Paperbacks

A selection of the latest releases reviewed

Summertime

JM Coetzee

Vintage, £7.99

Only the great JM Coetzee would write an autobiography such as this; only the great Coetzee would continue his autobiography-as-fiction and this time with a book written in the form of a biography being researched about him after his death. This is the third instalment of a life so reserved, so repressed, so seething with polite rage and restrained despair that it could only be approached through a third-person voice, and here that voice is further distanced by the services of an earnest biographer complete with tape recorder. Coetzee is writing the story of a man who has lived his life in his head. It is wonderful stuff. But then Coetzee is wonderful: edgy, black, remorselessly human, witty and, often, outright funny. Intense and disarmingly honest, these fictionalised memoirs miss no opportunity to see the comedy lurking in the shadows ever ready to trip up the dour, awkward John Coetzee. Eileen Battersby

The Believers: How America Fell for Bernard Madoff’s $65 Billion Investment Scam

Adam LeBor

Phoenix, £8.99

A long list of people were deceived by the malevolence and mendacity of one of the highest-profile fraudsters in history. Adam LeBor details the limitlessness of Madoff's greed and the ruined lives that his ruthlessness left in its wake. As his Ponzi scheme took on a specious appearance of profitability, Madoff rose through the echelons of America's Jewish society with consummate ease, and he and his wife, Ruth, became fixtures in the prestigious country clubs of New York and Florida's Palm Beach. LeBor describes how the Securities and Exchange Commission's net slowly closed around Madoff, and uses evidence from legal proceedings against him to document the gradual rise and stunning fall of one of the financial crisis's most notorious villains. Hugh McDowell

Rebellions: Memoir, Memory and 1798

Tom Dunne

The Lilliput Press, €20

The historical integrity, or otherwise, of the Government-supported 1798 bicentenary commemoration is the focus of Tom Dunne's book, first published in 2004 and now reissued with an additional chapter containing his reflections on the book's reception. His charge is that, for political reasons, the commemoration suppressed the truth about sectarian atrocities perpetrated by the rebels in Co Wexford. Dunne explores 1798 and its commemoration by reference to his own Wexford family background, including the seven years he spent in the Christian Brothers. As outlined in his new chapter, his account of those years in the Christian Brothers led to a request to give evidence to the Ryan commission on industrial schools. He sees parallels between our failure to confront unsavoury facts about our past and our reluctance to face up to issues such as child abuse. His message is simple: "The truth will set you free." Felix M Larkin

Pompeii

Mary Beard

Profile Books, £9.99

Beard is fascinated with the stereotypes we have of the ancient world and here sets out to explode those surrounding one of its most famous sites. Pompeii's population was not destroyed in a single day; the vast majority had already fled, taking most of their goods with them. Repairs and restorations over the centuries further complicated matters by adding fresh layers over the Roman originals. Although "all sorts of puzzles remain" and what "the truth is we can only guess", Beard does not shrink from exploring what everyday life might have been like. Her vivid, vibrant picture conveys well its sights, sounds and smells – especially the latter, and none too pleasant, either. "Voyeurism, pathos and ghoulish prurience" contribute to the appeal of the casts that have been created from the human remains, but that is not the whole story. The impact comes from "the sense of immediate contact with the ancient world that they offer, the human narratives they allow us to reconstruct, as well as the choices, decisions and hopes of real people with whom we can empathise across the millennia". Brian Maye