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Craig Taylor is an “endlessly curious Canadian” journalist who is best known for his works of oral history, said Laura Pullman in The Sunday Times. In
Return to Akenfield (2009), he captured the life of a Suffolk village, and two years later, in the widely praised
Londoners, he did the same for the UK capital. And he interviewed more than 180 people, over six years, for this “beautifully woven tapestry” of New York. Spanning the city’s social pecking order, his subjects range from bankers and lawyers to a homeless man who “recycles cans to scrape by”. Along with uplifting accounts by artists and activists there are stories that highlight the city’s darker side: a car thief spills the secrets of his profession; a therapist reveals that “every client fantasises about escaping”. You are forced to conclude that for many New Yorkers, life there is unbearably relentless. If I’d read this book “before moving here, I’d have been more hesita
In his 2010 bestseller
The Hare with Amber Eyes, the potter Edmund de Waal told the story of his mother’s family – the Ephrussis – through 264 Japanese
netsuke (tiny ivory sculptures) that were bought by one of her forebears in Paris in the 1870s, said Allan Massie in The Scotsman. His marvellous new book is a companion piece to that volume, which brings to life another art-loving Jewish banking family who were their neighbours in Paris.
Hailing from Istanbul, the Camondos settled in the city in the 1860s, building a palatial home on the Rue de Monceau – then an enclave of the “haute juiverie” – which they filled with exquisite pieces. De Waal’s book takes the form of a series of imaginary letters to Count Moïse de Camondo, who inherited the property from his father in 1911, and who stipulated in his own will (he died in 1935) that it be preserved as a museum, which it still is. Those who enjoyed
Katherine Heiny’s 2017 novel
Standard Deviation – about an ill-matched married couple – was “to my mind one of the best, and funniest” of recent years, said India Knight in The Sunday Times. Her new one may be “even better”. It tells the story of Jane, a primary school teacher who moves to a small town in Michigan and begins dating “an exceptionally handsome woodworker”. He is perfect for her in just about every respect, except, as Jane discovers, for one: he has “slept with every sleepable-with woman in the county”. As someone whose “expectations are traditional”, Jane finds this increasingly troubling (though for the reader its effect is “cumulatively hilarious”). Weighty and tender – and at times “profoundly sad” – this is a book that “takes the tiny stuff of everyday life and makes it big and meaningful”.