Bookshop Blog

Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

This is an extraordinary novel which has of late lost appeal for general reading audiences due to its daunting canonical status as a novel of modernist experimentation. Yet I really believe that this book deserves to be read for pleasure, and not just studied to be ‘understood’ and analysed. It’s a beautiful novel filled with lyrical descriptions of London in the early 20th century, an exploration of a shell-shocked mind, and a poetic exercise of psychological subjectivity, all infused with Woolf’s progressive views on society. Highly Recommended.

The Poems of Norman MacCaig

I love the beating heart of MacCaig’s poetry. His poems are not just evocations of experience and sensations but are experiences in themselves. Take for example “Early Sunday Morning, Edinburgh’. Listen to the rhythm of the first few lines:

‘Crosshatch of streets: some waterfall
Down pits, some rear to lay their forepaws
On hilly ledges’.

Here is the walk embodied, as the lines become the paths themselves, and you are taken on an ambling jaunt of Edinburgh.

Lorrie Moore, A Gate at the Stairs

As fans of Lorrie Moore already know, her work –mostly in the form of short stories– is completely idiosyncratic in tone, pace, and language. Moore takes liberties with her reader: she forces you to follow the untraditional pace of her stories. And we are deeply rewarded for it, as the universe of Moore affords a view of the world through a beautiful (and often dark) looking glass, constructed by her lithe and acrobatic language. This is a wonderful book: eerily funny, often macabre, engrossing, and profound. It is populated by unique and minutely studied characters who will linger in your mind long after you finish the novel.

Dupuich & Beaufre, Living With Books

If you’re reading this post, chances are that you’re not only interested in books but have quite a few at home.

Long before our ancestors started cutting-up scrolls and binding the fragments down one edge, we had a problem with not only how to store such fragile treasures but to do so in a way that enabled us to quickly browse and reference these works. Of course, now that we live in an age of high-colour, digital printing, where variations in typeface, binding and jacket design are mroe easily rendered, many more of the books in our collections have themselves become object d’arts, things that we might wish to display simply because they are beautiful.

For the serious bibliophile, especially those who would rather spend money on the next book than save for a larger property, we inevitably come up against the question of how we live with them.

We’ll never find a solution that fits a living collection but seeing the many ways that books are collected, stored and displayed is inspirational. All the private libraries here are actual collections by assorted designers, writers, curators, architects and so on, all of them with their own ideal of how to live with books. It is the lived-in, practical descriptions accompanying the colour photographs that bring this book alive. My personal favourite is the collection of art historian Jean-Claude Moineau: the only rooms in his apartment spared the conversion to library space are the bedroom, kitchen and bathroom (which is just slacking isn’t it?)

Since the book arrived in the bokshop, I’ve been content to look at how other people have tried to and so ‘Living With Books’ is perfect: a gift for yourself; a gift for another.

Sadly, yes, the Christmas books season has begun and it’s time to start thinking about buying books for other people (one for him, one for me, one for so-and-so, one for me…)

Surprise Your Shelf!

The lovely folk at Random House have given us proof-copies of some very cool books including a couple of books that won’t be available until July.

Proof-copies are special editions of books that are printed in small print-runs – and therefore very collectable – in advance of a book’s official publication. They are sent to a few select folk in The Book World: journalists and reviewers, booksellers and trade buyers, TV producers and so on. They are not for sale.

Chuck Palahniuk is in the sort of fighting-fit form that made such a success of Fight Club and Haunted. ‘Tell-All’ is a Sunset Boulevard-infected homage to Hollywood’s Golden Age which inevitably butchers a few sacred cows in a blistering haze of name-dropping, melodramatic grand gestures and psychic torment in a merciless send-up of every beloved, name-checked black-and-white movie.

Karin Fossum is very familiar to every reader who loves a good Scandinavian crime. ‘Bad Intentions’ continues the adventures of Inspector Sejer.

Jo Nesbo is a thriller writer attracting acclaim from authors as diverse as Michael Connolly and Mark Billingham. In ‘The Snowman’, Inspector Harry Hole is in pursuit of a serial killer with a very chilling calling-card.

Shannon Burke’s debut ‘Black Flies’ caught my eye when it first came out: a gripping novel that follows rookie Paramedic Ollie Cross through Harlem in the mid-1990s and asks what happens when the people sent to save you can’t even save themselves?

More locally, Alan Warner returns to the alcohol-fuelled chaos of The Sopranos in his latest novel, ‘The Stars in the Bright Sky’ – this is unforgettable holiday reading, a story of debauchery, Guinness, one-night stands, Bacardi Breezers, hormones and female friendship.

Finally, acclaimed by James Ellroy as the best first novel he’s read in years, Stuart Neville’s debut thriller novel, ‘The Twelve’, is launched on 24th June but you can be among the first to enjoy this novel if you enter our competition.

To enter, simply leave a comment (the link is above the image; all comments are moderated) telling us which thriller was your favourite and in 20 words or less what you liked about this book. Alternatively, you can drop into the bookshop and fill out a wee competition form.

We’ll pick 5 names at random on Friday 4th June – including 2 Tweeters/ online entrants – and send the winners an email. Winners will receive proof-copies of the books described above, some of Random House’s best authors, to read over the holidays and all in the very swanky, eco-friendly bag (also pictured above).

Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons

There is enormous satisfaction to be found in reading in this wonderful novel.

A surprise selection by one of our book groups, Ivan Turgenev’s classic novel, Fathers and Sons, still stands head and shoulders over a great many works of contemporary fiction. The selection of this novel was a surprise as we don’t often – if ever – associate classic 19th century Russian literature with books we would read for pleasure.

First published in 1862, Fathers and Sons is more than a novel about the differences between generations, those things regretted by parents and arrogantly assumed as a natural right by their children. Turgenev’s novel is much more even than a response by a middle-aged writer to find himself classed as one of the ‘Old Guard’ by a younger, more politically assertive generation of authors. At its best, this novel is a sublime social comedy.

In a society constrained by strict moral, ethical and religious codes, there is going to be upset when two young men assume the fashionable form of non-philosophy of nihilism. As with the later works of authors such as EM Forster, there is abundant humour to be found in placing a young man with no respect for aristocrats exactly in their midst. Bazarov is no comedian but is determined that not one thing is of more value – or of greater sentimental value – than anything else. It is this classic anti-hero’s determined stance, even in the face of his recognition of the love blossoming within himself that will, inevitably, lead to the drama and the astonishing conclusion that has made this novel famous.

Another book group recently read EM Forster’s, A Room with a View, and concluded – perhaps controversially – that Forster failed at the end from concluding his book on the more negative note that naturally followed from the story itself. They also felt that the characters with but one or two notable exceptions were poorly drawn (and even, that this was one occasion when the film was better than the book).

Turgenev’s writing is rich, warm, vibrant and – certainly in this translation by Richard Freeman who was the first translator to have access to Turgenev’s original notes – as engrossing as the multiple plot-line dramas of much larger epic contemporary novels. There is in the telling of Bazarov’s story, rarely a wrong note to be heard but even this mis-steps appear deliberate as they add understanding and insisght to each character’s motivations.

The awesome wonder of this novel is that in its portrayal of a humanity liberated by rational thought from age-old conformities, as just one man ultimately seeks to challenge all political and religious establishments, we can enjoy reading a novel every bit as controversial in the present time as when it was first published.

Nicolas Dickner, Nikolski

On occasion, booksellers are pleasantly surprised by the recommendations that we receive from a customer tip-off. At The Edinburgh Bookshop, we devote a lot of time to tweaking the range of books we stock. Did you know, for instance, that there are more books available and in-print in the UK than in the USA? We spend a lot of time talking to publishers, other booksellers, agents and authors, to ensure that the eclectic range we stock is also the best we could possibly stock at that time. In short, it is a labour of love that necessarily includes the feedback we get from every customer who visits us.

A customer recommended Nicolas Dickner’s debut novel on the basis that it was ‘the best book since Richard Flanagan’s novel, Gould’s Book of Fish’. High praise.

Nicolas Dickner has won a raft of awards for the French-language edition (he’s from Quebec) of his book but remains unknown to the majority of English readers. The publisher’s own description of this fantastic novel states that: “Intricately plotted and shimmering with originality, Nikolski charts the curious and unexpected courses of personal migration, and shows how they just might eventually lead us to home…” but that doesn’t do justice to a book which offers a breathtaking and original perception of the world, written in a language and style that is both emotionally affecting and sophisticated. A treasure hunt of great inventiveness and passion, this humorous and poignant novel offers an exploration of the idea of connection.

Nikolski is a novel with a distinctive voice. In the author’s unwillingness to tidy up all loose ends, we are left with lasting imagery that creates a story comparable to the best novels of Michael Chabon, Thomas Pynchon, Georges Perec or David Mitchell.

Born thousands of miles apart, three people grow up feeling curiously at sea. In the spring of 1989 each cut themselves adrift from their birthplaces and set out to discover what or who might anchor them in their lives. They leave almost everything behind, carrying with them only a few artefacts of their lives so far possessions that have proven so formative that they can’t imagine surviving without them and the accumulated memories of their own lives and family histories.

Noah, who was taught to read using road maps during a life of nomadic travels with his mother their home being a 1966 Bonneville station wagon with a silver trailer decides to leave the prairies for university in Montreal. But putting down roots there turns out to be a more transitory experience than he expected. Joyce, stifled by life in a remote village on Quebec’s Lower North Shore, and her overbearing relatives, hitches a ride into Montreal, spurred on by a news story about a modern-day cyber-pirate and the spirit of her own buccaneer ancestors. While her daily existence remains surprisingly routine working at a fish shop in Jean-Talon market, dumpster-diving at night for necessities it’s her Internet piracy career that takes off. And then there’s the unnamed narrator, who we first meet clearing out his deceased mother’s house on Montreal’s South Shore, and who decides to move into the city to start a new life. There he finds his true home among books, content to spend his days working in a used bookstore and journeying though the many worlds books open up for him.

Over the course of the next ten years, Noah, Joyce and the unnamed bookseller will sometimes cross paths, and sometimes narrowly miss each other, as they all pass through one vibrant neighbourhood on Montreal’s Plateau. Their journeys seem remarkably unformed, more often guided by the prevailing winds than personal will, yet their stories weave in and out of other wondrous tales stories about such things as fearsome female pirates, urban archaeologists, unexpected floods, fish of all kinds, a mysterious book without a cover and a dysfunctional compass whose needle obstinately points to the remote Aleutian village of Nikolski. And it is in the magical accumulation of those details around the edges of their lives that we begin to know these individuals as part of a greater whole, and ultimately realize that anchors aren’t at all permanent, really; rather, they’re made to be hoisted up and held in reserve until their strength is needed again.

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You can watch an interview with Nicolas talking about Nikolski here on YouTube.

From deep down in the interweb, I found a review from The Guardian online by author Patrick Ness for those who are interested in reading more.

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Different passages will stand out for each reader but a personal favourite includes this description of the peculiar world of the bookshop: “The work is not as simple as it may appear; the S. W. Gam Bookshop is one of those places in the universe where humans long ago relinquished any control over matter… it takes more than good pair of eyes and a few ounces of memory to work here. It’s crucial to develop a particular perception of time. The thing is – what’s the best way of putting this? – that different avatars of our bookshop coexist simultaneously in a multitude of discrete times, separated by very thin ellipses.”

Tibor Fischer, The Thought Gang

By accident (by way of periwigs on the way to the restaurant), The Thought Gang, became one of the book group’s selected novels for reading.

This novel is a good example of how the culture of literary criticism simply does not work .ie. Writer A publishes a book, Writer B – his friend – gives it a glowing review before publishing his own book which Writer A then reviews positively and so on.

As you wil know, the best recommendations are always free.

I was recommended Tibor Fischer’s ‘The Thought Gang’ by the representative of a publisher who was still miffed that a rival company had bought the rights to publish this book. He rated this as the funniest book he’d ever read and ‘definitely better than anything I’m trying to sell you.’ When the equivalent of a car salesman says ‘don’t buy from me, try him’, you know something special is going on.

The trouble with books that are hyped so extravagantly is that they tend to disappoint. In five subsequent re-readings since 1998, Eddie Coffin and Hubert have never failed to get a chuckle. But the point is… this novel isn’t written as a comedy. Hubert is dying, Eddie knows he’s drunk himself out of a liver. Both men are failures and this story is about how we have to try to learn to live with the disappointment of finding that we are not who we first promised to be. No, that’s getting to what the book is about either…

If I described this book as Keystone Kops meets A Year in Provence but with better writing, you might have an idea of where this book is coming from. At the time of publication, Nick Hornby wrote: “The Thought Gang is The Lavender Hill Mob rescripted by Georges Perec and Will Self, and yet Fischer somehow emerges from it all with credit.” Hornby, it should be said, wears his jealousy poorly.

This novel is essentially the interior monologue of a fifty-something, overweight, bald philosophy lecturer who is too clever for his own good and too lazy to care. He absconds from England with his departments funds and promptly loses them when the hire care he is driving comes off the road. In the cheap hotel he retreats to, he is mugged by a one-armed, one-legged ex-con just released from prison. The next morning, with no funds for a breakfast but a pistol, Eddie Coffin – our soon-to-be former philosophy lecturer and specialist in the Ionian philosophers (there’s a sly joke in there for those readers who’ve studied philosophy) – goes to a bank and makes a withdrawal. Hubert, the French ex-con, is inspired and together, they create The Thought Gang.

As a novel, The Thought Gang should fail in many, many ways: the improbable characters; the zany set-pieces; the constant word-play and the sometimes too-abrupt injection of historical fact; the frankly massive and too-obvious word-game contrived by the author but rehearsed by the main character, Eddie, to whit the use of every single instance of a word beginning with ‘z’ in the English language. But this is to miss the point: Tibor Fischer has amply demonstrated that he can write a great novel, he achieved this goal first time around with the Betty Trask Prize-winning ‘Under the Frog’ and then again with the frankly outrageous ‘The Collector Collector’ which is no more than a weekend in London as described by a 5,000 year old Sumerian bowl. The Thought Gang consists of the wry, dry observations of an enormous intelligence fronting the frothy humour of an even bigger mind reflecting on the absurdity of life. The big game in this book is an author at the height of his powers saying: ‘Look how easy it is? Typing with no hands, no feet… Now, how about I entertain you some more while you’re here?’

Too many authors throw their intellectually superior posteriors around as though we as readers could be arsed. No. We sometimes want escapism even as we pretend to want literary and pretentious. Neither do we always want thinly-veiled autobiography from authors who may as well be heard begging: ‘Please, sir, please… Give me The Booker Prize. I want it, I want it now!’ Tibor Fischer is obviously a voracious reader (it shows in the prose) because he understands that readers want to be surprised, humoured, treated as equals and then astonished.

As competent as Amis and others may be at writing novels, they are not truly great and perhaps never will be. True genius, especially in the realm of comedy-drama, wears its talent lightly with no more than a shrug of the shoulders and another look at the menu as the zarps hurry to the latest bank job.

Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses

We have come to call this novel The Ploughing Book… To be honest, there is no ploughing though there is a critical scene that revolves around 3 pages of hay-making. Elsewhere, there are other scenes that we joke revolve around ‘agri-business’. We joke about the novel perhaps because of a sense of lost time, of missed opportunity and a sense of loss that pervades the lives of the characters.

‘Out Stealing Horses’ is not an uplifting read but it is truly awesome. When we look back over which books have proven most popular since we opened in September, the popularity of this book among our regular customers – and those who have visited us for the first time because this novel was so highly recommended – has really surprised us because Per Petterson’s Dublin IMPAC Award-winning book has been around for a while and we’ve done no price-promotion on this book. Simply put, the popularity of this book locally is purely down to word-of-mouth recomendation.

Trond, the main character, is not an easy character for a reader to empathise with. He is old and he is miserable. The question is why.

The narrative alternates between Trond reflecting on how he lives now, hidden away in a remote part of the Norwegian countryside, and one magical summer from his youth, Trond reveals how small, insubstantial family dramas can forge a lasting legacy that haunts us even in our twilight years.

In interview, Per Petterson has revealed that on reading the English translation of his novel, he was astounded to discover an almost entirely new story. He is quoted as preferring the English version of ‘Out Stealing Horses’ to the original and this is testimony to the skill of the translator, Anne Born.

One of the most striking things about some books in translation is the sense of timelessness. I personally prefer his earlier, semi-autobiographical novel ‘In The Wake’ but as a dramatic account of the age-old struggle of fathers and sons to communicate clearly those feelings for each other that cannot always be expressed in words, it is ‘Out Stealing Horses’ which will endure and prove to be the greater, more popular, novel.

A full article containing an interview with the author, can be found on the website of The Washingon Post.

Susan Hill, Howards End is on the Landing

A year of reading from home without succumbing to the temptation to buy yet more titles to add to our collections would still leave many of us with a huge surplus of books to enjoy. I was fascinated by the idea of this book when given an advance reading copy. Susan Hill leads us through a grand adventure of books, authors, libraries, reading and writing, revelling in a world whose mysteries have never faded but open up to us each time we linger over a beloved narrative, fondly recall our years of learning or a treasured encounter with a sorely-missed mentor.

Having enjoyed a life rich in the vibrant heritage of literature in Britain, Susan Hill’s epic year embraces such differing experiences as the pop-up books of Robert Sabuda to an accidental encounter with an ageing E.M. Forster. Each step of her journey through the tapestry of a life written with such verve and passion will be the envy of writers just beginning their careers. As an autobiography to savour on the sofa or as a brief affair with one of England’s greatest living authors, this rich pageant is simply irresistable.