A State of Siege
By Janet Frame
Fitzcarraldo Editions, £19.95
This begins where most novels fear to tread: in middle age. Malfred Signal is a retired art teacher who has spent the best part of her adult life caring for her invalid mother and who would now like to have her “view” of the world. Alone, she moves to a little house on an island. She recites the names of colours; they excite her; she is inspired; she wants to paint. But there is “an element” on the island. A storm descends, and soon Malfred is terrorised by someone knocking ceaselessly on her door, leading her to search her past and ask the ultimate question of our age: what good is a room of one’s own if it’s in hell? John Vaughan
Before the Leaves Fall
By Clare O’Dea
Fairlight Books, £9.99
As the title suggests, this is a story in which death looms heavy. Ruedi, a Swiss widower in his 70s, begins a role as a facilitator for Depart, an assisted-dying organisation. Through this position, mild-mannered Ruedi meets Margrit, a crotchety widow, a decade his senior, who wishes to uphold in death the autonomy her life lacked. The tone of O’Dea’s sophomore novel is melancholic, wintry. Ruedi and Margrit reflect on lives past. Regrets are shared, soothed less by redemption than acceptance. The prose is understated and elegant; “The hydrangea between the apartment blocks was in bloom and its blowsy blue flowers curtsied in the breeze”. The novel’s ending is suitably quiet. A reflection of the banality and beauty of death, of life. Brigid O’Dea
Far Above the World: The Time and Space of David Bowie
By Paul Morley
Headline, £25
UK pop culture theorist Paul Morley adds to his reputation as perhaps the least concise of authors with his latest book, which is published to tie in with the 10th anniversary of David Bowie’s death next January. Far Above the World ... is pitched as ‘a landmark exploration of David Bowie as an everlasting cultural force and changemaker’, but what we get instead is a multitude of lists and, with a thesaurus by his keyboard, profusely different ways of describing the same thing. As is always the case with Morley, a good book takes refuge amid a confetti shower of egoistic waffle and scattershot, episodic chapters, but whether you have the patience to find it is another matter altogether. Tony Clayton-Lea
