LATE CITY
Robert Olen Butler
No Exit, £9.99
As the results of the 2016 US election trickle in, 115-year-old newspaperman Sam Cunningham lies on his deathbed, where he is visited by God, and the two go back together to review his life. The son of an abusive Louisiana banker, Sam fought under-age in France in the First World War before entering the newspaper business in 1920s Chicago, a job which allows his story to intersect with major historical events. Outside of work, he knows he was emotionally distanced and neglected his wife and son. The influence that the toxic masculinity of his harsh father and the macho newsroom have had on Sam’s personality is clear, but Butler has also subtly laced Sam’s end-of-life retrospective with a critique of the American Century and the small steps that eventually made Trump’s election inevitable. Late City can be slow and uneven, but an opportunity for redemption towards the end makes up for the frustration.
THE VILLAGE
Caroline Mitchell
Thomas & Mercer, £8.99
Ten years ago, Martin and Susan Harper and their disabled daughter Grace vanished into thin air. London-based journalist Naomi Ward is so determined to find out what happened to them that, when their cottage comes on the market, she persuades her rich husband Ed to buy it without telling him why. Ed’s daughter, Morgan, is to join them, which is awkward because her stepmother is not one of Morgan’s favourite people. Naomi starts to make enquiries about the Harpers around the village of Nighbrook, but the locals don’t take kindly to her questions, and when Naomi pushes harder the atmosphere turns menacing and danger starts to close in. A former police detective, Mitchell turns in a murky psychological thriller that seems to be moving along a predictable path before pulling the rug repeatedly from under its readers’ feet. The Village has its shaky aspects, but on the whole she pulls it off.
THE END OF INNOCENCE
Simon Garfield
Faber, £10.99
The success of Russell T Davies’s It’s a Sin prompted the reissue of this 1994 book, journalist Garfield’s account of the Aids crisis in Britain. Now featuring a foreword by Davies and an afterword bringing us up to date, it’s a classic of its kind, the recipient of the Somerset Maugham Prize upon its original publication. Clear and accessible, The End of Innocence is partly a thoroughly researched overview of how the government, press and medical establishment responded to the arrival of the new virus, partly an oral history of a dark era which chronicles how activists, campaigners and personal testimonies helped change opinion and begin the long, slow process of de-stigmatising people with HIV. Garfield has the facts and figures at his fingertips, but the book’s great strength is its insistence on putting a human face on the crisis, counting the personal cost of the virus and the intolerance that accompanied it.
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 here