NHFT Virtual book club meeting #42 – The Chemistry of Death

Following our visit to the remote mountainous range, the Appalachians where a father and daughter lived with no electricity, no family or connection to the outside world whilst reckoning with ghosts of their past in These Silent Woods

by Kimi Cunningham Grant; we move on to our next read - 'the skin crawlingly frightening David Hunter thriller' The Chemistry of Death by Simon Beckett. 

Dr David Hunter hoped he might at last have put the past behind him. But then they found what was left of Sally Palmer . . . 

It isn't just that she was a friend that disturbs him. Once he'd been a high-profile forensic anthropologist and all too familiar with the many faces of death, before tragedy made him abandon this previous life. 

Now the police want his help. 

But to become involved will stir up memories he's long tried to forget. Then a second woman disappears, plunging the close-knit community into a maelstrom of fear and paranoia. And no one, not even Hunter, is exempt from suspicion. 

Gruesome and gripping, this startling new British crime thriller has an unnerving and original twist. 

"A classy debut." The Times 

"Best thriller I've read all year." Tess Gerritsen 

We’ll be meeting on Thursday 9 January 2025 via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the events calendar on the Staff Room. 

We look forward to seeing you…

NHFT virtual book club meeting #41 – These Silent Woods

 

After our Halloween spooky read of the most chilling and compelling ghost story of the year, Thin Air by Michelle Paver we are heading to another mountainous range, the remote Appalachians where a father and daughter live and must reckon with ghosts of their past in These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant.

No electricity, no family, no connection to the outside world.

For eight years, Cooper and his young daughter, Finch, have lived in isolation in a remote cabin in the northern Appalachian woods. And that's exactly the way Cooper wants it, because he's got a lot to hide. Finch has been raised on the books filling the cabin's shelves and the beautiful but brutal code of life in the wilderness. But she's starting to push back against the sheltered life Cooper has created for her-and he's still haunted by the painful truth of what it took to get them there.

The only people who know they exist are a mysterious local hermit named Scotland, and Cooper's old friend, Jake, who visits each winter to bring them food and supplies. But this year, Jake doesn't show up, setting off an irreversible chain of events that reveals just how precarious their situation really is. Suddenly, the boundaries of their safe haven have blurred-and when a stranger wanders into their woods, Finch's growing obsession with her could put them all in danger. After a shocking disappearance threatens to upend the only life Finch has ever known, Cooper is forced to decide whether to keep hiding-or finally face the sins of his past.

Vividly atmospheric and masterfully tense, These Silent Woods is a poignant story of survival, sacrifice, and how far a father will go when faced with losing it all.

 

"Your next must read". --Country Living

"Gorgeously written, taut and compelling". --John Hart, bestselling author of The Hush

 

We’ll be meeting on Thursday 28 November via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel.  You can find the link via the events calendar on the Staff Room.

 

We look forward to seeing you…

NHFT virtual book club meeting #39 - Dear Mrs Bird

Following our visit to Georgian London in the excellent historical crime thriller, Daughters of Night, we are (unusually for us) staying put, but moving forward in time in the shape of A.J. Pearce's Blitz set novel, Dear Mrs Bird.

London 1940, bombs are falling. Emmy Lake is Doing Her Bit for the war effort as a telephone operator with the Auxiliary Fire Services. When Emmy sees an advertisement for a job at the London Evening Chronicle, her dreams of becoming a Lady War Correspondent seem suddenly achievable. But the job turns out to be typist to the fierce and renowned advice columnist, Henrietta Bird. Emmy is disappointed, but gamely bucks up and buckles down.

Mrs Bird is very clear: Any letters containing Unpleasantness and definitely not those from the lovelorn, grief-stricken or morally conflicted,—must go straight in the bin. But when Emmy reads poignant letters from women who are lonely, may have Gone Too Far with the wrong men and found themselves in trouble, or who can’t bear to let their children be evacuated, she is unable to resist responding. As the German planes make their nightly raids, and London picks up the smouldering pieces each morning, Emmy secretly begins to write letters back to the women of all ages who have spilled out their troubles. After all, what harm could that possibly do?

‘Imagine Bridget Jones running amok in the wartime world of Mrs Miniver. AJ Pearce’s hoot of a debut … is a comic confection that is sweetly uplifting.' - The Sunday Times

‘Stiff upper lips all round: a comic novel about an agony aunt in wartime London proves hilarious as it is moving.'  - The Guardian

We'll be meeting on Thursday 26th of September via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there...

NHFT virtual book club meeting #38 - Daughters of Night

Returning from contemporary Japan via Durian Sukegawa's touching Sweet Bean Paste, we have arrived in Georgian London courtesy of Laura Shepherd-Robinson's Daughters of Night.

London, 1782. Desperate for her politician husband to return home from France, Caroline 'Caro' Corsham is already in a state of anxiety when she finds a well-dressed woman mortally wounded in the bowers of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. 

The Bow Street constables are swift to act, until they discover that the deceased woman was a highly-paid prostitute, at which point they cease to care entirely. But Caro has motives of her own for wanting to see justice done, and so sets out to solve the crime herself. 

Enlisting the help of thieftaker, Peregrine Child, their inquiry delves into the hidden corners of Georgian society, a world of artifice, deception and secret lives.

But with many gentlemen refusing to speak about their dealings with the dead woman, and Caro's own reputation under threat, finding the killer will be harder, and more treacherous than she can know . . .

‘Daughters of Night has everything a historical crime thriller needs – intrigue, attention to detail, suspense, colourful characters and heroines a plenty. A triumph in its field.’ – The Wee Review

‘I would gamble what’s left of my virtue on Daughters of Night being the best historical crime novel I will read this year.’ - Antonia Senior, The Times

We'll be meeting on Thursday 29th of August via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there...

NHFT virtual book club meeting #37 - Sweet Bean Paste

After our visit to Charon County, Virgina, via S.A. Cosby's searing mix of crime, religion and race in the superb gritty thriller All the Sinners Bleed, we are off to Japan for a rather different tale of friendship and social stigma in Durian Sukegawa's Sweet Bean Paste.

Sentaro has failed. He has a criminal record, drinks too much, and his dream of becoming a writer is just a distant memory. With only the blossoming of the cherry trees to mark the passing of time, he spends his days in a tiny confectionery shop selling dorayaki, a type of pancake filled with sweet bean paste.

But everything is about to change.

Into his life comes Tokue, an elderly woman with disfigured hands and a troubled past. Tokue makes the best sweet bean paste Sentaro has ever tasted. She begins to teach him her craft, but as their friendship flourishes, social pressures become impossible to escape and Tokue’s dark secret is revealed, with devastating consequences.

‘Simply delicious.’ – The Guardian 

‘An endearing, thoughtful tale about relationships and the everyday meaning of life....’ – Library Journal

‘A subtle, moving exploration of redemption in an unforgiving society... A book with deceptive heft and lingering resonance.’ - Japan Times

We'll be meeting on Thursday 25th of July via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there...

NHFT virtual book club meeting #36 - All the Sinners Bleed

Following on from the mind-expanding visit to the multiverse in Blake Crouch's excellent ode to the many worlds interpretation of quantum physics, Dark Matter, we are off to southeast Virginia with S.A Cosby's gritty thriller, All the Sinners Bleed.

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, Charon has had only two murders. After years of working as an FBI agent, no one knows better than Titus that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface.

But a year to the day after Titus's election, a schoolteacher is killed by a former student. The student is then fatally shot by Titus's deputies.

As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes, and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon. With the killer's possible connections to a local church and the town's harrowing history weighing on him, Titus tries to project confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town's Confederate history.

Charon is Titus's home and his heart. But where faith and violence meet, there will be a reckoning.

“One of the most muscular, distinctive, grab-you-by-both-ears voices in American crime fiction” The Washington Post

'A crackling good police procedural....fresh and exhilarating' Stephen King

"To read a book like this is to learn about lives that may be outside of our own—and to discover something(s) about ourselves in the process. This one comes with my highest recommendation." Criminal Element

We'll be meeting on Thursday 27th of June via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there...

NHFT virtual book club meeting #35 - Dark Matter

Following on from time spent in Wales in Orla Owen's excellent dark, twisty story of envy, materialism and toxicity, Christ on a Bike, we are boldly going into the multiverse in our first science fiction read (picked by the group), Blake Crouch's Dark Matter.

Jason Dessen is walking home through the chilly Chicago streets one night, looking forward to a quiet evening in front of the fireplace with his wife, Daniela, and their son, Charlie—when his reality shatters.

"Are you happy with your life?"

Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious.

Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits.

Before a man Jason's never met smiles down at him and says, "Welcome back, my friend."

In this world he's woken up to, Jason's life is not the one he knows. His wife is not his wife. His son was never born. And Jason is not an ordinary college physics professor, but a celebrated genius who has achieved something remarkable. Something impossible.

Is it this world or the other that's the dream?

And even if the home he remembers is real, how can Jason possibly make it back to the family he loves? The answers lie in a journey more wondrous and horrifying than anything he could've imagined—one that will force him to confront the darkest parts of himself even as he battles a terrifying, seemingly unbeatable foe.

'It's been a long time since a novel sucked me in and kept me turning pages the way this one did. Exceptional' - Andy Weir (author of The Martian)

'A mind-blowing sci-fi/suspense/love-story mash-up' - Entertainment Weekly

We'll be meeting on Thursday 30th of May via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there...

NHFT virtual book club meeting #34 - Christ on a Bike

After our visit to Warwickshire and the company of an AI detective in the excellent In the Blink of an Eye, we are off to Wales with Orla Owen's off-beat, twisty psychological story of envy, materialism and toxicity, Christ on a Bike. 

When Cerys Jones, a middle-aged office-worker, comes into an unexpected inheritance, her life is appears to be getting an upgrade. Leaving the drudgery of her London life behind for a designer place on the Welsh coast, with nothing to do but relax and enjoy a luxury lifestyle.

Of course it isn't that simple and there are rules. Three simple rules that have to be followed at all times.

She cannot share her wealth with anyone and visitors may stay for no longer than three days at a time. All financial aspects of her life will be scrutinised by the inheritance lawyers.

Her younger sister is jealous, Cerys is starting to feel pretty uncomfortable in her rural luxury, and just who is the bearded figure in a red cagoule that seems to be peering at her from behind every tree?

‘Black Mirror meets Tales of The Unexpected with shades of Shirley Jackson.’ - Nina Pottell

‘So fresh and quirky and unlike anything I’ve read before. I really urge you to give it a try.’ Laura Pearson

We'll be meeting on Thursday 25th of April via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there...

NHFT virtual book club meeting #33 - In the Blink of an Eye

After our visit to the Sowell Bay Aquarium with Tova, Cameron, and Marcellus, the giant Pacific octopus in Remarkably Bright Creatures, we are off to Warwickshire with Jo Callaghan's up to the minute/just over the horizon crime novel, In the Blink of an Eye. 

In the UK, someone is reported missing every 90 seconds.

Just gone. Vanished. In the blink of an eye.

DCS Kat Frank knows all about loss. A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her instincts. Picked to lead a pilot programme that has her paired with AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock, Kat's instincts come up against Lock's logic. But when the two missing person's cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help Kat when the case gets personal.

AI versus human experience.

Logic versus instinct.

With lives on the line can the pair work together before someone else becomes another statistic?

‘Terrifyingly timely and provocative' Val McDermid

‘The moral dilemmas created by artificial intelligence are brilliantly explored in this altogether very human novel’ Sunday Times

‘In the Blink of an Eye is fresh, innovative and very, very clever. Flawlessly paced, plotted and researched, it’s laugh out loud, heart-achingly sad and doesn’t have a dull moment. I raced through it. Simply sensational’ M.W. Craven

Jo Callaghan works full time as a senior strategist, carrying out research into the future impact of AI and genomics on the workforce.

We'll be meeting on Thursday 28th of March via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there...

NHFT virtual book club meeting #32 - Remarkably Bright Creatures

After our visit to Pine Cove, California in our Christmas book The Stupidest Angel, we are embarking on a rather different read, Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures.

After Tova Sullivan's husband died, she began working the night cleaner shift at the Sowell Bay Aquarium. Ever since her eighteen-year-old son, Erik, mysteriously vanished on a boat over thirty years ago keeping busy has helped her cope. 

One night she meets Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus living at the aquarium who sees everything but wouldn't dream of lifting one of his eight arms for his human captors – until he forms a remarkable friendship with Tova.

Ever the detective, Marcellus deduces what happened the night Tova's son disappeared. And now Marcellus must use every trick his old body can muster to unearth the truth for her before it's too late...

'Humans. For the most part, you are dull and blundering. But occasionally, you can be remarkably bright creatures.'

‘Filled with a quirky unconventional charm, I’ll be smiling every time I think of this story. A story that embraces the idea of love and connection across borders in every sense, and a story of family lost and found.’ Goodreads Reviewer

We'll be meeting on Thursday 22nd of February via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there...

NHFT virtual book club meeting #31 - The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas terror

After our heart stopping last read, the creepy No Good Deed, we are moving on to a California-set festive read in Christopher Moore's comic fantasy, The Stupidest Angel. However, this is no Christmas Carol...

T’was the night (okay, more like the week) before Christmas and little Joshua Barker is in desperate need of a Christmas miracle. No, he's not on his deathbed; no, his dog hasn't run away from home. But Josh is sure that he saw Santa take a shovel to the head, and now the seven-year-old has only one prayer: Please, Santa, come back from the dead.

But coming to Earth, seeking a small child whose wish needs granting, is none other than Archangel Raziel. Unfortunately, he's not sporting the brightest halo in the bunch and before you can say 'Kris Kringle,' he's botched his sacred mission and sent the residents of Pine Cove headlong into Christmas chaos, culminating in the most hilarious and horrifying holiday party the town has ever seen.

‘Pacy and engaging, this is a comic fantasy crammed with sharp and funny one-liners’ The Guardian

‘If you're buying this book as a gift for your grandma or a kid, you should be aware that it contains cuss words as well as tasteful descriptions of cannibalism... Don't blame me. I told you.’ The author

We'll be meeting on Thursday 18th of January via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there... 

NHFT virtual book club meeting #30 - No Good Deed

After our visit to the Ashokan Reservoir, in upstate New York, with John Langan's delightfully scary The Fisherman, we are returning to more familiar territory for our 30th book club read, David Jackson's UK set thriller, One Good Deed.

Elliott has never thought of himself as a hero. Until one dark night he meets Rebecca, a scared and vulnerable young woman who needs his help. There's a man harassing her, following her; would he mind pretending to be her boyfriend, just while she walks home, to put him off?

And that is that - just a favour for a stranger - until there is a knock at Elliott's door. It's the man who was following Rebecca. He claims he's her ex-boyfriend, but it's clear that he's been stalking her. He's obsessed, dangerously so. He wants Rebecca, and he will do anything to have her.

When Elliott eventually tries to tell him the truth, the man doesn't believe him. The only way to save himself is to get Rebecca to explain. There's just one problem: Rebecca is nowhere to be found. And now it looks like one good deed will cost Elliott everything...

‘One Good Deed is an addictive, fast-paced and suspenseful thriller. If you like your thrillers action-packed and nail-bitingly tense and/or you love a cat-loving antihero to root for, One Good Deed should be at the top of your shopping list.’ Kelly Van Damme (Goodreads)

We'll be meeting on Thursday 14th of December via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there... 

NHFT virtual book club meeting #29 - The Fisherman

Following on from our visit to Japan and the world of the gig economy in Kikuko Tsumara's There's no such thing as an easy job, things are taking a darker turn in our creepy Halloween read (and Bram Stoker award winner), The Fisherman by John Langan.

In upstate New York, within the woods, Dutchman’s Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked and fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true.

When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other’s company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumours of the Creek and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss them. Soon, though, the men find themselves drawn into a tale as deep and old as the Reservoir.

It’s a tale of dark pacts, of long-buried secrets, and of a mysterious figure known as Der Fisher: the Fisherman. It will bring Abe and Dan face to face with all that they have lost, and with the price they must pay to regain it.

‘What starts as a slow, melancholy tale gains momentum and drops you headfirst into a churning nightmare from which you might escape, but you’ll never forget” - Richard Kadrey (author)

‘The Fisherman is a treasure, the kind of book you just want to snuggle up and shiver through. I can’t say enough good things about the confidence, the patience, the satisfying cumulative power of this book. It was a pleasure to read from the first page to the last’ - Victor LaValle (author)

We'll be meeting on Thursday 16th of November  via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there... 

NHFT virtual book club meeting #28 - There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job

Following on from our absinthe soaked visit to fog-shrouded San Francisco in Jonathan Moore's twisty psychological thriller, The Poison Artist, we are moving across the Pacific to Japan in the shape of award winning author Kikuko Tsumura's surreal comic novel, There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job.

A young woman walks into an employment agency and requests a job that has the following traits: it is close to her home, and it requires no reading, no writing – and ideally, very little thinking.

She is sent to a nondescript office building where she is tasked with watching the hidden-camera feed of an author suspected of storing contraband goods. But observing someone for hours on end can be so inconvenient and tiresome. How will she stay awake? When can she take delivery of her favourite brand of tea? And, perhaps more importantly – how did she find herself in this situation in the first place?

As she moves from job to job, writing bus adverts for shops that mysteriously disappear, and composing advice for rice cracker wrappers that generate thousands of devoted followers, it becomes increasingly apparent that she's not searching for the easiest job at all, but something altogether more meaningful...

"An irreverent but thoughtful voice, with light echoes of Haruki Murakami... the book is uncannily timely... a novel as smart as is quietly funny" - Financial Times

'Quietly hilarious and deeply attuned to the uncanny rhythms and deadpan absurdity of the daily grind' - Sharlene Teo

The next meeting will be Thursday the 5th of October at 7pm via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

Hope to see you there...

NHFT virtual book club meeting #27 - The Poison Artist

After our visit to revolutionary France with Madame Tussaud in Edward Carey's Little, we are moving to a contemporary, fog-shrouded San Francisco in the shape of Jonathan Moore's twisty psychological thriller, The Poison Artist.

Caleb Maddox is a toxicologist who just wants to drown his sorrows after an ugly breakup with his girlfriend

At a bar he meets the beautiful and bewitching Emmeline who has a taste for absinthe but then vanishes into the night.

He must find her.

As his search begins, Caleb becomes entangled in a serial-murder investigation. The police have been fishing men from the bay, and the post-mortems are inconclusive. One of the victims vanished from the bar the night Caleb met Emmeline. When questioned, Caleb can’t offer any information, nor does he tell them he’s been secretly helping the city’s medical examiner, an old friend, study the chemical evidence on the victims’ remains. 

The search for the killer soon entwines with Caleb’s hunt for Emmeline, and the closer he gets to each, the more dangerous his world becomes...

'An electrifying read... I haven't read anything so terrifying since Red Dragon.’ Stephen King

The next meeting will be Thursday the 24th of August at 7pm via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

The NHFT Virtual Book Club - the video!

We were really pleased to be asked to take part in the 2023 Northamptonshire Virtual Wellbeing Festival to talk about the virtual book club and our love of reading.

You can find more about all the books we have shared on our blog or watch the video on YouTube from the Wellbeing Festival.

Health Information Week - mental health and wellbeing

It is Health Information Week #HIW2023 and today is all about mental health and wellbeing, which ties in nicely with the Northamptonshire Virtual Wellbeing Festival which started on Monday.

Do you know how the library can support your mental health and wellbeing?

•  Leisure collection: find your summer reading here! A mix of fiction (including the virtual book club books) and non-fiction books supported by the Northamptonshire Health Charitable Fund.
  
  
• Your Health collection: includes how to reduce stress, menopause management and using nature for wellbeing.
  
  
• Lots of other books on topics such as managing stress, anxiety, overcoming depression, men’s  health, being happy and wellbeing (both clinical and non-clinical).
  
  
• Games: alternatively why not try a game in a team meeting for a fun and different way to learn? Try the Working stress game or the Teams that care game.

 Find all these on the library catalogue https://nhft.koha-ptfs.co.uk/

NHFT virtual book club meeting #26 - Little

After our visit to New Caledonia with Marge Benson and Enid Pretty in Miss Benson's Beetle, we are stepping further back in time to revolutionary France with Edward Carey's Little.

In 1761, a tiny, odd-looking girl named Marie Grosholtz is born in a village in Switzerland. After the death of her parents, she is apprenticed to an eccentric wax sculptor and whisked off to the seamy streets of Paris, where they meet a domineering widow and her quiet, pale son. Together, they convert an abandoned monkey house into an exhibition hall for wax heads, and the spectacle becomes a sensation. 

As word of her artistic talent spreads, Marie is called to Versailles, where she tutors a princess and saves Marie Antoinette in childbirth. But outside the palace walls, Paris is roiling: The revolutionary mob is demanding heads, and... at the wax museum, heads are what they do.

"this is a visceral, vivid and moving novel about finding and honouring one’s talent; about searching out where one belongs and who one loves, however strange and politically fraught the result might be." The Guardian

"Don’t miss this eccentric charmer! Little, by Edward Carey, narrated by Madame Tussaud of waxworks fame, [on] her strange life and times, including the almost fatal French Revolution, a prime season for heads." —Margaret Atwood

The next meeting will be Thursday the 20th of July at 7pm via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.

NHFT virtual book club meeting #25 - Miss Benson's Beetle

Following our trip round the globe with David Mitchell's extraordinary novel Ghostwritten, we are going back to 1950 with Rachel Joyce's award winning book, Miss Benson's Beetle.

It is 1950. In a devastating moment of clarity, Margery Benson abandons her dead-end job and advertises for an assistant to accompany her on an expedition. She is going to travel to the other side of the world to search for a beetle that may or may not exist.

Enid Pretty, in her unlikely pink travel suit, is not the companion Margery had in mind. And yet together they will be drawn into an adventure that will exceed every expectation. They will risk everything, break all the rules, and at the top of a red mountain, discover their best selves.

Find out more about the book in this handy video introduction from the author.

'A girl's own adventure...This is Rachel Joyce's best book yet ...Exciting, moving and full of unexpected turns.' The Times

'A joy of a novel' The Guardian

The next meeting will be Thursday the 8th of June at 7pm via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room. 

NHFT virtual book club meeting #24 - Ghostwritten

Following our rather tense (and sometimes painful) visit to Syria with former CIA analyst David McCloskey's spy thriller, Damascus Station, we are moving around the globe with David Mitchell's extraordinary debut novel, Ghostwritten.

“Are you what you believe yourself to be?”

Ghostwritten is a novel of nine interconnected stories, taking us to Tokyo, Hong Kong, China, Mongolia, St Petersburg, London, New York and Ireland.

It weaves together a host of characters including a doomsday cult member in Japan, a Mongolian gangster, a woman on a holy mountain who talks to a tree, and a late night New York DJ.

Winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for the best work of literature, the novel was described as "an astonishing debut" by the Independent and "a dazzling piece of work" by the Washington Post.

The next meeting will be Thursday the 4th of May at 7pm via MS Teams where we will be discussing the novel. You can find the link via the Events Calendar on the Staff Room.