The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys

The river Thames in London has frozen solid only 40 times between 1142 and 1895. Canadian author Helen Humphreys has written character-based vignettes for each of those times, based on true archival accounts. Her prose is both lyrical and spare. Since the destruction of the old London Bridge and the building of a new one that allows water to move more quickly and freely, "the Thames would never, will never, freeze solid in the heart of London again." Historical artwork and photographs add to the charm of this little book, which can be enjoyed in brief dips, or read straight through in the way of a story-cycle. 

I recommend this to fans of the sort of historical fiction that spans centuries and in which place is as much a character as the people, such as Sarum by Edward Rutherfurd, or Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - even though these authors write much fatter books. If you are looking for more slices of life from medieval England, you might also enjoy Good Masters! Sweet Ladies by Laura Amy Schlitz.

Better Living Through Plastic Explosives by Zsuzsi Gartner

Zsuzsi Gartner employs bracing black humour in her collection of stories, Better Living Through Plastic Explosives. They are set in or near Vancouver, often in a cul-de-sac. Random elements pop up more than once: terry cloth shorts; children riding unicycles; a lost person showing up astride the back of a giant turtle. Each story, however, is inventively unique. Some incorporate fantastical elements, like the angels who inhabit the bodies of teenagers for a while in We Come in Peace.

If forced to pick a favourite, I'd choose Floating Like a Goat, which is in the form of a letter from a mother to her daughter's Grade one art teacher, written "in such a deeply caffeinated fugue state that I fear my letter to you will come across as intemperate." I was sympathetic to this mother, incensed by the teacher's imposed strictures, such as insisting "that when six-year-old children draw people or animals their feet MUST be touching the ground." " 'I guess she's never heard of Chagall,' I said to Georgia, trying to sound offhand, as I'm well aware that it's considered verboten to undermine a teacher's authority."

Gartner isn't shy about exposing the comical underside of modern society. It's like she has a sharp knife point to deftly slip under one's guard, moving her readers from laughter to full danger alertness.

Readalikes: The thorny vine pictured on the cover, the humour and the supernatural elements all brought Kelly Link's Pretty Monsters to mind. For more social satire, try anything Ali Smith. Gartner's Investment Results May Vary, with its litany of "huh, huh, huh" at the end reminded me of one of Lorrie Moore's stories from Birds of America. Others brought Jackie Kay's story My Daughter, the Fox (in Wish I Was Here) to mind. I could keep going like this, but really, Gartner has her own fabulous style.

The London Train by Tessa Hadley

Two storylines converge on a chance meeting between Cora and Paul, strangers who sit across from each other on the train between London and Cardiff. Marital infidelity, disputes over agricultural practices, an adult daughter who goes missing, and a husband who disappears are some of the plot devices that hooked me in Tessa Hadley's reflective novel. I feel like I know the characters well and can imagine them going on with their lives beyond hopeful ending to the story.

Juanita McMahon narrates the audiobook [Clipper Audio; 10 hours] production. McMahon's interpretations of Cora's Welsh and the various English voices were fine, although the Polish accents for a couple of minor characters weren't convincing.

Readalikes: We Had It So Good by Linda Grant (for character-driven domestic fiction) and maybe Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels (for the double storyline about families, but minus romance).

Tell It to the Trees by Anita Rau Badami

A dead body is found in the snow outside the home of the Dharma family in smalltown British Columbia in 1980. The head of the family is Vikram, an abusive tyrant who beats his children and humiliates his wife. Suman Dharma and her children, Varsha and Hemant, take turns telling us what happened to Anu, the dead woman who had been renting the cottage at the back of the Dharma property. Anu's voice is also present, in the form of her journal entries.

I like books with multiple points of view, but it was creepy to see the world through the eyes of Varsha, a horrible and manipulative 13-year-old. It's an unsettling novel.

P.S. To whomever wrote the jacket copy for Tell It to the Trees: the town of Merritt, B.C. is not located in northern Canada. It is only one degree of latitude north of the U.S./Canadian border. So there.

Note added October 23, 2011: Yesterday Badami said her setting was a composite, not a real town, set in northern BC. I stand corrected.

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Escape to the deepest Amazon in Ann Patchett's wonderful new novel. Dr. Marina Singh leaves her Minnesota existence far behind when she travels to Manaus in Brazil to find out what happened to her colleague and lab partner, Anders Eckman. Their employer is Vogel, a giant pharmaceutical company, which has been funding top secret research among the Lakashi people. The Lakashi women remain fertile and bear children well into their 70s. Dr. Annick Swenson is the formidable scientist heading the research, and she is also Marina's former professor. Another complication is Jim Fox, head of Vogel, who has been having a clandestine romantic relationship with Marina for over a year, since his wife died.

Patchett has created a rich cast of characters, a vivid setting and surprising plot twists. The ending is the biggest treat of all. The narrative arc comes to a satisfying conclusion, yet so much possibility remains open for the characters to make further choices and to live on beyond the final pages. Very highly recommended!

The Better Mother by Jen Sookfong Lee

Born in Vancouver in 1950, a gay boy comes of age in his Chinese family, feeling like an alien. Danny feels more affinity for an exotic dancer that he meets in a Chinatown alley than for his own mother. In the early 1980s, Danny works as a wedding photographer by day and cruises for anonymous sex in Stanley Park at night. Moving back and forth through time, Danny's story intertwines with that of the dancer, who is known as Miss Val or the Siamese Kitten.

This all sounded promising, but I was disappointed because Jen Sookfong Lee's style put me off. Both Danny and Miss Val seemed like stock characters. Danny is attracted to fashion and silky fabrics from a young age and that sums up his early gayness. Couldn't Lee have done better in imagining him?

After three chapters, I skimmed through the middle, read the ending and brought it back to the library. It annoyed me to be told what Danny was feeling, rather than being shown: "The fulfillment of his wants helps him to believe that he is not a failure" when he's on his way home from another faceless sexual encounter. Danny's poor relationship with his father was presented as a given, with minimal exploration. To be fair, there might have been more character development in the middle parts that I skimmed. I didn't pay much attention to Miss Val's backstory, which included giving up her daughter.

Lee was inspired by a real-life photographer of burlesque dancers, Theodore Saskatche Wan. I found the author's note at the end more interesting than anything else in the book.

Readers who liked The Secret Daughter are likely to also enjoy The Better Mother. Another character-driven historical set in Vancouver's Chinatown (and one that I loved) is The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy.

The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi

"In the old days in Nigeria, people were kind of scared of twins -- some people still are. Traditionally, twins are supposed to live in three worlds: this one, the spirit world and the Bush, which is a sort of wilderness of the mind." Sarah Harrison explains this to her eight-year-old daughter, Jessamy, after Jess learns that she had a twin sister who died at birth. Jess is a precocious child who has been advanced a year at her school in London and is having great trouble adapting to her new class.

While on a visit to her extended family in Nigeria, Jess makes friends with another girl, Tilly Tilly. When Jess returns home to England, she's delighted to find Tilly Tilly has moved there. It takes a while before Jess realizes that nobody else can see Tilly Tilly, but that doesn't mean she isn't dangerous. Things get pretty spooky!

The Icarus Girl is a challenging book that generated great discussion at my book group last night. There are so many mysterious things, from the choice of title (why refer to a Greek myth? Is Jess the Icarus girl, or is that Tilly Tilly?) to the ambiguous ending. (I thought the final poem made things clear, but not everyone agreed with me.) I'm really looking forward to Oyeyemi's latest book, Mr. Fox.

Readalikes: For another story about twin girls with joint British/Nigerian heritage, try 26a by Diana Evans. Nigerian author Ben Okri's The Famished Road is narrated by a spirit child.