Category Archives: Unity Dow

Books of the Month – September 2011

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After a bit of a slump during August I seemed to find my reading mojo again in September, getting through a reasonable number of books and, more importantly, finding many of them to be outstanding.

In the end I gave my book of the month award to a haunting African tale that I read at the start of September because I simply cannot get its story of the evil motivation for the death of a young girl out of my mind. Unity Dow‘s The Screaming of the Innocent  is set in the author’s native Botswana and tells a harrowing tale about a young girl who goes missing, the men who are responsible and the ease with which they engineer a cover up of their actions. It is emotionally harrowing (the ending particularly so) but not gratuitously so and it has flashes of beauty, bravery and humour amongst the sadness.

Other recommended reads from the month are:

Gianrico Carofiglio‘s A Walk in the Dark which tells the tale of an Italian lawyer who takes on the case of a battered woman who no one else will help because her ex-boyfriend is the son of a judge is a marvellous read. It makes me happy to think that my delay in finding this wonderful author means there are already several more books by him ready and waiting just for me. 4.5 stars

Detective Inspector Huss by Helen Tursten was one of the great Swedish novels I read in the month. Göteburg police investigate the death of a wealthy businessman in a superb example of the socially aware police procedural. Some of the story tangents and dead ends were as interesting as the main event and the characters are excellent. 4.5 stars.

Fool’s Republic by Gordon W. Dale tells the story of a man incarcerated and tortured as part of the ‘war on terror’. I was impressed with the understated way the author tackled this difficult subject, eschewing the temptation for overt preaching or simplification of the issues. I didn’t think the first person narrative was quite as successful but overall an entertaining and thought-provoking novel. 3 stars.

Misterioso by Arne Dahl is one of 3 books set in Sweden I read this month and while I found it a bit awkward to get into I did enjoy it overall. Having read them so close together I couldn’t help but compare this debut police procedural with Tursten’s (above) and I did not think this one quite as well plotted but still a very engaging story about a series of murders of high-profile business men. 3.5 stars

Sister by Rosamund Lupton would probably have been better off if it hadn’t been shoe-horned into the whodunnit genre as the parts of the book that work superbly are the depictions of two fragile familial relationships (two sisters and a mother and daughter) and a delicately painted portrait of grief. Frankly the crime-y bits of the story were clunky. 3.5 stars.

The Donor by Helen Fitzgerald tackles the hideous premise of a father with twin daughters both needing life-saving kidney transplants with deliciously dark humour to ensure the book doesn’t fall into the misery-lit category that one-line synopsis could otherwise suggest. 4 stars.

The Invisible Ones by Stef Penney is a novel about a gypsy family and the man hired to find out what happened to one of their members. One of two narrators is a 14 year old gypsy lad known as JJ and he the star of this thoughtful novel (though mainstream reviews would suggest I am in the minority as someone who liked the book). 4 stars.

The News Where You Are by Catherine O’Flynn wasn’t quite as good as O’Flynn’s first novel which I fell in love with earlier this year but only because that book was something extra special. I still thoroughly enjoyed this tale of a melancholic English newsreader who starts to worry about the death of an old friend. A treatise on the downside of valuing looks over substance if ever there was one. 4.5 stars.

The Ottoman Hotel is a debut novel by Christopher Currie and is set in a small Australian town. It tells the story of a young boy whose parents disappear while they are all on holidays and its evocative writing style made for a quick, engaging and nicely unpredictable read. 3.5 stars.

Until Thy Wrath Be Past is the latest instalment of the Rebecka Martinsson series by Asa Larsson. Rebecka becomes involved in the investigation of the death of a young girl whose body is found a long way from where she died and the case turns out to be connected to events from many years earlier. 4.5 stars.

Whispering Death by Garry Disher is one of the most cleverly constructed novels I’ve read in a very long time and has well developed characters and a gentle undertone of social commentary to book. There are far too many story threads to them justice in a brief summary; you’ll just have to read the book. 4.5 stars.

The meh reads for this month were:

Ian Rankin‘s The Complaints (I know, I know I’m the only one who doesn’t ‘get’ Rankin) and Nigel McCrery‘s Scream (gratuitous gore).

I also listened to Dick Francis‘ Second Wind narrated by the always brilliant Tony Britton and while not a meh book in the sense I usually mean it, I do find it hard to come up with something new to say about the 40+ Francis novels which are all, essentially, the same.

Other happenings at the blog

I celebrated a year of eBook reading which has been a mostly positive experience aside from the appalling customer service received from the Sony corporation and the fact that the ever-present geographic restrictions are more of a problem in the eBook world than with physical books. I am however still hopeful of having virtually no physical books at all to read (and worry about finding homes for afterwards) within four years.

I continued to celebrate women crime writers for #SinC25, this time focusing on those who write historical crime fiction which features strong female characters. I propose it’s easy to understand the temptation to write such books given that in much factual history the role of women is often ignored.

a last word…

I’m going to pick up a couple of physical books next week, both new titles by Australian authors. One is the sixth novel in Kerry Greenwood’s fun Corrina Chapman series and the other is the debut novel by Y A Erskine. Australian publishers generally charge the same for eBooks as they do for the equivalent physical books which in one of these cases is $33...an amount I simply refuse to pay for something I don’t really own. I do wish these people would wake up but until they do I’ll borrow most of my Aussie reads from the library (think of the lost sales) and pick up a handful on special or using vouchers.

What about you…was September a good reading month? Did you have a favourite book? Or did you acquire anything you’re itching to read? Any issue you need to get off your chest?

Review: The Screaming of the Innocent by Unity Dow

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I was prompted to add The Screaming of the Innocent to my global reading challenge list by this excellent review at Petrona. My short summary review would simply be: read the book yourself, you’ll be glad you did.

The Screaming of the Innocent is set in the author’s native Botswana and tells a harrowing tale about a young girl who goes missing, the men who are responsible and the ease with which they engineer a cover up of their actions. The girl is 12 years old and one day she is spotted playing with her friends by a local businessman, Mr Disanka, which seals her unfortunate fate. He calls upon two men he knows who share his heinous interests and together they plan what they’ll do with the girl. Although at this point there is no graphic depiction of what is done to the girl, the passage in which this odious individual, who is thought to be a good man despite his many mistresses and other moral lapses, identifies the girl as ‘perfect for his purposes’ quite literally made my skin crawl.

We then jump forward five years and meet Amantle Bokaa, a young woman in her 20s, as she begins an internship at the clinic in the same village from which the girl disappeared. When carrying out some cleaning at the clinic Amantle finds a box marked Neo Kakang: CRB 45/94 and when she tracks down the village resident who shares the name Kakang the box is opened to reveal a set of blood-stained clothes. The villagers, including Motlatsi Kakang, are stunned because the clothes clearly belong to Molatsi’s daughter Neo who went missing five years earlier. They were told at the time by police investigators that the girl had been killed by lions.  Amantle, being a remarkably strong young women, then takes it upon herself to uncover the facts behind Neo’s disappearance and what she soon realises must have been the official cover up of those facts.

The subject matter of this book is undoubtedly dark but, because it is based on a real case of ritual killing, there is a purpose to that darkness. This is not gruesome violence for the shock value of it like so many ‘thrillers’ contain these days; this is actually quite a restrained depiction of events which will keep occurring in the real world unless they are exposed in this way. But perhaps the most important thing to know is that despite the utter wretchedness of many of the events in the book there is a sense of optimism and hope too. The introduction of Amantle and the friends she co-opts to her cause is a master stroke on the part of the author, allowing the reader to imagine the possibility of a brighter future for Botswana and its poor people, especially its women.

For Amantle is a delightful character who, as the youngest of seven children in a traditional Botswanan family, was selected to be the first one who would go to school. We learn via flashback some of Amantle’s personal history and it becomes clear how she developed into such a smart and resourceful young lady who is prepared to stand up for herself and those she identifies cannot do so for themselves. She is not entirely alone, engaging the help of a young female lawyer friend who in turn ropes in another chum or two and you get the sense that the author sees these young people as a big part of her country’s future.

This is one of those books that oozes its setting, both physical and psychological, from every page. The traditional values which are increasingly at odds with modern thinking, the entrenched poverty, the heavily hierarchical social structure in which women at each layer have to struggle more for their share of what is in offer are all present. But so are the beauty of the landscape, the strong sense of community that develops among the rural villages and even, albeit briefly, some flashes of humour such as when the young people have to spend a night camping and the city-living lawyer is terrified they will all be eaten by lions.

If the book had depicted only a single note of despair and sadness I would, I think, hesitate to recommend it but knowing that it also contains the seeds of reason to be optimistic I do think it’s well worth reading. It is emotionally harrowing (the ending particularly so) but not gratuitously so and, on balance, I am glad that I read the book, despite the sadness and sense of impotent outrage it engendered.

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The book has been reviewed at Petrona

As well as being a writer Unity Dow is a human rights activist, former High Court Judge and earlier this year was nominated as one of Newsweek’s 150 women who shake the world.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
My rating 4.5/5
Publisher Spinifex Press [2002]
ISBN 1876756209
Length 215 pages
Format trade paperback
Book Series standalone
Source borrowed from the library