and the inaugural McIlvanney Prize, named after writer William McIlvanney who passed away last year. McDermid is looking forward to getting back to whisky bar Curly Coo and catching up with several fellow crime writers. ‘There are too many writers to name!’ she says. ‘Just look at the programme and you’ll see that I’m spoilt for choice over who to hang out with until the wee small hours.’ (Tina Koenig)
Y E R A C N O E
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FICTION EIMEAR MCBRIDE The Lesser Bohemians (Faber & Faber) ●●●●●
DEBUT HELEN SEDGWICK The Comet Seekers (Harvill Secker) ●●●●● HISTORICAL FANTASY CAROL BIRCH Orphans of the Carnival (Canongate) ●●●●●
FICTION GAVIN EXTENCE The Empathy Problem (Hodder & Stoughton) ●●●●●
Fans of Eimear McBride’s Joycean debut A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing – the book that famously sat in a drawer for ten years then went on to win the Baileys, the Desmond Elliot, the Goldsmiths and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize – will not be disappointed with her latest effort, The Lesser Bohemians. Told in McBride’s structure-defying
stream-of-consciousness style prose, Bohemians is the story of a young woman who makes her way to London for drama school, shedding virginity and Catholic guilt along the way. McBride takes a sinister pairing of an older man and younger woman (38 to her 18) and makes of it a complex and rich portrait of first love. Surprisingly tender for all the
sex and violence in it, The Lesser Bohemians shows off McBride’s strength as a writer. The book shines thanks to her beautiful writing, but also in the way it cuts to the quick of a young woman’s innermost thoughts. It stays with you, and bears rereading. (Sasha de Buyl) ■ Out Thu 1 Sep.
Physicist Helen Sedgwick’s debut novel is framed by the appearance of comets in the sky – Halley’s Comet, Comet Hale-Bopp, Comet McNaught. The arrival of each one is significant to both protagonists: Róisín studies the sky, devoted to the pursuit of scientific knowledge, while across Europe the comet means François’ mother is visited by the ghosts of her family. The novel is a beautiful balance of
contrasts, of characters who work the earth and those who study the sky, of those driven to travel and those tied to home, of the wonders of both science and the supernatural.
It journeys across geography and
time, with snapshots of Francois’ ancestors at key points in their lives. It is ambitious in scope but Sedgwick can distil a complex situation down to its essence.
As with Jamrach’s Menagerie, the novel for which Carol Birch was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize, Orphans of the Carnival succeeds in wholly immersing the reader in a historical, almost fantastical, world. Julia Pastrana is a ‘bear woman’: covered in hair and made to sing and dance for the masses. Birch writes about Julia’s surroundings beautifully. Hers is a world of slow-moving steam trains, warm, ornate auditoriums, and judgemental men and women, afraid of anyone and anything different. While Julia’s life is pieced together
expertly, her story is woven in with that of Rose, a collector of curios in modern day London. Rose’s character is almost incidental, a tool to connect Julia with the 21st century, and it’s difficult to connect with her narrative.
The imagery is bewitching, Birch is a skilled historical-world
encapsulating the glory of skies and the tender emotions of loss, in a book that will make you want to look beyond yourself, into the cosmos. (Rowena McIntosh) ■ Out now. builder, but forcing her readers to leave the visceral, heartbreaking setting of the Victorian carnival to spend time in the two-dimensional 21st century is simply jarring. (Rebecca Monks) ■ Out Thu 1 Sep.
Like his previous novels, The Universe Versus Alex Woods and The Mirror World of Melody Black, Gavin Extence’s new work is remarkable for its strong voice. In this case, it’s something of a hindrance to begin with, the central character, Gabriel, being so unlikeable at first. But The Empathy Problem evolves into a poignant, compelling story.
Gabriel is a disgustingly wealthy, shallow hedge fund manager, embedded in all the excesses of the City of London. He’s just been told he has a terminal brain tumour, and it’s doing weird things to him – like, quite possibly, making him a nicer person.
Extence excels at rich scene-
setting, and Gabriel’s metamorphosis takes place in 2008 against the backdrop of the Occupy camp at St Paul’s Cathedral. It’s here that he meets violin-player Caitlin, and their relationship becomes mesmerisingly complicated. Sure, the plot is a little far-fetched but it’s a touching story with an ending that will leave you unexpectedly teary. (Yasmin Sulaiman) ■ Out now.
1 Sep–3 Nov 2016 THE LIST 47