Having been ill for a number of weeks - the dreaded flu, bad cough, aching bones - I have read little, written less and slept more than ever. I did read a wonderful novel, though: David Vann's Legend of a Suicide. I have little I want to say about it now: and I have reviewed it on my other blog: but wanted to say it's a novel that has gotten me thinking. If you love good fiction, then please do read this wonderfully moving piece. I'll stop by when I've processed my thoughts.
Five Star Billionaire by Tash Aw
Tash Aw’s first novel, The Harmony Silk Factory, was longlisted for the 2005 Man Booker Prize and won the 2005 Whitbread Book Awards First Novel Award as well as the 2005 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Novel (Asia Pacific region). It also made it to the long-list of the 2007 International Impac Dublin Award and the Guardian First Book Prize. His second novel, Map of the Invisible World, was more divisive, with some critics stating that, while it showed promise, it was not a patch on his debut. But then, second novels are notoriously tricky. Aw seems to have gone away and thought long and hard about the trajectory of his career, and the result is this, his third novel: Five Star Billionaire. Five Star Billionaire is an ambitious novel. Set in the bustling streets of Shanghai, we meet a disparate set of characters: Phoebe, without a job but armed with self-help books and determined to catch herself a rich man. Justin, from a rich fa...
synchronicity... 'stumbled' here from Nathan Bransford's blog, and what book did I start reading a couple of hours ago? Legend of a Suicide.
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