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Monthly Archives: May 2019

Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe

28 Tuesday May 2019

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in murder, Non-fiction, True crime

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abduction, history, Irish Republican Army, murder, Northern Ireland, True crime

In 1972 Belfast, a woman named Jean McConville was taken from her home and never seen again, leaving behind her ten children; her body was eventually found in 2003. Journalist Patrick Radden Keefe uses this incident to highlight the larger story of Northern Ireland during the Troubles, focusing on figures like the Price sisters, Gerry Adams, and more. There is a local connection too, as Boston College became involved in the McConville murder investigation. This is a gripping work of nonfiction.

“[Keefe] incorporates a real-life whodunit into a moving, accessible account of the violence that has afflicted Northern Ireland… Tinged with immense sadness, this work never loses sight of the humanity of even those who committed horrible acts in support of what they believed in.”
—Publishers Weekly
, *starred review*

“If it seems as if I’m reviewing a novel, it is because Say Nothing has lots of the qualities of good fiction, to the extent that I’m worried I’ll give too much away, and I’ll also forget that Jean McConville was a real person, as were–are–her children. And her abductors and killers. Keefe is a terrific storyteller. . .He brings his characters to real life. The book is cleverly structured. We follow people–victim, perpetrator, back to victim–leave them, forget about them, rejoin them decades later. It can be read as a detective story. . .What Keefe captures best, though, is the tragedy, the damage and waste, and the idea of moral injury. . .Say Nothing is an excellent account of the Troubles. —RODDY DOYLE, The New York Times Book Review

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The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay

20 Monday May 2019

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Fiction

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India, Jammu and Kashmir, journey, mother's death, mothers and daughters, villages Himalaya Mountains region, young women

This debut novel kept me turning the pages sensing something ominous was going to happen but wondering just how this privileged, naïve girl from Bangalore on an unplanned trip to locate a long ago visitor to her family home would manage or fail traveling in the now volatile, dangerous mountains of Kashmir.  Frought with tension….well worth it.  Can’t wait for her next book!

“Vijay intertwines her story’s threads with dazzling skill. Dense, layered, impossible to pin—or put—down, her first novel is an engrossing tale of love and grief, politics and morality. Combining up-close character studies with finely plotted drama, this is a triumphant, transporting debut.”—BOOKLIST (STARRED REVIEW)

 “Dazzling… Vijay’s prose is exquisite—florid and descriptive at times, spare and pared back at others. The story keeps twisting unexpectedly until the end, keeping emotions fraught, questions percolating. It’s a scintillating novel from a truly gifted writer.”—BOOKPAGE (STARRED REVIEW)

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Benediction by Kent Haruf

13 Monday May 2019

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in Fiction

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Colorado, families, small town life

A friend of mine said ”I have read this before.  But when I noticed my husband was reading it,  I decided to read it again. It’s the best thing I have read in a long time.”  Author of Plainsong and Eventide, Haruf returns to the small town of Holt, Colorado to have us sit by the bedside of terminally ill Dad Lewis and experience the strong ties that bind people to get through the hard times in life.  Enjoy a setting without the chaos and distractions that govern our lives today.

“Benediction suggests there’s no end to the stories Haruf can tell about Holt or to the tough, gorgeous language he can summon in the process.” —Paul Elie, The New York Times Book Review 

“Itself a blessing. . . spare and unencumbered. . . . Haruf’s great skill is in describing the plain ways of people who live in small places [and the war] going on between good and evil that we recognize as part of our nature. This is what makes Benediction a universal story, not a hometown tale.” —Michael D. Langan, The Buffalo News

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The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö

03 Friday May 2019

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in detective, Fiction, mystery

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detective, mystery, police, Stockholm, Sweden

This is the fourth in a series of popular police procedurals about Stockholm police superintendent Martin Beck, a likeable, flawed and deeply human police detective.  In this story Beck seeks the murderer of nine passengers on a Stockholm bus, one of whom was his best detective.

“A tantalizing, intricate tale.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Sjöwall and Wahlöö write unsparingly and unswervingly. . . . Their plots are second to none.”—Val McDermid

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