The Northmen's Fury by Philip Parker (Vintage, £9.99)
Parker argues against the myth of the Vikings as disparate irate groups bent on violence, and for strategic attacks made by a sophisticated people, who were slightly over-populated, as well as keen to increase their trading links. His book is impressively packed full of information, including fun stuff like the fact they didn't wear horned helmets.
Nest by Esther Ehrlich (Rock The Boat, £7.99)
Published by Oneworld's new children's imprint, San Francisco-based Ehrlich's touching story about a young girl, Chirp, whose mother is possibly dying and who finds some escape from her fear of losing her in a friendship with the ghostly Joey, complements her ability to bring the Cape Cod landscape alive for young readers.
Himmler's Cook by Franz-Olivier Giesbert (Atlantic, £12.99)
Giesbert's tale of 105-year-old Rose is about violence and love, against the backdrop of the 20th century's worst atrocities. His elderly heroine is no pushover; she has killed and is prepared to kill again. Often subject to sexual assault during her life, like being forced to attend to Himmler's needs, hers is a distanced, if blackly comedic, voice.
The Dedalus Book Of Slovak Literature, edited by Peter Karpinsky (Dedalus Books, £11.99)
Realism and naturalism dominate the complicated history of Slovak literature, and this collection of 20th-century stories by writers from the 1910s to the present, reflects that. But there are also questions about the novel or the story, a self-reflexiveness we recognise from the age of Modernism, and the themes of family and loss are universal.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article