The Adversary by Emmanuel Carrère

Book Review

"I was thinking of the big white void that had slowly taken over inside him until all that was left was that semblance of a man dressed in black."

The Adversary: A True Story of Monstrous Deception is written by Emmanuel Carrère and published by Vintage.

I'd never heard of The Adversary before, or Jean-Claude Romand, but when I saw this latest edition on NetGalley I had to request it as the true story sounded so incredible. In fact, I think if the story of a man conning his family for almost 20 years and then killing them all before his secret could come out was written in a fiction, I would have said it wasn't believable.

And yet, real life is often stranger than fiction, Luckily, Carrère tells this story in a way that is quite understated, letting the brutality of the crime do the talking rather than courting controversy by inserting thrills. The Adversary is a well written and fascinating exploration of a crime and the criminal.

April 2017: Favourite Books

It's been a full month of reading this April, with a little more variety than usual, though there's still the usual big dose of murder.

A Life Discarded: 148 Diaries Found in a Skip by Alexander Masters

Book Review

"It was an ordinary pocket notebook, ambushed by a person's desperation to record his or her life."

A Life Discarded: 148 Diaries Found in a Skip will be published in hardback on 5th May 2017. It is written by Alexander Masters and published by 4th Estate.

I was really excited to read A Life Discarded because the author, Alexander Masters, wrote Stuart: A Life Backwards, which I loved (the film is also amazing, Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch being brilliant). However, I think, like a lot of other reviewers, this book just didn't live up to the level set by Stuart. A Life Discarded is a unique, intriguing book, and I definitely enjoyed reading it, but I think it unfortunately fails by being compared to its older, prettier, more accomplished sister (does that work as a metaphor?)

February 2017 Link Love

Source

I think this month's Link Love post reflects my financial situation in February; completely broke. Even the Writing links join in, with a post on keeping your day job even when published. There's also an article on a woman who saved £22,000 a year by buying nothing but the essentials.
Don't worry though, I'm still obsessed with books, and I've found some great reviews and reading lists around the web this month. Books count as essentials, right?

Birds Art Life Death: A Field Guide to the Small and Significant by Kyo Maclear

Book Review

"There are no big reasons to live. Just little reasons."


Birds Art Life Death: A Field Guide to the Small and Significant is released today in the UK (9th February 2017). It is written by Kyo Maclear and published by Fourth Estate.

Here's something a little different; if you're a regular reader of my blog you'll know that I read a lot of fiction, but this little nonfiction gem intrigued me when I saw it on NetGalley. An exploration of birding, it sounds like it will be dull beyond reason, but it's actually about the appreciating the small beauties in the world.