Book Review: 10 March 2017

The Schooldays of Jesus by J.M. Coetzee When you travel across the ocean on a boat, all your memories are washed away and you start a completely new life. That is how it is. There is no before. There is no history. The boat docks at the harbour and we climb down the gangplank and we are plunged into the here and now. Time begins. Davíd is the small boy who is always asking questions. Simón and Inés take care of him in their new town Estrella. He is learning the language; he has begun to make friends. He has the big dog Bolívar to watch over him. But he'll be seven soon and he should be at school. And so, Davíd is enrolled in the Academy of Dance. It's here, in his new golden dancing slippers, that he learns how to call down the numbers from the sky. But it's here too that he will make troubling discoveries about what grown-ups are capable of. The House of Four by Barbara Nadel The House of Four is the brand new Istanbul crime thriller featuring Inspector Ikmen, 'the Morse of Istanbul' (Daily Telegraph) from Barbara Nadel. Perfect for fans of Donna Leon. Everyone in the Istanbul neighbourhood of Moda knows the Devil's House. A crumbling Ottoman mansion, and once the home of a princess, it is a place associated with ill fortune. The princess's four children, now in old age, still live in separate apartments on different floors and are rumoured never to speak to each other. Then one of them is found dead, stabbed through the heart, and it is discovered that the other three siblings have met an identical fate. There is no sign of forced entry or burglary, and all evidence must be gained from letters and diaries, but as Inspector Ikmen digs into their past it becomes clear they have been harbouring a secret... Meanwhile a young couple are arrested for a series of seemingly random killings on the streets of Istanbul. They claim to have been squatting in the Devil's House. But this fiendish mystery is far from over and it will take Inspector Ikmen to the darkest and most devilish depths of this ancient city. Muhammad Ali: A Memoir by Michael Parkinson Sir Michael Parkinson interviewed Muhammad Ali four times and in this memoir you are given a ringside seat for all of the interviews. Muhammad Ali was God's Gift to the interviewer. Funny, articulate, outspoken with a fascinating life story, unparalleled talent and controversial views. These 4 interviews charted Ali's life, revealing significant phases at different times, charting the rise and fall of this kaleidoscope of a man. In Muhammad Ali: A Memoir Sir Michael Parkinson will bring his award-winning journalistic talents to bear on this extraordinary man. The book will mix personal recollections of the times they met with selected transcripts of the famous and, in the case of the 1974 meeting, infamous interviews all brought together and contextualised by a sober and honest assessment of the life and times of a figure that, it is certain, we will never see the like of again. Muhammad Ali: A Memoir is a fresh, revealing and personal account of the life of the most important and enduring cultural figures of our age.