"House of meetings" by Martin Amis (Vintage, 2007)

Venus (in the West, black?) is given a copy of her father's memoirs, which are addressed to her. This book is the memoir.

2004. The narrator was born in 1919 in Russia. Thanks to a patent he was rich. He'd been "a tolerably big cheese in Russia" by the time he defected in 1983. Now he's on a cruise back towards Moscow - nicknamed "The Gulag Tour".

After WW2 he raped many woman on his way home, where Zoya lived. She's beautiful, Jewish, outspoken, with several boyfriends. His younger brother Lev, a stutterer, succeeded with her by being her friend first. They "married". The narrator was put into in Norlag, an Arctic labour camp. Lev arrived in 1948 - they were political prisoners. The camp has a social structure. Maybe 1 in 10 of the inmates are informers. The narrator kills a few. Lev struggles, thinking of escaping or becoming an informer so he might be pardoned. There's a revolution in the camp. In 1953 Lev's twin brother is killed in East Berlin while suppressing riots. In 1956 his brother and "wife" Zoya were allowed a night together at a hut - the "House of meetings". Lev wasn't confident before and was depressed after - Zoya wanted to marry him properly.

The narrator's cruise continues - "I am the oldest man in Predposylov by a margin of thirty-five years." He visits the Social History Museum. "the port where I'm heading already shows its outlines through the mist. What I'm doing now, is dead reckoning. I am making a reckoning with the dead." He's carrying an unread letter.

After they're released in 1956, Lev returns to Zoya, and the narrator spends time with his sister Kitty. He becomes a TV repairman, then gets into Robotics. Zoya leaves Lev in 1962. Lev goes to work in a mine, meets 23 year-old Lidiya who he marries and has a child with. The narrator meets Jocelyn (English, with 5 grown daughters) in 1969. He reads English poetry. Lev's lost interest though at 15 his son Artem avidly reads poetry. In 1982 Artem dies on duty. Lev dies on the day Lenin dies. The narrator and Jocelyn split. She returns to England. He goes to Moscow to see Zoya, telling her about Lev's death. She, 53, plans to marry an 81 year-old ex-dramatist. He asks her to come with her to the States. She declines. But later she turns up at his hotel room. He has sex with her against her will. She killed herself when 66.

Lev's effects reach the narrator in 1983 in Chicago. 21 years later he opens them. Poems and a letter. He visits the site of the House of meetings and reads the letter. It says that Lev had a good time in the House but left with a sense of inferiority. He loved only Zoya and his son. He thinks that the narrator will try (and fail) to win over Zoya.

The story jumps around in time. Though events are usually time-stamped, it's a little confusing, and I don't see why the memoirs would have been written like that. There are some noteworthy phrases - e.g. "When a man conclusively exalts one woman, and one woman only, 'above all others', you can be pretty sure you are dealing with a misogynist. It frees him up for thinking the rest are shit" (p.26)

Other reviews

• M. John Harrison (He will go the long way round to avoid a cliché, sometimes he will coagulate from trying too hard and sometimes he will be a pedant - all this is to be expected. But the result is often a prose packed, dense, full of felicities. ... It is a book about ageing, rusting, rotting away. What seemed to be a novel about the decline of Russia is seen to be a novel about decline.)
• Sam Leith (This novella is the best thing Martin Amis has done in fiction for years ... House of Meetings succeeds – triumphantly so – as a literary performance. The problem is that it wants to do more. ... : it wants to tell us something important about the world. Here, it is less successful. ... His Dickensian comic mode is his strongest suit – gravitas or moral clairvoyancy his shortest. But Amis still fails more interestingly than most of his peers succeed.)
• Magdalena Ball (Martin Amis’ prose is a distinctive combination of droll black humour mingled with near purple theatrics.)
• V.N. Alexander (When I read the “revelation” of the letter at the end of the novel I was disappointed—or thought I had just missed something—because it didn’t seem to be much of a revelation. It told me nothing new. On reflection, however, I can appreciate it as yet another restatement of the theme that develops throughout the texture of the narrative itself. Every line and word of this impressive novel reflects the image of the “Russian cross.” While this may not do much for the dramatic force of the novel, it is an absolutely beautiful, musical way to for Amis to resolve, with a satisfying final chord, the variations on his theme.)

"They say a girl died here" by Sarah Pinborough

An audio book

Anna (22), with her sister Caroline (12), mother Clare and demented grandma Evelyn (whose symptoms are very variable) live in the American countryside. She grew up in Boston. Her dad left when Caroline was born. She works in the local Diner. 6 years ago, Lyla was murdered. 3 years ago Bonny was murdered. Another murder is due. The murderer was supposedly killed while burgling. But maybe the killer's still on the loose and is about to strike again.

The farmers are poor - there's a drought. Paster Keene is sexy. Todd is a young policeman. Sheriff Adams was the main policeman at the time of the murders. She meets Melissa, who could become a friend. She'd found Bonny's body. Her dad's a drunk farmer.

Anna repeatedly alludes to a past incident - "The Thing" - dropping clues. One night involving drugged drinks? A gang of men? Clare seems to flirt with the handyman. The old local doctor, never married, was once Evelyn's boyfriend and starts helping with Evelyn. Clare gives him a key to the house. Before they'd moved into the house it was empty and used for parties by youths, including Lila. Anna had been doing a journalism degree and starts to research for a competition entry about the murders. She talks to Jamie, Lila's boyfriend and once a suspect. She visits Bonny's parents. She'd been moody when she died - why? Returning to Jamie's room he finds him dead - an overdose? Murder?

She wonders whether her grandma (who thinks "a girl died here") is in touch with spirits. She angrily accuses her mother of being desperate for sex (she brings home the handyman for the night on their first date). She's suspicious of all men. She interviews Victoria, a dental clinic colleague of Bonnie - did Bonnie have a secret lover? Caroline will be going to a party. Anna's nervous about it - the police and the doctor know about "The Thing", and maybe there's a video online of it. Will others find out? Will Caroline be thought a slut because her sister is?

Evelyn thinks she's seen Anna die more than once - a premonition? Is she confusing Anna with the dead girls? Anna thinks she's going to be killed on the anniversary of the murders in a day's time unless she solves the case. She works things out. Returning home she finds Caroline unconscious with the doctor. He has a gun. Melissa and the sheriff arrive. They were all involved with the murders or cover-up. Melissa wants to ritually kill Caroline to end the drought. Anna offers to take her place. Then Todd and back-up arrive. Afterwards, Anna recalls more about "The Thing" so that inquiries re-open. Todd and Anna go out together. Anna starts a local paper.

Both Anna and her grandma have memory issues. For me, detail about The Thing is leaked too slowly. Anna's trying to start a new life in a small town. Small, isolated towns can represent society as a whole. She wants eventually to re-integrate, and this case helps her do so. Her suspicion of all men encourages the reader to build a long list of murder suspects. Initially fearing communication/disclosure, she ends up starting a newspaper.

Other reviews

• Langan (As the narrative unfolds, Anna and Evelyn begin to build a new relationship with each other, one based in their mutual amnesias. Pinborough deftly portrays their attempts at communication, shot through with anxiety and resentment over their current conditions and past injuries to one another. ... The novel’s climax surprises in a number of ways, casting everything that has come before in a new light, and causing the narrative to expand in unanticipated ways. It’s a fine conclusion to this fine narrative, one whose blend of the familial and the strange recalls the best work of Graham Joyce)
• megsbookrack (There are some great aspects to this book. I enjoyed the overriding mystery and the small town setting quite a bit. Sadly, there were also things I didn’t like as much however, including Anna’s attitude. I did think she showed growth over the course of the story, but the 1st-half with her was pretty brutal. I don’t need to like characters, but I just found her personality so grating. It was almost unpleasant. She was super negative and bit disrespectful to everyone around her, including her family, which tends to rub me the wrong way.)
• bibliosanctum (a story that reads like a big commercial thriller, complete with all the familiar clichés and twists you’d expect. Honestly, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though eventually, it did make the plot a little too predictable. Towards the end, I had the urge to yell at Anna, How on earth are you not seeing any of this!? and wondering how a protagonist could be so blindsided by something that seemed so glaringly obvious. Some of the plot developments also felt very much like checking items off a list ... Anna herself was a bit frustrating, and not just because she’s clueless. We’re reminded frequently that something terrible happened to her back when she was in the city, and it’s clearly a huge part of why she behaves the way she does, but the details are kept so tightly hidden for so long that I had trouble connecting with her emotionally.)

"Hero" by Susan Hill

An audio book - a short story.

Policeman Simon Serrailler, receiving an honour at Buckingham Palace, lacking a hand, recalls the start of his career when, off duty, he chased a suspect who fell and died. He'd thought he'd be disciplined (he wasn't sure he'd been following the right person) but he'd been praised for getting rid of a bad person.

No

"One moment" by Becky Hunter

An audio book.

Evie (29) and Scarlett (fashion designer) live together. Scarlett dies in an accident because she went in the road to help Nate, who went through a red light on his bicycle. We get Evie's PoV and Scarlett's afterlife PoV. Evie has M.S. Will (Evie's ex, who dumped her) turns up to see if she needs company. They have sex and he leaves. Astrid (13) and her mother move into the flat opposite Evie's. Astrid's learning the violin. Evie had wanted to be a violinist until her diagnosis. She helps Astrid. Nate, a journalist, invites Evie out on some of his jobs. He's found out who was driving the car that killed Scarlett - Tessa. When he was 15 his older brother killed himself. He invites her to a family meal. She gets some tips on bereavement. Scarlett can go back in time (or recall very well). She recalls her affair with her cute boss Jason. She knew he was married. He confessed his love. She'd asked him to choose.

Evie's never met her father. Scarlett and Evie had met at A&E while they were at different junior schools. They'd been friends ever since. Evie finds a letter to Scarlett which makes her think Scarlett was planning to move out, but Scarlett was hoping that they'd both move out. Scarlett realises that if she hadn't died, Evie would never have met Nate. Because of Nate, Evie feels she's not broken after all. Jason had made a dress for Evie from designs left by Scarlett. He wants to start a posthumous designer label.

Nate asks Scarlett if he should leave for Australia. She doesn't answer. On the day of the flight he asks her to come with her. She does. At the end Scarlett hints that there may have been a hint of suicide.

Having a ghost instead of an omniscient narrator solves some problems. I believed in Evie's MS more than her sadness about Scarlett

Other reviews

• fivesentence (The premise of this story is compelling, but I found myself frustrated as (especially during Scarlett’s narration) the message was spelled out repeatedly for me rather than trusting me to figure it out for myself. The dual perspective, although valuable for showing the backstory and full picture, also gave away so much that I never really got to feel surprised; the events played out just as I expected they would. ... This is a sweet story exploring how sadness and happiness can be intertwined, and if you’re looking for a straightforward celebration of friendship and love, this might be the right book for you.)

"A complete success" by Colette Paul (Batis Books, 2026)

Stories all set in Glasgow written over 20 years from Litro, Edinburgh Review, Manchester Review, etc.

• Rats - A couple has moved because of his job. She's unemployed with a philosophy degree. They have rats in the garden because the old widow next door scatters food for birds. She reads about socialising in new places. She realises she's "stuck with a grumpy know-it-all who is obsessed with his bike, who can't keep still for a moment, who has never had a mixed feeling". They don't want to force the widow to stop feeding the birds because it's how she's coping with grief. He tries to shoot the rats with a BB gun. They wonder whether they'll be ok. She thinks they will.
• Diddled - She passes her driving test on the 12th attempt. Her boyfriend (23) "had opinions about everything". He advises her to put a lower offer on a car advertised on Gumtree. They go to a party of his colleague - a baby and child are there. She knows nobody. He's struggling too. They leave early. She impulsively buys a car from a colleague's brother. It's rusty and dented. She feels she's been diddled. She discovers she's pregnant, though she's on the pill. Her boyfriend's unhappy. She goes for a drive (because that's what happens in films) and hits a car while trying to do a 3-point turn. She gives money to the car-owner. The story ends with "For months afterwards, as I got bigger and bigger, I saw Hakim driving around, the children lined up in the back seat, his wife in front. There was still the big dent in the passenger door. We waved at each other, until the traffic moved us away in different directions."
• Mine - The midwife visits her at home for the first time. She mentally frail. The baby's underweight. Colleagues visit, then her mother-in-law. The baby keeps crying. They stop following rules about intervals between feeds. The baby settles down.
• A complete success - Callum has dashed from LA to Glasgow because his 80 year-old mum is in ICU. They've barely talked for years because he's gay. He lives with Simon - they have a pool and a Porsche. He visits his old friend Gerry in his little room. Gerry, a confirmed bachelor, was top of the class and got nowhere. His mother was always welcoming to Callum. After beer and pizza, Callum returns to his hotel, wondering whether the point of his visit - to Gerry - had been to forgive or be forgiven.
• Days - Louise argues with her neighbour Michelle about her noisy dog. Louise's son Tom leaves for a holiday with his father and Louise's ex-friend Gwen. Louise goes for a drink with a colleague and (without knowing why) holds his hand. He, divorced, is shocked by her inappropriate behaviour. When she gets to her block she realises she's left her bag on the bus. Despair overcomes her. Michelle, divorced, lets her in. She gets through the night.
• Marrakesh - Hannah, Rosemary's student daughter, died crossing a road without looking. Rosemary's husband doesn't want to dwell on the past. She does. When she finds out that Hannah had a boyfriend, she arranges a meeting. He tells her that they'd only been going out for a few weeks. Now he was going with friends to Marrakesh to get over it. Rosemary likes him, thinks of giving him holiday money. Later, she sees him holding hands with a girl. [The twist was predictable. I liked the story though - the mother's attempt to recreate the last weeks of her daughter's life]
• Mother and son - Philip, 48, suddenly moved away to Aberdeen, leaving his mother Maureen, a young 78, alone. He quickly met Diane and lives with her. Maureen finds her bossy ("full of opinions about everything") and prematurely aged. When Maureen falls, she recovers at Philip's house. After 3 weeks there, she doesn't want to return home. She overhears Diane tell Philip to get rid of Maureen. Maureen hopes that Philip will fight back. He doesn't, so she lies to him that she has cancer.
• Ancient History - Natalie (soon to start Uni) meets Sharon while doing a summer job at Asda. Sharon gets sacked for stealing. They meet weekly to go clubbing. Nobody picks them up. Sharon plans for them to have a break in Blackpool. They save up (Natalie reluctantly). Then one week 2 older man chat them up at the club. Outside, one of them is rough with Sharon. Natalie decides not to see Sharon again. 30 years later, Natalie sees Sharon at a bus stop talking to a boy who could be her son or grandson. Their eyes meet. Had Sharon's face "registered pure aversion" or hadn't she recognised Natalie?
• Jeffrey - Elaine (62, childless) has been left by Duncan. She's kept Jeffrey, their 13 year old dog. She had got on well with her mother-in-law, who'd told her that Duncan was living with a mother of teenage kids. She's been seeing old friend Craig and is shy about the thought of sex with him. Jeffrey collapses while Elaine's walking him. He dies on her bed. Should she phone Duncan? The ending is "She lay in the darkness in that half-dreaming state where all the people who crowd your thoughts are both familiar and strange and you cannot tell where you start or they end. The moon shone quietly through the trees, giving nothing away"
• Chance - Anna's called by her son Danny to say he hit someone in self-defense who's now in a coma. Anna says that the sister of Brian, her partner, might be able to help. Danny has just returned to Tiffany (19) with whom he has a child. Anna's never met Tiffany. Anna thinks that Tiffany's tricked Danny into a relationship. Danny's father Dom (now 66) had an affair when Danny was months old, then some others, finally leaving when Danny was 9. Danny cried easily at school and lashed out. Anna hasn't contacted Dom for years. She does now, telling him to contact Danny. He has a new baby. When Danny phones Anna later he says that Dom's friends will help. He's not complimentary about Anna or old Brian. At the end she's phoned in the night "For a moment she is unable to face whatever has happened. She grips the bed, to push herself up or hold herself down, she can't tell."
• Best Friends - On her first day at uni, Iris meets Josh (a retaker) at a philosophy course. He had mental problems the year before. His parents are capitalists who wanted him to study engineering or medicine. She often sees him in his shared house. Her friends and someone from his house tell her to avoid him, but she persists. When they cuddle on his bed he avoids sex and says he has a sort-of girlfriend. They don't see each other for months. When they finally meet again he says he's off to Germany. She goes to his room and tries to have sex with him. She spends the night there without sex, clothed. [Lots of student/shared-house detail]
• The tutor - Her mum encourages her to attend creative writing classes at the local library. She's 16. She's working over summer in a cafe with 40 year-old, thrice divorced Caroline, who's looking for a man. At the classes he's hoping to meet a young poet. They're all pensioners. The tutor (his books are out of print) isn't too complementary about the contributions. She reads out a story about a boy visited his dying dad in hospital. He quizzes her on the details (she visits her grandpa in hospital). He asks her to babysit on Fridays. He doesn't pay her. His wife thinks there's something going on - though he's "sweaty, pie-faced", he's been married at least twice before. The girl says she's not going to babysit anymore. The wife accuses her of stealing a gold watch. The girl's mother suggests that the wife is punishing her because she can't punish her husband, and suggests she should write a story about it. She doesn't. Years later the girl sees a story by the tutor in an anthology, with the hospital details she's researched for him.
• Robert Wilson's last weekend - Robert, 81, has terminal cancer. He and his wife Sheila are in A&E. They married in middle age. He proposed before they'd kissed. Their son Christopher, now in Australia, had more dramatic marriages. Robert recalls significant moments in Christopher's life, then his father's death. Sheila phones Christopher, who decides to get a flight back. This worries Robert, who says "We've had a good life haven't we?" He recalls waiting at a station for her long ago. [Needs more.]
• Condition - Her neighbour Sheila was a catholic for over 30 years before becoming a Jehovah's Witness. Her other neighbour Irene has a bedbound husband and twins the narrator's age. The narrator dreams about her dead mother doing ordinary things. She's pregnant - a one-night-stand after a colleague's leaving party. Princess Diana dies. The narrator goes to the ante-natal clinic - a waiting room of pregnant women. She has an ultrasound scan.

Repeated themes include - getting in contact with friends/relatives after a gap of months/years; separated mothers who want their grown kids to be happy; best friends; short women; pregnancy. At the launch the author said she wasn't too convinced by jump-in-time endings. In general the situations and key moments are too commonplace - "Robert Wilson's last weekend" a case in point. "Favourites are "Marrakesh", "The tutor"

"The housekeeper" by Rose Tremain

An audio book.

Danni, Polish, has a little shop in Truro called "Dani's Invisible Mending". She likes measuring the women. She recalls when she was housekeeper of Manderville Hall, showing Daphne du Maurier about the house in 1936. They liked each other straight away, and nearly got caught having sex in the boat house. Her mistress Edwina had died. Her master (who Danni had serious chats with, talking about grief) wanted to hand the house over to Miss Adelade, his unladylike neice. The staff didn't like her. Danni recalls her Jewish childhood, her mother dying. "Learn from them," her father had said to her, seeing patient mules awaiting to be loaded up.

Daphne said "the drought has ended. And now the river flows." She neglected her 2 daughters. She said "I had drowned in the ocean, and the ocean was you." They spent a weekend in Hampstead, London, Danni pretending to be a poet published in Poland. Back at Manderville, they opened a room that had been closed since Edwina's death. Miss Adelade wanted to hold a masquerade for her London friends. When it was held, Miss Adelade saw Daphne and Danni together, blaming Danni for Edwina's death, and insisting on Danni's resignation. Daphne recommits herself to her marriage. War is in the offing. Nothing will be the same again.

Danni, now in her shop, imagines Daphne writing Rebecca based on the manderville characters. She finishes the book and cuts it into pieces, feeling betrayed. She decides that Daphne saved herself by making Mrs Danvers (based on her) into a monster. She tells Emerald, a well-off customer about to marry, to run off with her artist female friend and start a new life. Rolly and Florence, other ex-staff, have started a sweet shop. Rolly's seen Danni and Daphne in the boathouse and demands that Danni gets money from Daphne. Later, Florence apologises. She tells Danni that all the servants knew. Danni's touched they they were so nice to her anyway. She moves her sewing machine into the shop's front window. Poland's invaded, Rolly apologises. Danni hires a fisherman to take her to Manderville cove. Soldiers are putting barbed wire there. She has to turn back.

Reviews I read after said it was an expansion of a story she'd written. That's the feeling I often had - sometimes the rendering of an episode added little to what a summary could have said. There's quite a lot about class - the constraints, but also the freedom afforded by being in a different class to someone else.

Other reviews

• Clare Clark (the story has fattened, its devastating reserve giving way to something softer and less substantial. Peripheral characters, evoked with discomfiting economy in Tremain’s original story, swell into caricature)
• shereadsnovels (I felt that Danni and Daphne’s relationship began very suddenly with no real build and I just didn’t feel very convinced by it. I know quite a lot about Daphne du Maurier’s history and background, ... and the impression I got from those books is that she was a complex person – shy, private and reclusive, which could make her come across as distant or aloof, but also loyal and affectionate towards her close friends. There’s not much of that complexity in Tremain’s novel; her Daphne is cold, manipulative and selfish, caring more about her reputation than Danni’s feelings.)
• whatcathyreadnext

"The wax child" by Olga Ravn (Viking, 2025)

170 pages (many not full). The notes (2 pages) say that it's based on Nordic folklore and historal sources, mostly from around 1600.

Initially, the "I" is a wax effigy owned by Christenze. In the 1600s, Anne has lost 15 infants. Christenze, a noble, is blamed. She runs away to Aalborg where she becomes close to some women who are distrusted. Christenze is arrested. The doll's looked after by Karen, Maren's youngest daughter, 9. Christenze, Maren, Dorte and Apelone are all accused of witchcraft. Karen is a witness. The effigy thinks "I was allowed to experience the wonder of weeping, for her tears fell upon my cheek as if they were mine" (p.103). In court, women show signs of being possessed. Maren is sentenced to death by burning. Later Dorte and Apelone are burned. Christenze is transported back to Copenhagen, the wax effigy back with her. She talks with Kirsten, the pregnant queen, who asks for advice. She meets the blindfolded king, who knows who she is. Because of her status she's beheaded rather than burned. The severed head speaks.

The language has fevered moments -

• I saw goldsmiths' stalls and sheeny lemons in wooden crates. Now and then, I turned my back on progress. Everything throws, when entering the path of the sun, a shadow. Time too has its shadow, the ages of man (p.26)
• the needle of St.Botolph's spire pierces the tongue of the sky. The wind moves over tracts of land to which no one yet lays claim. One by one, the decades pass over me like the wind upon the fjord (p.74)
• Were I not a wax child, I think I could have been a wound (p.83)
• Now it comes to me in a vision - a blazing field of red mirrors advancing from the sea towards the coast, the rain shower's dale. A mussel's shell with a human skull for its pearl (p.85)
• How do I know this? The dead fly in the window-sill told me. the grass-pollen as if puffed into the air told me, a brass candlestick told me, a speck of grit. Everything remembers and speaks to those who will listen (p.123)
• Bloody milk of the sick cow upon the ant-hill. Oil in water, fox-teeth by the mouth of the child, flesh and blood of Christ in the fist, under the palate, a yearning, a whole never made light, a fray-boggard, the rosemary bush - dust-covered, kingly in its anticipation, every smallest lance-shaped leaf (p.155)

Other reviews

• Aida Edemariam (There is an argument that this type of feminine group magic is a form of psychological release in a world where this was hard to come by; it certainly stands in stark contrast to the public male narrative according to which the women are tried. ... At its best The Wax Child is richly evocative, beautiful, creepy and visceral. “It is the darkest of times, December. From the curvature of the earth, minutes run like droplets from the day.” At other times, there’s a bit too much research just out of sight; the novel can feel elliptical, even baffling. One misses the space, the clarity and freedom of The Employees. But maybe that’s the thing about weaving spells. About poetry, too: demand it makes neat sense, and you begin to have too much in common with the witch-hunters.)
• karissareadsbooks
• Ian Mond (The wax doll, still alive and buried in dirt, unable to weep or speak, does not understand her mistress’s final soliloquy. “I am only a doll,” it tells us, not for the first time. “A child of wax.” Yet we hear Christenze. We understand that neither she nor her friends are defined by how they died, but by the intimacy they shared.)