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8 THE REVIEW SUNDAY, JULY 4, 2004 SUNDAY MORNING POST Books Edited by Alister McMillan [email protected] FICTION at the turn of the 20th century. has to wear an “exiguous veil” as she Yet even amid the battlefields of vocabulary, made-up proverbs – “he Christians, Muslims, Armenians and reduces the men to salivating wrecks. Gallipoli, there is redemption. The who seeks shade under red pines gets Birds Without Greeks co-exist, bound by history, She is devotedly pursued by her soldiers may be “covered in corpse- shat upon” – and kaleidoscopic prose. best-sellers Wings inter-marriage and friendship, until all childhood Muslim sweetheart, Ibrahim slime” but when the Franks (Allies) You sense his enjoyment through the by Louis de is disrupted by the first world war. the goatherd, who tragically becomes and the Turks meet as men rather writing (well, he did have a decade to THE TIMES (OF LONDON) Bernieres de Bernieres says he wanted to Ibrahim the mad. There’s the than as enemies in no-man’s land, perfect it) and his own idiosyncrasies Secker and write “a book with no goodies or garrulous Iskander the Potter and “everything changed between us and shine through. FICTION Warburg $220 baddies”, so the flaws of the good Abdulhamid Hodja, the imam, in love [we] no longer hated each other”. But A friendly Italian captain citizens of Eskibahce are exposed with Nilufer, a beautiful horse with “after this, the war became less holy”, Lampedusa is stationed at Eskibahce 1 SHOPAHOLIC AND SISTER Claire Scobie alongside their virtues. They can stone green ribbons in her mane. and what follows is tantamount to (de Bernieres obviously has a soft spot by Sophie Kinsella an alleged adulterer, Tamara, wife of Religion unites rather than divides. ethnic cleansing, with Turkish for charming Italian officers), but Latest in the series introduces a black sheep in the family. Birds Without Rustem Bey, their modern-thinking Muslim and Christian women are like Christians expelled to Greece and roundly lambastes Britain’s then- 2 THE DARK TOWER: SONG OF SUSANNAH Wings touches all rural landlord, “with gleeful cruelty”, sisters, their lives inextricably linked Greek Turks sent to Turkey. prime minister Lloyd George, who is by Stephen King the epic themes: love and war, the and yet band together when they and interwoven. They make promises As the Christians were the doctors called, among other names, a “f***wit”. Sixth instalment of the epic. danger of moral certainty and the are threatened. “by the Beard of the Prophet and the and merchants, the thriving town Ultimately a novel about the 3 THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY paradoxes of the human condition. Rustem Bey, afflicted by an aching Hem of the Virgin’s Gown”. of Eskibahce falls apart. The Muslims constrictions of being human, by Marian Keyes It also bears de Bernieres’ literary loneliness, takes a Circassian mistress, Parallel to the unravelling of are left “helpless, no banker, no hemmed in by the trammels of The tale of three women involved in the signatures: vast emotional breadth, the indulgent Leyla, who “plays the their lives, de Bernieres charts the blacksmith, no shoemaker … no nationalism and religion, Birds publishing industry. dazzling characterisation, rich oud delightfully” and seduces Bey spectacular rise to power of Mustafa merchant, no spicer. The community Without Wings is a literary feast. 4 MONDAY MOURNING by Kathy Reichs historical detail, gruesome battle with garlic orgies. Their poignant Kemal (later known as Ataturk, father had lost its Christians and their “For birds with wings … fly where Tempe Brennan investigates the deaths of three young women. scenes, and a swerve between languid relationship is just one of those of modern Turkey), as war looms. drunken holy days and the joy”. they will and they know nothing … 5 THE INCREMENT by Chris Ryan sensuality and horror, humour and explored by de Bernieres, who paints Father Kristoforos, the Christian priest, Those left live “amid so much But we are always confined to earth … An assassin squad targets former soldiers. creeping melancholy. characters that haunt long after the portends the grim days ahead with absence”, and villages are transformed Because we have no wings we 6 THE NARROWS by Michael Connelly It follows some of the inhabitants book is put down. nightmares of God dying. As the war to ghostly husks. are pushed into struggles and Harry Bosch chases a mass murderer. of Eskibahce, literally the Garden of There’s the beautiful Philothei, a gathers momentum and the men are Despite the rawness of the content, abominations that we did not seek,” de 7 SHARPE’S ESCAPE by Bernard Cornwell Eden, a town in southwest Turkey Christian with an “angel’s eyes” who sent away, Eskibahce withers. de Bernieres excels in his inventive Bernieres writes. A Briton battles the French in the Peninsular war. 8 THE TORMENT OF OTHERS time in Glasgow, Gazza is searching for a sneaky of description. “The tropical air was silky and by Val McDermid SPORT TRAVEL Echoes of the past resound after two drink. He starts smoking at 28; cocaine binges oven-roasted, the stars bright as headlights and prostitutes die. Gazza: My Story soon follow. Tales from the Torrid Zone: arranged in such novel configurations you 9 THE LONELY DEAD by Paul Gascoigne with Gazza was a magnet for attention, either by Travels in the Deep Tropics needed time to adjust your mental compass,” by Michael Marshall Smith Hunter Davis performing magic on the pitch or by parading by Alexander Frater he writes of landing in Fiji. A former CIA agent investigates murders. Headline $250 around in plastic breasts off it. He burped into a Picador $235 In Africa, he gets involved in a television 10 JUST ONE LOOK by Harlan Coben microphone and, after being asked on live documentary, voyaging aboard a Catalina A murder of 20 years ago comes back to David Watkins Norwegian television whether he had a message Ed Peters Flying Boat from Alexandria to the Ilha de haunt those involved. for viewers, said, “Yes, f*** off”. Mozambique, dodging wild weather and wars. Recently asked what he When he explains his side of the infamous The grandson of a hell-fire A second documentary takes him to India to film NON-FICTION considered the England dentist’s chair incident in Hong Kong’s now Pacific Island missionary and the monsoon, but – he notes with characteristic 1 GAZZA football team’s strength, defunct China Jump club in 1996, it’s like a the son of one of the British humour – the weather refuses to cooperate with by Paul Gascoigne with Hunter Davies France striker Thierry Henry school kid wrangling his way out of detention. “It Empire’s last colonial the production schedule and a local fire engine The ups and downs in the life of the former replied: “Their desire.” was all a laugh, no more than us letting our hair doctors, Alexander Frater’s genetic passport has to be pressed into service. After which farce, England football star. And their weakness? “Their desire.” down before the Euro finals,” he pleads. He spurs him to wander the tropics as a privileged he deserts the artifice of television for the relative 2 PURPLE RONNIE’S LITTLE THOUGHTS Paul Gascoigne embodies this English became one of the players of the tournament. insider and passionate observer. Raised in what sanctity of print. ABOUT DADS phenomenon. Perhaps the most talented The perception that Gazza’s off-field games is now Vanuatu, he ranges around many of the Part of the fun of Torrid Zone is Frater’s huge by Purple Ronnie footballer the country has produced, he is better showed he was coping with fame was far wide of 88 tropical countries that cover one third of the bank of knowledge, which is frequently tossed Poems and observations on patriarchs remembered for his spectacular self-destruction. the goal. Gascoigne was, and is, crippled with globe, eye cocked for unusual details, ears into the text. He knows that leopards left their everywhere. 3 BEING JORDAN by Katie Price This biography represents the first time the neurosis. He still sleeps with the light on, and is pricked for salty conversation. The result – Tales prints in the wet cement of the Kandalama Hotel The tabloids’ favourite glamour model. 36-year-old has spoken about it in detail – having obsessed with death, blaming himself for the from the Torrid Zone – is one of the happiest in Sri Lanka while it was under construction, that 4 EATS, SHOOTS AND LEAVES now been sober for three months. He begins demise of three friends during his teenage years. memoirs cum travelogues of recent years. the first airline hijack took place in 1948 aboard by Lynne Truss with “Beer, Wine, Vodka, Cocaine, Morphine, As his spent fortune of £20 million A taste for adventure runs in the family. a Cathay Pacific Catalina on the way from Hong In defence of proper grammar and Paranoid, Anxiety” before a football has even (HK$284 million) and broken marriage testify, Maurice – Frater’s grandfather – and his bride Kong to Macau, and that coconuts from Jamaica punctuation. been mentioned. Yet by the end of My Story you “Gazza” consumed Gascoigne. Only now, in landed on the tiny island of Paama in 1900, to be somehow managed to drift as far as Norway. 5 FRIENDS ‘TIL THE END by David Wild wonder whether his career was not so much a quitting football, he believes he can save himself. met with a volley of missiles and threats. They A rollicking sense of the ridiculous means he Companion to the recently departed tragic waste as the salvation of Gascoigne.

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