D. Brin, Sundiver (1980)
J. Critchley, House of vanities (1990)
D. Mask, The Address Book (2020)
A. Oz, The Hill of evil counsel (1976)
S. Schama, The Story of the Jews 1000BC – 1492 (2013)
J. Strachey, Cheerful weather for the wedding (1932)
J. Strachey, Cheerful weather for the wedding (1932)
H.R. Trevor Roper, The invention of Scotland (2014)
I loved a lot of these: Critchley and Strachey were razor sharp and acutely observed; Schama's book episodic, but with many very good episodes; And I did like very much Trevor-Roper debunking of Scotland's traditions. Alexievich was something else. They gave her the Nobel for this, an exceptional collection of testimony from Soviet women who fought in the Second World War. I'm not sure they should have done. It's value doesn't lie in the writing - she does little of that - but in the arranging and allowing those voices to speak. The arranging does matter. Managing that mass of material and removing the author's voice is itself a major achievement. But the centre stage is held by the women themselves. It's a work of history of the highest level and a stunning piece of sustained editing and presentation to keep the momentum of them without it dissolving in a repetitious litany of largely depressing narratives. The subject matter is fascinating as well as horrific, and another corrective to the view we have of the War which remains stubbornly centred on Western Europe. It's always worse in Russia.
