Bookmark 02/2023

Rip-Roaring
Releases
Discover the best new reads
of the season.
Text by Christine Modafferi
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Also by the author
Toshikazu Kawaguchi
“Before the Coffee Gets Cold”
“Four short stories about people
visiting a cafe that allows them to
travel through time to meet loved
ones from the past or future –
very intriguing! This book is for
everyone who enjoys open endings
and cozy, bittersweet storytelling.”
Discover more on
bookcircle.ch
@STEPHIESHEENA
RECOMMENDS:
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Critically acclaimed White Teeth
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bestselling author Zadie Smith is
back with her very first historical fiction
novel. Get ready to be thrown into 1873
Victorian England, at a time when a
sensational trial regarding a man
performing identity fraud divided the
country: the Tichborne trial. Surrounding
this trial are our two main characters:
Andrew Bogle, an enslaved Jamaican man
brought to England to provide his
invaluable trial testimony, and 70-year-old
Mrs Eliza Touchet, a Scottish housekeeper
who has lived a privileged life with a
once-famous novelist for 30 years. While
Mrs Touchet believes in the power of
justice and abolitionism, Andrew Bogle
knows that to preserve his future, he will
have to tell the story his British
counterparts hope to hear having brought
him to England. In this ambitious historical
novel, the characters’ lives are intertwined
with major historical events, literary
figures and colonialism.
The Fraud
Zadie Smith, Hamish Hamilton, CHF 29.90
Three-time National Book Award
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finalist and New York Times
bestselling author Lauren Groff’s The
Vaster Wilds follows the breath-taking
survival story of Bess. Bess is a servant girl
living in 17th century Jamestown who
suddenly escapes her home in a colonial
settlement and the only family she’s ever
known. But the land beyond the settlement
is unexplored territory, and she will have to
overcome extreme weather, illness,
hallucinations, starvation and the dangers
of the wilderness, including bears and other
wild animals, to survive. As Bess endures
her journey through the physical world,
she also is on a spiritual journey and will
have to come to the realisation that her own
religion has been used as a weapon against
her since she was a little girl and has
removed her from any form of communion
with nature. This incredibly paced “if I stop
I die” survival story is one that you will
keep thinking about after you’ve finished it,
as Groff describes loneliness in its most raw
and brutal state.
The Vaster Wilds
Lauren Groff, Hutchinson Heinemann, CHF 29.90
This beautiful yet short collection
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crafts eight micro-biographies of
eight Korean women of all ages up to 80.
Through these individual biographies,
bestselling author of Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
Cho Nam-joo explores the female
experience in Korea, which unsurprisingly
doesn’t differ much to that of Western
women. From childbirth and caregiving to
growing old, to being hated, loved and
hated again, to being sexually harassed and
discriminated at work, this author
scrutinised the collective experience of
existing in the world as a woman. Her voice
is raw yet funny, succinct yet so thoroughly
descriptive and attentive to detail. And
speaking of detail, we love that each story
features a different version of “Miss Kim”,
which is the Korean equivalent of a Jane
Doe, hence the title Miss Kim Knows,
suggesting any woman can relate to these
stories. A brilliant and unphased take on
womanhood.
Miss Kim Knows and Other Stories
Cho Nam-Joo, Scribner UK, CHF 24.90
Award-winning comedian, writer
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and actor Sara Pascoe has written an
over-the-top tragicomic novel about an
Essex-bound young contemporary woman
elbowing her way through life, and it is
funny. Sophie’s life is far from perfect:
drowning in debt, coming to terms with the
fact that her sister is engaged to her ex, a
boyfriend who barely wants to be with her,
and to top it all off, Chris, the man she
secretly followed to Australia in the hope to
stage a meet-cute, is ordering two gin and
tonics at the very pub she’s working at.
Sophie takes this as her sign to get her life
together, bin her sexless relationship and
start living the life she believes she’s made
for. If you're on the hunt for a unique read,
welcome to Sophie's incredibly messy life.
Weirdo
Sara Pascoe, Faber & Faber, CHF 26.90
It’s not every day that authors get the
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chance to revisit characters from
books they’ve already published and whose
stories have seemingly ended, so the return
of Freddie Montgomery from The Book of
Evidence feels extra special. The
Singularities begins with Freddie’s release
from prison and his return to the estate he
grew up in. But during his time away from
home things have changed. A new family
lives on the estate, his housekeeper has
become his landlady, and a rich woman
from what feels like a faraway life has come
out of the woodworks. It’s all very
unsettling, but that’s not all: a new
scientific theory has thrown the universe
into chaos, and the strange family living in
his home are descendants of its theorist. If
you love unlikeable characters and relish in
the beauty of prose, this book by critically
acclaimed Booker Prize winner John
Banville will not disappoint.
The Singularities
John Banville, Swift, CHF 19.90
Greek mythology lovers and fans of
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Madeline Miller and Joanne M.
Harris’ writing will fall head over heels for
this queer, funny and feminist retelling of
the myth we’ve always only seen one side
of. You may be familiar with the story of
Hercules and his twelve labours, but this
book is about the struggles and lives of
those who surrounded him, suffered the
consequences of his actions and so often
saw him less as a hero and more as a villain.
Told in an absolutely hilarious way (most of
the time), we’re served multiple brutally
honest point of views from his mother and
sister to his lovers and wife. This book is
such a hilarious take on the chaotic, messy
and adventurous half mortal, half god hero
that was both loved and loathed.
Herc
Phoenicia Rogerson, HarperCollins Publishers UK,
CHF 26.90
The third book in Kate Mosse’s New
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York Times bestselling Burning
Chambers series is another brilliantly
crafted historical novel set on the Barbary
Coast in 1621. All main character Louise
wants is to become a captain and have a ship
of her own. And while this is unthinkable
for a woman of her time, her wish is
granted thanks to a hefty inheritance. As
she prepares to sail off, she meets Gilles, an
apprentice in need of a safe space, and
decides to help him. Together, they set sail,
and soon fall in love, but during their
journey they must dodge pirates, slavers
and men representing the Inquisition. This
novel has high stakes, crime, revenge,
secrets and a refreshing love story.
The Ghost Ship
Kate Mosse, Macmillan, CHF 29.90
Who would you want to meet if you
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could travel back in time? This fourth
book in the million-copy bestselling series
by Toshikazu Kawaguchi explores just this
very question, drawing on the same format
of Before the Coffee Gets Cold. Enter
Funiculi Funicula, a café hidden in Tokyo’s
back alleys where customers get to travel
back in time for just an hour but can’t
change history. In this book, a husband has
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