Review: Nannion by Andreas Androutsellis-Theotokis
Everyone loves a cat story, and Nannion by Andreas Androutsellis-Theotokis features the eponymous off-white street cat in a surprising science fiction tale of earth sciences and Greek history. Although not a story for children (Nannion, the cat’s namesake, was in fact a prostitute in Ancient Greece) there is a childlike quality to the narration that makes the cat’s relationship with Claire, a lonely and dying marine biologist working in the Aegean Sea around Athens and the island of Dioptra, cozy reading.
As the book goes on, other characters working in marine sciences come into the story. The team learns about […]
The Game Changer by Dave Dröge follows the life of flamboyant Henk van Wijnen-Swarttouw, a high-powered businessman whose life is rapidly falling apart. His wife left him, his daughter is an eccentric embarrassment, his business is collapsing, and he might be headed to jail. With everything disintegrating around him, he wants to try to come to terms with at least one difficulty in his life: his activist – and exhibitionist – daughter. In doing so, he may be in danger of unraveling even further.
Elephant Walk (The Brigandshaw Chronicles Book 2) by Peter Rimmer is a rich and entertaining work of historical fiction set in England and Africa. Beginning at the onset of World War I (whereas Book 1 was set in the tail end of the nineteenth century), Elephant Walk finds Harry Brigandshaw settled in the Dorset countryside after graduating Oxford when he receives a telegram, which brings him back to Africa. When his brother is killed in the war, Harry enlists and finds success in the service, but also great danger for himself and his family.
The year is 1887, and Sebastian Brigandshaw is stolen away from his lover, Emily, and forced across the sea in order to allow his older brother to take Emily’s hand instead. Cast into the wild and unknown colonies of Africa, Sebastian becomes one of the white hunters destined to see the bloodiest faces of man as the British face off against the Boers in their second war. Sebastian lusts for home, but must endure if he wants to survive in Echoes from the Past by Peter Rimmer.
Working the Devil by John Hagar is a caustic novel about one man’s attempt to bring peace and justice to an indigenous community on a small island called Infierno in the Caribbean. “Infierno” is right (“Hell” in Spanish) as the island is teeming with violence, racism, and a sadistic prison named the Sepulcher. After escaping the island during extreme unrest, Pike returns to the community with an eye on repairing a multitude problems. He has to contend with corruption from above and below: both oil corporations and the society’s own history of ingrained brutality.