W H Smith and 'Richard and Judy' have announced their 2011 Spring Book Club Selections. The list comprises eight titles. W H Smith, the UK bookseller, is promoting the books along with a 'Buy One Get One Free' offer.
Award-winning Novel – Room by Emma Donoghue
Room is a novel about a five-year old and his mother who are the only inhabitants of a room from which they can't escape because they are held hostage while the boy's mother is raped by the hostage taker. Loosely based on the real-life story of Josef Fritzl, Donoghue, an Irish novelist living in Canada, says she wrote it from the perspective of the child because that was the whole concept – the child's eye view. It is much more about the relationship between mother and child than anything else and readers worldwide have been praising it as a wonderful award-winning novel.
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
As the title suggests, the novel is about a postmistress whose action to slip a letter into her pocket instead of delivering it brings the lives of three women together. One woman is a war correspondent reporting from the Blitz in London via radio, and the other two, the postmistress and a newlywed, are living in a small town in Cape Cod in 1940. The Postmistress has been hailed far and wide as a powerful novel about war and love.
The Blasphemer by Nigel Farndale
Nigel Farndale's novel also tackles the theme of war in the narrative of his grandfather whose letters the narrator discovers; courage and betrayal in the narrative of a plane crash where the narrator saves himself before his wife; and a third storyline where the narrator's daughter is fixated on one of her teachers named Hamid. Set in modern day London, this ambitious book has been described as clever and thought-provoking by The Daily Mail.
Trespass by Rose Tremain
Rose Tremain, CBE, is the most prolific writer among the novelists who feature in Richard and Judy's Spring Book Club Selection. Trespass, her 11th novel, is considered a 'dark novel' dealing with themes of trespassing against one another and the sins that ensue. The novel, set in southern France, shows two sets of older people assailed by their pasts and wanting to heal, but they don't succeed. Trespass does successfully invoke 'a feeling of menace and terror' that the author was aiming for. In an interview in The Independent, Tremain reflects, "One of the key background ideas is how you make sense of the last third of your life."
Richard and Judy's Book Club 2011 Picks
"The book club is everything we hoped it would be and more," says Richard Madeley. "Judy and I have spent a long time carefully choosing these titles and we think that there really is something for everyone here. It's a very, very strong selection of terrific reads."
The four other titles are: You're Next by Gregg Hurwitz, This Perfect World by Suzanne Bugler, Hothouse Flower by Lucinda Riley, and Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. Every two weeks the TV husband and wife team will feature one title with live interviews.
Christine Breen-Williams - Writer, Homeopath, Gardener Christine has a MA in Literature from University College, Dublin and is a published writer.
