Book Choice - January 2017

"This finest hour: Andrew Marjoribanks, Wordsworth Books, brings us his usual inspiring collection of the best of the new books, and you’ll listen with amazement and amusement to Jonathan Shapiro aka Zapiro chatting to Philip Todres. Terribly there were the fires, perhaps be reassured by Myrna Robins leafing through "FIRE TO FLOWER: A Chronology after a Wildfire in Fynbos", by Ruth Garland and Greg Nicolson. Cindy Moritz was delighted with "Here I am", Jonathan Saffran Foer’s first novel in 11 years, tough subject, terrific read. We chat to Michael du Preez about his alluring and enriching biography written with Jeremy Dronfield - "Dr James Barry – A Woman Ahead of her Time", the triumphs and tragedies of James Barry’s life in the early 1800s, much of it in Cape Town. Mike Fitzjames sets out to jangle our festively fragile nerves with three chilling thrillers by Tony Park, Lee Child and James Patterson, while Beverley Roos Muller ups the ante with Shari Lapena’s debut novel, "The Couple Next Door" - an unexpectedly successful thriller. Melvyn Minnaar delights in Tim Peake’s wonderful "Hello is This Planet Earth", and finally Vanessa Levenstein is beguiled by Bernard Schlink’s "The Woman on the Stairs".