Raamaturiiul

Abha Dawesar „That Summer in Paris”
Raamat oli mul kaasas, kui me nelja lapsega (Olev ja Kirke hiinlasest sõbranna Chen-Chen) Marineland'is käisime. Lasin neil rahulikult kõiki lõbusõite just nii kaua nautida, kuni nad ise tüdinesid ning minu juurde teatama tulid: lähme nüüd edasi. Mina ise lugesin pargipingil, kuni üks möödaminev papa küsis mu käest, kas siinne suvi on samasugune kui Pariisi oma... Ma ei saanud esimese hooga aru, miks selline küsimus, siis osutas ta mu raamatule. See pani mind mõtlema meie suvedele ja ma ei saa loomulikult üldse mitte võrdlusjooni tõmmata teosega, mille sees mu nina parasjagu oli.

Suvi on igal pool just selline nagu sa ta enda joaks lood, kes su ümber on ja kui palju sa lased end häirida ilmast (viimase puhul pean ütlema, et ma pole kunagi olnud väga õnnetu, kui terve päevgi vihma sajab - lähen isegi siis hea meelega välja!). Samas oleme ära hellitatud siinsetest suveilmadest, mis ikka päiksepaistelised, kuigi meie jaoks liiga kuumad kipuvad olema.

Ma ei saanud kohe edasi lugeda ning mõtiskledes jäin vaatama inimesi, kes mu ümber käisid. Olin peaaegu valmis neid salaja pildistma hakkama. Nii huvitav oli jälgida erinevaid peresid, kes kiirustamas järgmise atraktsiooni poole, kes hoolitsemas oma lapsukeste eest. Kui tavaline on siin kiiresti naeratus näole manada pildi tegemise ajaks, aga vaadata neid eemalt oma 'loomulikus' olekus oli kui muuseumipingil maalide imetlemine.

Dawesar's third novel is a contemplative, sensual, and literary melange exploring the ways in which love and sex affect one's artistic muse. Booker and Nobel Prize winner Prem Rustum, 75, believes that he has written his last novel and, "in the absence of women, sex, and further mountains to scale," considers moving back to India. Prem visits an Internet chat room and meets Maya, a grad student obsessed with his novels. When they meet in person, Maya feels "like a very young flower receiving the first rays of the vernal sun." They travel to Paris, Maya on a fellowship to write her novel, and Prem, ostensibly, to visit a writer friend. There Prem flashes back to his most profound and problematic love, his incestuous relationship with his sister, which ended only with her marriage. As his feelings for Maya deepen, he longs for one more relationship of "pure feeling." Dawesar's artistic reflections occasionally lean toward the pedantic, but ultimately she delivers a provocative tale of love and the literature it inspires. Deborah Donovan

Victoria Clayton „Moonshine”
A witty, charming romantic comedy. Roberta is appalled to have to abandon her perfect life in London to return to the family home and look after her mother, who has taken breaking her hip as a sign to stay in bed all day reading romance novels. Her involvement with a married polititian may have been a direct consequence of this. When the inevitable scandal breaks, Roberta flees - and accepts a job as housekeeper to an eccentric family, and is summoned to their family home -- an enormous castle in the Irish countryside. Arriving in Ireland, Roberta takes a hair-raising pony and trap ride in the driving rain to reach her destination: Curraghcourt. It is a grand and imposing castle, although it has fallen into a state of bad disrepair. And when she meets the family, Roberta begins to understand why. The owner is the dashing, whose wife, Violet, is lying in her room in a coma. His charming but vague sister is addicted to poetry; and his mistress Sissy has a private line to the fairies. Completing the family unit are Finn and Sylvia's three dysfunctional children. The novel follows Roberta's efforts to restore Curraghcourt and reform the wayward.