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ARTS&LEISURE
July14
The Quarry
Iain Banks
Little, Brown | 326 pages
Told through the voice of an
autistic youth, Kit, this story centres
on his misanthropic and cancer-
ridden father, Guy, who gathers
together the friends of his youth
for one last time before he dies.
It was only when
The Quarry
was
being prepared for publication that
Banks himself discovered that he
was in the advanced stages of
gallbladder cancer: a most tragically ironic twist. In true Banks
style, authentic characters and a fast-paced plot make this
a real page-turner. This is Banks’ last novel, and he will be
deeply missed by his legions of fans.
Japan’s World
Heritage Sites
John Dougill
Tuttle | 189 pages
How wrong it is to
think of Japan in terms
of big, overcrowded
cities like Tokyo – as
wonderful as they are,
too. Muchmore of this
long, geographically
diverse collection of
islands is characterised by culturally distinctive villages,
rolling countryside, majestic mountains, wonderfully
unspoilt national parks and, of course, temples. And
shrines. Lots and lots of temples and shrines, each one
as fascinating as the next.
John Dougill is a professor at Kyoto’s Ryukoku
University, so it would have been a doddle for him to
research and photograph the 17 top cultural sites that
make the city of Kyoto just one of Japan’s 17 World
Heritage sites. (There seems to be something about
the number 17 here.)
After that, he set off on a four-month tour of Japan
to visit the other 16 sites – travelling the length of the
country from the sub-Arctic north of Hokkaido down
to sub-tropical Okinawa. This gorgeously illustrated
and hugely informative coffee-table book is the result.
Iconic Mount Fuji kicks off the list; next comes the
exquisite Itsukushima Shrine, on an island just off the
city of Hiroshima, whose apparently floating
torii
(Shinto
gate) evokes harmony with nature. Then follows the
Peace Memorial at Hiroshima, the only building to
survive the world’s first nuclear blast. Of the remaining
national treasures, my favourite is Yakushima Island, a
primeval forest with thousand-year-old cedar trees that
are photographed here to awesome perfection.
As for the author’s favourite, he was smitten by
the volcanic Ogasawara Islands, 1,000km south of
Tokyo and uninhabited until they were first settled by
Westerners and Pacific Islanders in the 1830s. They
were never attached to the mainland, and have been
called “a laboratory for evolution” by scientists who
study their distinctive flora and fauna.
If you’ve visited one or more of Japan’s heritage sites,
this lovely book will make you hanker to return. And if
you haven’t yet, it might just put this amazing country
right on top of your wish list.
Verne Maree
A Marker to Measure Drift
Aleksander Maksic
Random House | 240 pages
It’s difficult to review this book
without giving away too much
of its exquisitely crafted story.
In the aftermath of Charles
Taylor’s regime, we find a young
vagrant Liberian woman called
Jacqueline living in a cave on
the beach of an Aegean island.
The tale is an exploration of
memories, of hungers – both
physical and spiritual; and finally
of the human potential for healing.
As it reaches its terrible denouement, there is no way to avoid
being strongly shaken by the unspeakably dreadful event
that lies at the novel’s core.
HOLIDAY READS
Verne Maree
These two novels gripped me from start to finish
and continue to linger inmymind. Good candidates
for summer holiday reading, though their subject
matter is admittedly anything but light.
If you’re looking for a good
read this month, here are our
thoughts on a selection of
recent releases.
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