The Bookseller of Hay by James Hanning is a biography of Richard Booth, the second-hand bookseller who helped establish Hay-on-Wye as the book town of Wales. To say that Booth, the self-proclaimed King of Hay, was a bit of a character is something of an understatement. His various eccentricities, ambiguities and contradictions make him an intriguing subject for a biography, with examples of extreme generosity and determination as well as callousness and selfishness. Although Booth wasn’t involved in the development of the Hay Festival, it seems unlikely that this major annual event would exist in Hay without his early support for the second-hand book trade in the town. I particularly enjoyed reading about Booth’s colourful life in the 1960s and 1970s among the many recognisable landmarks in Hay. Many thanks to Little Brown Book Group for sending me a review copy via NetGalley.
Saltwater Mansions by David Whitehouse is a unique piece of creative non-fiction about the mystery of a woman named Caroline Lane who vanished in 2009 and seemingly abandoned her ground floor flat in Margate following a fractious residents’ group meeting. Her mortgage and bills continued to be paid for several years and neighbours gossiped about her whereabouts, but nobody came looking for her. As Whitehouse starts to dig into her story towards the end of the pandemic, he learns of other mysteries connected with her neighbours and the surrounding area. From the effects of gentrification in seaside towns, to the impact of true crime obsession and grief, Saltwater Mansions explores so much more than the initial mystery of Caroline’s disappearance. It isn’t too much of a surprise to learn that Caroline’s story isn’t neatly resolved at the end, but the route Whitehouse takes to get there is unexpected and thought-provoking. I thought his 2022 book About A Son about the murder of Morgan Hehir was excellent and Saltwater Mansions is possibly even more impressive.
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood was longlisted for this year’s Booker Prize. Thomas Flett is in his 20s and earns a living as a shanker, scraping the sand for shrimp with a horse and wagon somewhere in northern England. It is dull and dangerous work, until the monotony is broken by the arrival of Edgar Acheson, who claims to be a Hollywood director scouting locations for his new movie. I enjoyed Wood’s second novel The Ecliptic when it was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award, and his prose style is similarly absorbing and evocative in his concise fifth novel, particularly in the bleak portrayal of the coastal landscape. There are elements to the story that could easily have been fleshed out a bit more such as Thomas’s relationship with his mother, but Seascraper is a well-crafted novella with a surprisingly hopeful conclusion.
Long Island by Colm Tóibín is the follow-up to Brooklyn, set 20 years after the conclusion of that novel. I read Brooklyn several years ago and I remember it being something of a slow-burner which builds towards a very emotional conclusion. In contrast, Long Island opens with an immediate shock for Eilis Fiorello when she discovers that her husband, Tony, has fathered a child with another woman. She returns to Ireland for her mother’s 80th birthday celebrations and encounters several of the characters she last saw during her previous visit, including her old flame Jim Farrell and friend Nancy Sheridan. Long Island is sparse in period detail with only a few clues to locate the setting in the late 1970s. Tóibín focuses almost entirely on character development, particularly on what is left unsaid between characters and how Eilis and Jim navigate their feelings and the logistical reality of being together. Following a rather sudden ending, I wouldn’t be surprised if Tóibín is planning to extend Eilis’ story to a trilogy.
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