The Salamanca Diaries: Fr McCabe and the Spanish Civil War
By Tim Fanning
Merrion Press, €22.95
Fr Alexander McCabe (1900-1988), from south Cavan, kept detailed diaries. They recorded various parts of his life but most of all his period (1935-1949) as rector of the Irish College in Salamanca. General Franco established his headquarters in Salamanca shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War and McCabe's diaries have acute observations on many of the major figures who flocked there, such as generals (among them Franco himself), diplomats, journalists and spies (including Kim Philby). A central part of the book is McCabe's views on the quixotic Eoin O'Duffy and his ill-fated Irish Brigade who came to fight for Franco. McCabe could "sum up in a line or two an individual's key characteristics" and these diaries give a fascinating eyewitness account of momentous and tragic historic events. – Brian Maye
The Scorched Earth
By Rachel Blok
Head of Zeus, £18.99
Set in a small village in England at the cruel height of the 2018 heatwave, The Scorched Earth is the second title from former English teacher Rachael Blok. Answering the question of who really killed Leo Fenton falls to a wife who must prove her husband's innocence or lose him forever. Deeply foreboding and convincingly emplaced in its blasted and parched surroundings, this is a novel as much about home as it is about trauma. As the plots unfolds, Blok skilfully rachets up the tension, immersing her readers in a close-knit, rural world whose inhabitants are minutely drawn and utterly compelling. This novel is a strange object; an emotionally charged thriller that plays on the tragic humanity of its characters and asks its readers what they might do given the same choices.–Becky Long
The Warlow Experiment
By Alix Nathan
Serpent's Tail, 2019
As with other Serpent's Tail books, The Warlow Experiment is sumptuous both in production and in its narrative. Based on a real 18th century experiment, this is a haunting and confining novel. Before writing it, Alix Nathan came across a single paragraph in a reference work, which referred to a Mr Powyss of Moreham (Lancashire), who offered a payment of £50 for any subject willing to live for seven years in the cellar of Mr Powyss's manor. John Warlow is desperate enough to take up the offer. What we now know about solitary confinement adds a sense of impending horror. Nathan's skill for historical fiction places the experiment in the context of late 18th century politics, though sometimes these details bog the book down. The narrative is slow to build, and the conclusion feels a little forced. There are some electric moments, but their power is dulled by too much unnecessary bulk.
On the Plain of Snakes: A Mexican Road Trip
By Paul Theroux
Hamish Hamilton, £20
This is Theroux's 51st full-length work (his extensive output covers fiction, criticism and non-fiction) and ranks as one of his best travel books. On the Plain of Snakes overflows with stories from the ordinary people he meets resulting in an insightful journey looking at contemporary Mexican culture. Now 78, Theroux retains a curmudgeonly side and does not shy away from writing about corruption and poverty which is endemic in one of the most dangerous countries in the world. It is 40 years since his classic work The Old Patagonian Express which helped reinvent travel writing. The maestro has been working non-stop ever since, evoking numerous places through his unmistakeable clarity and vivid pen. – Paul Clements
Novel Houses - Twenty Famous Fictional Dwellings
By Christina Hardyment
Bodleian Library £25
An enjoyable and nicely weighted tour of legendary buildings from English and American fiction, with Hardyment as a knowledgeable and (thankfully) unstuffy guide. Chapters on writers that mean most to you - in my case Virginia Woolf, Conan Doyle, F Scott Fitzgerald - will naturally resonate most strongly. But those on authors you have not read are just as enlightening and Hardyment consistently picks out interesting threads of place in a writer's work (Jane Austen's fixation on parsonages). Her skilful summaries of books also give a handy 'cheat' for anyone who knows they will never get around to 'Gormenghast' in their lifetime. A worthwhile literary perambulation, whereupon the reader realises that many of the featured authors who created unforgettable literary loci felt a deep sense of displacement in their own lives. –NJ McGarrigle
Axiomatic
By Maria Tumarkin
Fitzcarraldo Editions
Axiomatic is a work of non-fiction that draws on nine years of research exploring trauma. Tumarkin examines the intergenerational legacy of trauma which does not shape the present but "infiltrates . . .imbues, infuses". The book is divided into five sections. Each section revolves around an axiom that the author unsteadies, or calls to question, in the analysis of true and intimate stories. The stories, centred in Australia, include youth suicide, a Holocaust survivor, a community lawyer's struggle with the criminal justice system and the author's own experience with friendship. Tumarkin analyses her subjects with a broad lens; she understands the complexities of our existence. If you are looking for answers, beware that Axiomatic is an exploration without resolution - but hey! perhaps that's life! –Brigid O'Dea
