Noah's compass by Anne Tyler

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Genre - Fiction


This is a new novel from the prize winning author of “The Accidental tourist” and “Dinner at the homesick restaurant.” This story is also set in Baltimore and examines everyday life for recently retired teacher Liam Pennywell. He is widowed and divorced and has just been retrenched from his teaching position. When he decides to downsize his home and possessions he draws criticism and concern from his three adult daughters and his bossy ex wife. An assault by a stranger causes him to lose his memory of the first night in his new apartment and brings him more unwanted attention from the family. His youngest daughter, Kitty, decides to move in with him just as he begins a new relationship with an unusual woman called Eunice. This is a gentle story with some eccentric characters finding their way through family relationships.

---- Reviewed by Sue, Belgrave

Remarkable creatures by Tracy Chevalier

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Genre - Historical fiction

This is the story of Mary Anning, an extraordinary fossil hunter who lived in the 1800’s. This is a fictional account of real people and events during this time of stimulating scientific debate. Fossil evidence from the English seaside town of Lyme Regis was of great interest to Natural History Museums and was also very challenging to the prevailing religious view of the times. Mary’s fossil discoveries came at a time when men dominated the field of science and she has to fight for recognition of her work. She is helped in many ways by her unusual friendships with the feisty and intelligent spinster Elizabeth Philpot . Despite their differences in age and background their relationship remains strong through their shared love of fossils. This novel has captured many of the details of daily life for women from both the working and upper classes and brought these characters together in an exciting quest beyond the limits and conventions of their world.

---- Reviewed by Sue, Belgrave

The paperbark shoe by Goldie Goldbloom

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Genre - Historical fiction

Set in Wyalkatchem in the West Australian wheat belt, this is a fictional tale about Gin and Toad and 2 Italian prisoners of war who came to work on their farm as labourers in 1944. She has captured the harshness of the country and the deprivation of the times and given us the character of Gin Toad. Married to Toad to escape a mental institution she survives the heat and dirt of the farm and gives up her ladylike ways as she becomes immune to the lack of music and lover in her outback life. Then she meets Antonio and becomes infamous as the traitor who helped an Italian POW to escape. This story is haunting, gritty and sad but it has a wonderful style of language which captures the atmosphere of the times and life on the land.

---- Reviewed by Sue, Belgrave