Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. It is 1974 on the island of Cyprus. The tavern is the only place that Kostas, who is Greek and Christian, and Defne, who is Turkish and Muslim, can meet, in secret.  This is where one can find the best food in town, the best music, the best wine. But there is something else to the place: it makes one forget, even if for just a few hours, the world outside and its immoderate sorrows.
In the centre of the tavern, growing through a cavity in the roof, is a fig tree. This tree will witness their hushed, happy meetings, their silent, surreptitious departures; and the tree will be there when the war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to rubble, when the teenagers vanish and break apart.
Decades later in north London, sixteen-year-old Ada Kazantzakis has never visited the island where her parents were born. Desperate for answers, she seeks to untangle years of secrets, separation and silence. The only connection she has to the land of her ancestors is a Ficus Carica growing in the back garden of their home.

Member Reviews:

L – I enjoyed this book, I like the way the writer tells the story of the history of Cyprus and  how she tells the story of both sides.

D – I found it a difficult read, rather disjointed with no flow.  And I couldn’t get to grips with a talking fig tree!  Interesting subject which could have been related and explored chronologically, rather than flitting about in different time frames.

This novel is an account of the years immediately before and after the UK’s 2016 European Referendum, seen through the eyes of a disparate group of old and young, academic and non-academic, politically engaged and would-rather-listen-to-music people, all centred on Benjamin Trotter, a struggling writer living a quiet life in the English Midlands. Beginning eight years ago on the outskirts of Birmingham, where car factories have been replaced by Poundland, and London, where frenzied riots give way to Olympic fever, Middle England follows a cast of characters through a time of immense change.

There are newlyweds Ian and Sophie, who disagree about the future of the country and, possibly, the future of their relationship; Doug, the political commentator who writes impassioned columns about austerity from his Chelsea townhouse, and his radical teenage daughter who will stop at nothing in her quest for social justice; Benjamin Trotter, who embarks on an apparently doomed new career in middle age, and his father Colin, whose last wish is to vote in the European referendum. And within all these lives is the story of modern England: a story of nostalgia and delusion; of bewilderment and barely-suppressed rage.

Member Reviews:

L – I didn’t get to grips with the characters and storylines.  It said on the front cover that it was meant to be a comedy, I  didn’t think it was that funny.

D – I thought it was brilliant!  Tongue in cheek amusing, and also slightly depressing at the same time.  A very honest view of the rather sad state of affairs in this country.  I expect that one’s view of the UK following the EU referendum may depend upon which way one voted.  It’s a struggle to explain the phenomenon of populism sweeping through western society since 2016, leading to the election of Trump and the result of the referendum. It is with the subject of Brexit, however, that we really see the value of a novel in exploring human experience.

Flora’s been in love with her husband for twenty years. The trouble is, he’s been married to someone else for the past fifteen, now she’s been invited to spend the summer in the sandy coves of Cornwall, which should be blissful.  But there’s one small snag: she’ll be staying with her former mother-in-law, Belinda.
And then her ex-husband shows up out of the blue, complete with his new wife.  Can Flora spend the summer playing happy families with the woman who stole her husband’s heart, and the mother-in-law who might have had a hand in it?  And will stumbling on the family secret change her mind about them all?

Member Reviews:

A – Although I have no objection to the occasional “ chic lit” I found this one very tedious. It started very slowly, including, I thought, an unnecessarily long description of a fox hunt! For me it never seemed to get going and most of the characters seemed fairly superficial. I’m afraid to say I gave up after the first half so may have missed the best bit!

D – This was a very lightweight read.  For me, only slightly more interesting than watching paint dry.