I’ve read two from this second selection of July’s new fiction beginning with one I’d not expected to enjoy as much as I did. Opening in the early 2000s, Alexander Starritt’s Drayton and Mackenzie follows James Drayton and Roland Mackenzie who met briefly at Oxford. Driven and intensely competitive, even with himself, James is the affable, indolent Roland’s antithesis. An unlikely friendship, then business partnership forms between these two when they bump into each other a few years after graduation. It’s an unusual novel in two respects: the theme of enduring male friendship and its setting in the business world. The latter might sound dull, but I found this story of ambition, invention and friendship quite riveting. Review shortly…
Set sometime in the 1950s, Benjamin Wood’s Seascraper takes place over a single day. Thomas Flett gets up well before dawn to accommodate the tides, heading home to the shack he shares with his mother once the day’s catch has been sold. He finds her with an American man who has the oddest proposition for him. Wood’s descriptions of the bleak landscape and the difficulties Thomas endures are vividly cinematic. The arrival of Edgar with his tales of Hollywood and glamour are met with scepticism by Thomas, overcome by the hope of a friendship and a future. Things may not quite turn out the way he expected but there’s hope for Thomas at the end of this atmospheric, dreamlike novella. Review to follow…
Aisling Rawle’s The Compound sees nine young, beautiful women looking for an escape from poverty, unrest and environmental catastrophe, waiting for ten men who will arrive on foot, or at least whichever of them has survived the arduous journey, every second broadcast to avid reality TV fans throughout the world. ‘Lord of the Flies meets love island in this explosive, addictive debut novel, as bingeable as the best reality TV, with dark undercurrents of literary dystopia and consumerist satire’ says the blurb which might make you wonder why I’ve included it but Laura’s review swung it for me. You can read it here. 
In Agnes Lidbeck’s Supporting Act, Anna takes on a new societal role when she becomes a mother, her world centred around her child. Her affair with an older man after her marriage breaks up, sees her transition from the role of his lover to his caregiver. ‘Supporting Act is the study of a woman performing the roles society asks of her, even as they overlap, contradict and subsume each other’ according to the blurb. Peirene rarely publish anything cheery – Marzhan Mon Amour was an exception – but their books are reliably good.
Masashi Matsuie’s prize winning debut, Summer at Mount Asama, is set in 1980s Japan where a group of architects are competing to design a new building. Our narrator is Toru Sakanishi, a young employee of a small firm run by a former student of Frank Lloyd Wright. The team decamps to a mountain village, once home to an artists’ colony, to avoid Tokyo’s sweltering summer heat and work on their design for the National Library of Modern Literature. Over the course of the summer, Sakanishi meets four women who will have a significant effect on his life. ‘Beautifully translated by National Book Award winner Margaret Mitsutani, Summer at Mount Asama is a character-driven story with prose that highlights the natural beauty of Japan, the ingenuity of architecture, and the clashing of modernity and tradition’ according to the blurb which sounds very tempting. 
Staying in Japan, Fumio Yamamoto’s The Dilemmas of Working Women follows five women, each with everyday lives and attendant problems: Izumi is unemployed; Haruka is a cancer survivor; Mita can’t decide whether to leave or marry her boyfriend; Sumie needs somewhere to live and Kito is trying to cope with the hassles of working in a convenience store. ‘In this classic Japanese bestseller, published in English twenty-five years after it took Japan by storm, the lives of five ordinary women are depicted with irresistible humour and searing emotional insight.’ says the blurb promisingly.
That’s it for July’s new fiction. As ever, a click on a title will take you to a more detailed synopsis should you want to know more, and if you’d like to catch up with part one it’s here. Paperbacks soon…
