The Last Bookaneer

The lack of copyright protection for books in both sides of the Atlantic Ocean gave birth to the bookaneers. But who were these men?

Clover, a 19 year-old railway waiter, meets Mr Fergins, a fifty-odd years old bookseller who pushes a book cart in order to make a living. One day Fergins takes Clover into a courthouse, where a prisoner is about to be tried. This man is being called scoundrel, traitor and pirate by a multitude of angry people. That’s the first approach we’ll have to the bookaneers.

"No, you will not find “bookaneer” in any dictionary". Mr Fergins narrates his own beginnings among these peculiar thieves. A cardinal man, Whiskey Bill, teaches him the ins and outs of publishing and maneuvering for a book to come to light. Fergins will soon be assistant to another bookaneer, Davenport, and enter a dark world full of rivalries. He also learns about publishing trade, bookselling business, writers’ way of life, and the most important thing: how to make profit from an unprotected book.

The core of the novel comes when Whiskey Bill reveals in his deathbed that Robert Louis Stevenson lives in Samoa, on the island of Upolu, and is finishing the most important book of his life. Fergins and Davenport will also know that the Englishman Belial, another old fox, has already got the upper-hand on them. By 1890 the laws of copyright will go into effect. There’s no time to waste and it is crucial to travel to the South Seas and try to bring-steal this valuable book. It is the last chance to get something big.

The Last Bookaneer is the first Matthew Pearl’s novel I have read, and I am quite impressed. I didn’t imagine it was going to be a thriller which leads us to understand the world through books. “A man’s library opens up his character to the world”. “Books are not dead things”.

It is striking that Fergins, will never doubt their integrity and will always favor the skulduggery from a dishonest profession. Anyway, he has always fascinated by bookaneers. Between time leaps, Fergins tells Clover the story of Robert Louis Stevenson. The writer has “gone into far lands to die, and will stay here until buried". Stevenson, nicknamed by the natives Tusitala (Teller of Tales), lives without knowing today's date, writing his novel called The shovels of Newton French. They will sniff around in the house in search of the manuscripts.

It’s worth emphasizing an anecdote about the late Elizabeth Barnard and her posthumous work, sold in a curious piracy act. We also find in this novel deep reflections on literature and get to know many details about writers and their works. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is quite mentioned as a masterpiece, which even the selfsame Sir Walter Scott envied. Shelley was just a 21 year-old girl!

The author "tweaks" this novel relating a love story of two bookaneers, the French lady Kitten and Davenport.

The Ship

The world has become a place where survival is a miracle and freedom is virtually impossible. Nevertheless, in a nearly pre-apocalyptic London, Lalla Paul at last sees how her father’s project has come true.

The ship is the place where, for five hundred individuals, life will begin. Lalla's father, Michael Paul, has selected with tenacy all the people he thinks that deserve to be on board. At first they are just faces of loss, sadness and hunger. But the trip starts and these people will become members of a community and each person's past will no longer be relevant.

"The beginning of every tomorrow there would ever be". Such an eagerly awaited future begins thanks to Lalla's wisdom. Just about to cast off, she manages to avoid some unexpected legal obstacles, but her joyful expectations will not last. The ship must set sail when Lalla's mother is dying.

Lalla's mother's death sinks this sixteen-year-old girl into an exploration of her own grief. Apart from her adored mom, Lalla is going to miss the British Museum, with which are associated some of the most loving memories she has. It was the place where she was taught almost everything she knows.

But life must go on and laundry work will be good for Lalla's new days in the ship. Furthermore, she will not take long to find love. First love! Tom, a survivor of starvation and tragedy, will become her most important pillar and the reason for her reawakening back to life.

I like Lalla's reflexive side, even in an utter hopelessness and despair. I confess that I love when I spot literary devices that work well with the story and Antonia Honeywell has brilliantly displayed in The Ship most of the events using a good set of these resources.

An awkward aspect of this novel which truly causes some discomfort is the sort of sectlike moments lead by Lalla’s dad as the fascinating "creator" Michael Paul. Here we are some of the speeches to his community; or a striking session in the ballroom, where they all start drinking to the lost, the dead, the abandoned. Perhaps that’s not the kind of matters I feel comfortable with while reading. That's an author's achievement though.

What I like most in this book is the constant thinking and wondering about different things. Is it right to isolate the people from the outer world? That’s something you ask yourself as well. Is it correct trying to remove the memory of the past from our minds? Maybe that’s a way to develop a smaller society full of secrets.

However, and above all, you keep on asking yourself which is the real destination of the ship. Michael Paul says that the future is in the ship. "If it happened before the ship, then it didn’t happen at all. Life starts here!"

My Brother's Secret

The Second World War progresses and Karl Friedmann, a 12 year-old boy, is definitely convinced that love to Hitler and his thinking is the right way to follow. He is looking forward to joining the Führer's Youth movement and becoming a good German. But after his father is killed in “Hitler's war”, Karl starts to notice that some people around him have a different feeling about what’s happening. 

In order to relieve his mom's sorrow, his grandparents take his family to their home. In the new neighbourhood he meets Lisa, whose father has also disappeared, and through her he will begin to see the world from another point of view. The fact that his brother Stephan is into suspicious activity will also be puzzling for him and strongly shake his conviction.

Once again Dan Smith takes us to war times. His aim, among others, is to let us face those dilemmas that get tougher in extreme situations. It will not be easy for the young Karl to change his mind while everything is a total mess. 

Although death and fear are permanent guests along the pages of this book, My Brother’s Secret is a story full of family love. The novel is packed with pertinent and effective conversations, which lead us to think about moral and, perhaps in a pretty basic way, also about politics. Evil is an important ingredient as well, embodied in the Gestapo and its agents and officers, and Karl will have to learn to identify the good facing up to the mean.

As he achieves in his previous children's novel My Friend The Enemy, Dan Smith creates an agile and dynamic plot that gets you completely hooked. Of course, it doesn't matter if you are a grown-up, the book will really grab you.

Ada Goth

The good news is that Goth Girl and the Phantom of a Mouse, the children's book by Chris Riddell, was translated and published in Spain last month. Edelvives is the editorial that made it possible. Congratulations to everyone that achieved this!

Black Sun, Red Moon

During the last throes of the Second World War, the Japanese are reluctant to leave Indonesia, which they rule from 1942. Thus, in this novel we’ll witness the struggle for independence of other forces. Both, the Japanese and the Dutch, are undesirable settlers for many of the natives. 

Most of the Dutch were sent to internment camps, but some families had agreed to co-operate with the Japanese. That's how they could keep their houses. Kate van Dam and her family are in the group of the lucky ones until their accord with the invaders gets dissolved. Once at the camp, we’ll get to know thoroughly the daily routine of the internees. Kate’s life will surprisingly be interwoven with that of the Japanese official Kenichi Ota, a kamikaze who will be saved from an already defined fate due to the capitulation of Japan. 

I like the way the author takes us back to Kate’s childhood, there in the Dutch Java. It’s also nice being able to attend the girls’ confidences and longings. Also, the conversations between Ota and his colleague Nagumo (very well-argued and consistent) achieve their aim of exposing their vision on the situation: how they do before and after the capitulation, how Japan's surrender causes some consequences.

We already know History and its facts, but the way it was lived is not always something clear. Dutch colonialism is exposed from different points of view: settlers, for whom the Indies are their home, the colonized and, also, the occupants during the war. It's interesting being present at the end of the war through their eyes.

At that point everyone wants their part (the Dutch, the Communists, the Chinese, also the Japs…) and decisions are being made about giving freedom to Indonesia or not. We'll enter the offices and other more official places, and meet some personalities. Lord Louis Mountbatten, the British statesman to restore order after capitulation, will appear. But also Sukarno, the Javanese leader, backed by the Japanese, and Dr Mohammed Hatta, from Sumatra, both straining to declare the independent Republic of Indonesia.

The rebels’ perspective is represented in the person of Lamban, who is learning to become an ancient fighting arts master. He wants to work for Sukarno and the National Party and will be invited to become a Black Buffalo.

Rory Marron has made a big research on History, languages, sacred rituals, tradition... Almost at the end of the book a new character will appear: Meg Graham, an American war correspondent which is going to show the point of view of the Americans. This is evidently introducing us to the second part of the story, the novel titled Merdeka Rising.

Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse

It's been years since I haven't read an illustrated book. I also must admit that Chris Riddell was an unknown cartoonist to me, even though I had already seen some of his drawings without knowing they were his. In fact, I love drawings and pictures, so this work is one of those great opportunities to admire fantastic illustrations made by the same author of the story. And this story has been so beautifully published, that you handle it somehow like a jewel to keep on your favourite bookshelf.

Ada Goth lives with her father, Lord Goth, who compels her to wear a pair of huge noisy boots in order to be heard and not seen in his vast mansion house. Apart from that annoying issue, Ada will soon get into an investigation which is going to make her life far more exciting. From the moment she meets Ishmael, the ghost of a mouse, Ada will have the chance to inspect some of the unexplored spots of the house. She is also going to meet a bunch of new people and creatures, who will collaborate on figuring out what someone is plotting in relation to an important event that will soon be held there.

Brilliantly planned and full of excitement, exquisitely well chosen situations and smart details, I'm sure that children will love Goth Girl's pictures and its nutty details, but also grown-ups, as it is crowded with lovely references to History, Arts and Literature. Even if the plot was not so interesting to them, it wouldn't be hard to find many delightful niceties to keep on turning pages.

I definitely enjoyed the quirky humour and, again, the illustrations. I often went to the aerial view of Ghastly-Gorm Hall and its gardens  -displayed in the first pages-,  which becomes a fantastic way to keep well located in the property. It's a pity though that Ishmael, the ghost mouse, doesn't appear in the story as much as it might be expected, but the character really is a goal anyway. Nevertheless, you end up finding a great surprise at the end, or a teeny-weeny one, as it reads on the back of this lovely book!

www.bookdepository.co.uk/Goth-Girl-Chris-Riddell/9780230759800/?a_aid=dbuitrago

A Bright Moon for Fools

A debut novel is not always expected to be a rewarding read. This one, though, is centered in a fascinating character who makes it an outstanding first novel.

After having robbed a woman all her money, Harry Christmas has fled to Venezuela. He wants to be far away from ‘the Rot’, which is all that makes his country and the entire world unpleasant to him. He also aims to get to the beach of Guiria, a place he and his deceased wife wanted to visit together. His plan is to read poetry for her.

The stepson of the cheated woman, some sort of a psychopath who wants revenge on him, travels to Caracas and gets close behind him. This will cause serious difficulties to Christmas, who will betray some people he meets just because he is not capable to take control of the events.

Harry Christmas is outspoken, irreverent, disrespectful and a big liar. He is a rogue (somehow in the old style) who lives at the expense of others and indeed a repulsive character, but a fascinating one at the same time. I couldn't care less about what happens to him, but I get caught by his lurching back and forth and appreciate his tender aspect as I get to know more details of his bereavement. In fact, Christmas has not overcome his wife and daughter’s dead and, as a result,  appears to act in anger against the world. I end up feeling sorry for his reprehensible behaviour and binge drinking, which only brings more trouble to him.

In the first part of the novel, while reading on the things he can't stand I enjoy the way Jasper Gibson observes our civilization in a humorous, sometimes hilarious, manner. Some parts of the book become hard to follow as the author begins telling the main character's dreams. It is also difficult to enter the personality of Slade, the furious stepson, who is much more an archetype of an evil individual than a genuine cruel person.

Still, A bright moon for fools is fun and many times you think it's worth getting to the end, which is not too bad at all.

www.bookdepository.co.uk/Bright-Moon-for-Fools-Jasper-Gibson/9780957468108/?a_aid=dbuitrago