Scarlet Town by Leonora Nattrass

 

Scarlet Town

by Leonora Nattrass

Bliss & Blunder by Victoria Gosling

 

Bliss & Blunder

by Victoria Gosling

The Green Man of Eshwood Hall by Jacob Kerr

 

The Green Man of Eshwood Hall

by Jacob Kerr

Blue Water by Leonora Nattrass

 

Blue Water

by Leonora Nattrass

Black Drop by Leonora Nattrass

Black Drop

by Leonora Nattrass

A book review

"Sea Change" by Alix Nathan

Sea Change
by Alix Nathan

Mysteries, secrets and lies... "Before the Ruins" by Victoria Gosling

Before the Ruins 

by Victoria Gosling

A book review

Velvet Underground: "The Warlow Experiment" by Alix Nathan

Velvet Underground

"The Warlow Experiment" by Alix Nathan

A book review

A reward of £50 a year for life is offered to any man who will undertake to live for 7 years underground without seeing a human face: to let his toe and fingernails grow during the whole of his confinement, together with his beard. Commodious apartments are provided with cold bath, chamber organ, as many books as the occupier shall desire.  Provisions will be served from Mr Powyss’s table. Every convenience desired will be provided

Herbert Powyss, Moreham House, Herefordshire, January 1793.

The quick and the dead : "Night Theatre" by Vikram Paralkar

"Night Theatre" by Vikram Paralkar

A Review

In a run-down clinic at the outskirts of a rural Indian village, a once-successful surgeon is bringing what remains of his career to an unassuming end.  Saheb, as the villagers respectfully call him, tries to do his job decently, despite lack of facilities, a sorely limited budget, stifling bureaucracy and institutionalised corruption.  As for assistance, he must make do with an untrained pharmacist and her handyman husband.  But he is soon to face his biggest challenge yet. One night, a young family – father, pregnant mother and infant son – present themselves at the clinic, suffering from horrific injuries inflicted by a band of bandits. It was a savage attack and no one could possibly survive the wounds they show the doctor. In fact, the would-be patients are dead, allowed to return to Earth by a friendly official of the afterlife. There’s one problem though – at dawn, blood will once again course through their veins.  In the course of one long night, the doctor must successfully complete three complex surgeries, not to save the living, but to resurrect the dead.

The dead tend to haunt ghost stories and horror fiction.  Vikram Paralkar’s Night Theatre (originally published in India as The Wounds of the Dead) is neither of the two.  Its horrors, if any, lie in the detailed surgical descriptions (Paralkar is a hematologist-oncologist and, presumably, speaks from experience) and in the quasi-existential sense of futility instilled by the evident moral failure of society.  If pressed to classify the novel, I would describe it as a work of magical realism.  Indeed, despite its fantastical premise, it feels strangely plausible, its plot driven forward by an inherent logic.  The tale has a fable-like quality (none of the characters are referred to by name) but Paralkar manages to use his surreal story as a vehicle for social critique.  At the same time, the otherworldly elements provide a springboard for ruminations about death and the meaning of life.

I must say that the book’s blurb intrigued me, but little did I expect to discover a little literary gem.  By turns tragic, darkly comic and ultimately moving, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and can’t recommend it enough.  

Expected publication: February 21st 2019 by Serpent's Tail