Independent Book Reviews for Independent Readers.
Over the years, Flanker Press of Newfoundland & Labrador has published a vast array of books, both Fiction and Non-Fiction, including the excellent historical fiction books of Gary Collins. Operation Wormwood (2018) is a fictional crime thriller that was interesting to read, to say the least. The main theme is that a “disease” of sorts is affecting a particular group of people, namely pedophiles. They experience prodigious nosebleeds and unquenchable thirst.… Continue reading
Matter of Geography, which was shortlisted in 2015 for the Tuscany Prize for unpublished manuscripts has now been published by Mosaic Press. The story is an impressive one dealing as it does with the religious divisions in India between Muslims and Hindus, the fallout of which affects peoples of other religions such as Christians and Jews. A Matter of Geography takes place in Bombay in 2008-2009 but flashes back in time as Peter, the storyteller here, recalls growing up in the large Billimoria Building with all sorts of families as well as religions.… Continue reading
A likeable and very readable story of a convent/girl’s school in 1958. The Reverend Mother initially comes across as a neurotic Captain Bligh type of character and one even begins to question her sanity after awhile. The present pope has just died and everyone in the Catholic world at the time is curious as to who the new pope will be.
It is also a time of the rise of Communism in Russia, Sputnik, and social changes as well, leaving the older generation (like the strict Reverend Mother) confused as to enforcing the Holy Rule in the convent/school and the changing social behaviours of not only the students but the nuns as well.… Continue reading