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This book opens with the line: The woman is lying beneath a white sheet in a white room, dreaming of colour.
A very hefty book with 541 pages — definitely one for the super readers among us.
The City of Tears is historical fiction through and through — the pages are jam-packed with political, architectural and religious details.
A great read if you’re interested in European history and culture, particularly French, Dutch and even Afrikaans (South African Dutch settlers).
This book is set around the Wars of Religion, a critical and infamous time for Western Europe. The mass killings led to the creation of the word réfugié to describe Protestants who fled France after their rights to religious liberty were revoked. This is where the word refugee comes from.
This book is part two in The Burning Chambers series but you don’t need to read the first book, so keep that in mind.
The plot is driven by female characters who keep themselves busy with avoiding assassins, stabbing people and living in PTSD-worthy levels of terror.
This sort of ‘European women in wartime’ stuff is shifting massive amounts of books and readers are eating it up, so don’t knock it til you’ve tried it.
The City of Tearsby Kate Mosse is published by Pan MacMillan, RRP $32.99.
The Last Smile In Sunder City
This book opens with the line: “Do some good,” she’d said.
The Last Smile In Sunder City made me laugh in one page.
It is a zippy read with 318 little pages. A great book for those who read an hour at a time and get bored when a sentence goes on for too long. It’s no surprise the author is Australian.
The setting is a kind of dystopian Harry Potter and we follow a classic, timeless character (the barely sober private detective type).
The setting is naturally very gripping because it subverts the fantasy, making humankind one of the more evil and uncommon species found in the world.
It is all very scrappy and loveable — thankfully the author launches into some terrifying world-building and sets up a mystery quickly. A primary school teacher, who also happens to be a 300-year-old vampire, has gone missing.
A great book if you’re looking for something you can read, then use to occupy your sulky teenage grandchild who spends their holidays cursing grandma’s slow internet.
The Last Smile In Sunder City by Luke Arnold is published by Hatchette Australia, RRP $22.99.
HOW TO ENTER
For a chance to win these books, send your name, address, daytime phone number and the answer to this question: What’s the dog’s name in this week’s Man’s Best Friend? to: Country Life ‘Ages’ Competition, PO Box 8000, Shepparton, 3632 by Wednesday, September 29.
WINNER
Last week's book competition winner was Ivy Heenan. Congratulations, enjoy your books.
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