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| Book reviews roundup: A Boy in Winter; A Bold and Dangerous Family; Al-Britannia | Book reviews roundup: A Boy in Winter; A Bold and Dangerous Family; Al-Britannia |
| (17 days later) | |
| Two lesser known aspects of the second world war were explored in fiction and non-fiction this month. Rachel Seiffert’s novel A Boy in Winter is “a deeply moving and ... morally complex fictionalisation of the mass extermination of the Jewish community in a Ukrainian town”, wrote Lesley McDowell in the Sunday Herald. “What Seiffert does so well is to make us care immediately and passionately about the fates of every individual … the consequences of her stark examination, in pared-back, precise prose, will stay with you for a very long time.” In the Literary Review, Suzi Feay praised her “restraint” and “artistic tact … Without overt moralising, Seiffert’s focus rests on the sane and the normal, the vaster numbers who allowed the unimaginable … Without wasting a word, Seiffert follows their journey with an implacable calm, although outrage lurks under the surface of every word.” The Sunday Times’s Nick Rennison also declared it “a fine novel that locates small, flickering lights of hope in an otherwise desolate landscape.” | Two lesser known aspects of the second world war were explored in fiction and non-fiction this month. Rachel Seiffert’s novel A Boy in Winter is “a deeply moving and ... morally complex fictionalisation of the mass extermination of the Jewish community in a Ukrainian town”, wrote Lesley McDowell in the Sunday Herald. “What Seiffert does so well is to make us care immediately and passionately about the fates of every individual … the consequences of her stark examination, in pared-back, precise prose, will stay with you for a very long time.” In the Literary Review, Suzi Feay praised her “restraint” and “artistic tact … Without overt moralising, Seiffert’s focus rests on the sane and the normal, the vaster numbers who allowed the unimaginable … Without wasting a word, Seiffert follows their journey with an implacable calm, although outrage lurks under the surface of every word.” The Sunday Times’s Nick Rennison also declared it “a fine novel that locates small, flickering lights of hope in an otherwise desolate landscape.” |
| Caroline Moorehead’s A Bold and Dangerous Family uses thousands of documents to piece together the lives of a family of Italian anti-fascists, the Rosellis. “Moorehead tells their tale well, but as an end to her trilogy [of books about wartime Resistance] it feels a bit of an anticlimax,” wrote Miranda Seymour in the Daily Telegraph. In the Times, Leanda de Lisle found that “the creepy description by the author of the naivety of the good and the seductive powers of the bad touches a nerve ... a haunting reminder of the fragility of liberty and the dangers of complaisance.” For the Financial Times’s Tony Barber, “Moorehead, a distinguished biographer and historian, tells the story ... with sensitivity, erudition and balance”. The Literary Review’s Jonathan Keates called it “a major contribution to the study of anti-fascism, further enriched by ... Moorehead’s vivid portrayal of interwar Italy and Europe”. | Caroline Moorehead’s A Bold and Dangerous Family uses thousands of documents to piece together the lives of a family of Italian anti-fascists, the Rosellis. “Moorehead tells their tale well, but as an end to her trilogy [of books about wartime Resistance] it feels a bit of an anticlimax,” wrote Miranda Seymour in the Daily Telegraph. In the Times, Leanda de Lisle found that “the creepy description by the author of the naivety of the good and the seductive powers of the bad touches a nerve ... a haunting reminder of the fragility of liberty and the dangers of complaisance.” For the Financial Times’s Tony Barber, “Moorehead, a distinguished biographer and historian, tells the story ... with sensitivity, erudition and balance”. The Literary Review’s Jonathan Keates called it “a major contribution to the study of anti-fascism, further enriched by ... Moorehead’s vivid portrayal of interwar Italy and Europe”. |
| James Fergusson’s Al-Britannia, My Country: A Journey Through Muslim Britain was, for some, a wasted journey. “A veteran of wars in Muslim nations and a journalist of many years’ experience outside his home country, Fergusson ... is scrupulous about acknowledging his own preconceptions [but] shies away from [asking] why even more idiotic young men, full of testosterone, don’t follow the call of jihad,” wrote Sam Kiley in the Evening Standard. “Alas, [Fergusson has] exchanged the notebook of the reporter for the megaphone of the advocate,” complained David Goodhart in the Sunday Times, who found some “redeeming reportage” but also a “catalogue of liberal cliches”. The Mail on Sunday’s headline accused Fergusson of “veiling the truth”, with its reviewer, Jenny McCartney, lamenting “the Muslims it leaves out ... he has written almost nothing about ‘the country’s half million-strong Shia community, or the small but influential Ahmadiyya’”. The Independent’s Yasmin Alibhai-Brown rates Fergusson as “a delicate, warm, lucid writer with true curiosity and humility … This book provides an alternative perspective during this period of grief and utter pessimism. For that I, a liberal Muslim, am grateful. Yet it also seems out of touch with the organised Islamicist underworld and the religious mafia … This is an absorbing book written by a good friend of Islam. I only wish he had been more of a critical friend.” | James Fergusson’s Al-Britannia, My Country: A Journey Through Muslim Britain was, for some, a wasted journey. “A veteran of wars in Muslim nations and a journalist of many years’ experience outside his home country, Fergusson ... is scrupulous about acknowledging his own preconceptions [but] shies away from [asking] why even more idiotic young men, full of testosterone, don’t follow the call of jihad,” wrote Sam Kiley in the Evening Standard. “Alas, [Fergusson has] exchanged the notebook of the reporter for the megaphone of the advocate,” complained David Goodhart in the Sunday Times, who found some “redeeming reportage” but also a “catalogue of liberal cliches”. The Mail on Sunday’s headline accused Fergusson of “veiling the truth”, with its reviewer, Jenny McCartney, lamenting “the Muslims it leaves out ... he has written almost nothing about ‘the country’s half million-strong Shia community, or the small but influential Ahmadiyya’”. The Independent’s Yasmin Alibhai-Brown rates Fergusson as “a delicate, warm, lucid writer with true curiosity and humility … This book provides an alternative perspective during this period of grief and utter pessimism. For that I, a liberal Muslim, am grateful. Yet it also seems out of touch with the organised Islamicist underworld and the religious mafia … This is an absorbing book written by a good friend of Islam. I only wish he had been more of a critical friend.” |