Y - Marjorie Celona

 Y is Marjorie Celona's newly released debut novel.  I think you're going to be hearing lots more about this author and title.

"Y. That perfect letter. The wishbone, fork in the road, empty wineglass. The quetion we ask over and over. Why?"

And the Y is where the story begins as well - the YMCA in a town on Vancouver Island. The Y is where Shannon's mother Yula leaves her when she is a day old, wrapped in a dirty sweatshirt with a Swiss Army knife as her legacy.

As a baby Shannon is shifted through various foster homes until she lands with Miranda and her daughter Lydia-Rose. It is with Miranda that she finally finds some stability and safety. But it is here that she also begins to act out, to question, to search, to need and to want to find her parents and answers.

"I want to know who my real family is, who I really belong to, why I look this way, why I feel this ay. I want to know these things more than anything in the world." "I don't need my mother to be a good person. I just want to know who she is."

Celona has chosen an unusual narrative style for her book - but it's one that absolutely works. Young Shannon recounts her life and that of her mother as an almost disinterested third party observer, then switches to current day. The story goes back and forth, past and present, between Shannon's story and that of her mother Yula. Each woman's tale is so addicting and absorbing that I could not find a place to stop. I had to keep reading, to discover the why of Yula's decision, to discover if Shannon finds her way, her place, the answers she needs and if it is enough.

Celona's prose flow easily and seamlessly, drawing the reader deeper and deeper into the story. Both Shannon and Yula's narratives are powerful and poignant. Although Yula's story is no less compelling, it was Shannon I wanted to hug and comfort. Their lives are not easy to read about, but impossible to turn away from.

I was thinking about Y long after I turned the last page. Did I like the ending? What if....? What is the right thing to do? Who can judge? What is love? And that's the mark of a good book - one that keeps you thinking about it after the last page is turned. Definitely recommended.

Read an excerpt of Y. This would be a great selection for a book club. A reading group guide is available.

Marjorie Celona received her MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow and recipient of the Ailene Barger Barnes Prize. Her stories have appeared in Best American Nonrequired Reading,Glimmer Train, and Harvard Review. Born and raised on Vancouver Island, she lives in Cincinnati.

See what others on the tour thought:

Aug. 28 Michele @ Just a Lil Lost
Aug. 29 Evie @ Bookish
Aug. 30 Sarah @ Just Another Story
Aug. 31 Nicole @ Nicole About Town
Sept. 3 Corrine @ Lost For Words
Sept. 4 Luanne @ A Bookworm’s World
Sept. 5 Zoe @ In The Next Room
Sept. 6 Christy @ Home of Ohm
Sept. 7 Sharonne @ Tales of a Ranting Ginger
Sept. 10 Maria @ Bored Mommy
Sept. 11 Sarah @ Workaday Reads

Winner - The Beggar's Opera

The lucky winner of a copy of

The Beggar's Opera

by  Peggy Blair,

courtesy of Penguin Canada

is:

Zara!

Congratulations! I've contacted you by email for your mailing address.

 Please respond within 72 hours.

The Invisible Ones - Stef Penney

The Invisible Ones is Stef Penney's second novel, but a first look at this author for me. It won't be my last - I'll be hunting down her first book- The Tenderness of Wolves.

The opening scene is one that will hook you into the story from the first page. Ray awakes in a hospital bed, paralyzed and with no memory of how he came to be there. Penney takes us back to the beginning and on the journey of how Ray ended up where he is.

Ray Lovell is a small time private investigator - he mostly does cheating spouse cases and avoids missing persons after a case went really wrong. But when Leon Wood comes into the office asking Ray to hunt down his daughter Rose, he hesitates. Wood is a traveller - a Romany - a gypsy. Leon has approached Ray as he knows that he is half gypsy himself. The case seems impossible. Wood has not seen his daughter in 7 years - since the day of her wedding in 1978 to Ivo Janko, the last in a line of 'black blood' travellers. But - he agrees.

As Ray delves back into a world he knows, but isn't a part of any longer, he is met with resistance, lies, indifference and hostility. No one is overly concerned where Rose is. "Suddenly I am absolutely determined to find her, because no one else seems really bothered".

The Invisible Ones is told from two parallel viewpoints - that of Ray and of JJ - a fourteen year old boy who is part of the Janko family - in alternating chapters. This was guaranteed to keep me up late - I simply had to keep reading to find out what was happening with the other character. The narrative with Ray flips from present to past as his memory slowly returns.

Ray and JJ are both on journeys, although they may not realize it. Ray rediscovers what it means to be gypsy and at the same time he tries to put his disastrous personal life back on track. Finding Rose becomes a quest long after others would have quit. JJ is an interesting character. He has never 'lived in bricks', having grown up in caravans. He is gypsy, but finds himself sometimes yearning for some 'gorgio' ways.(non Romany) But his ultimate loyalty is to his family. JJ is innocent, yet worldly - he was my favourite character.

I enjoyed the slow building pace of the book as the story slowly unfolded. The characters themselves were just as much of a mystery. I was fascinated with the descriptions of Romany life and culture. (The book is set in England) The whole premise of the book was unique and not your run of the mill mystery.  I had paid enough attention to subtle clues dropped during the last half of the book that I had a good idea wheat the ending was going to be. But this didn't detract from my enjoyment - and I was only partially correct.

Definitely recommended - especially for those looking for something a little different.

Read an excerpt of The Invisible Ones. A reading group guide is available for book clubs.

The Witch of Babylon - D. J. McIntosh

I devoured all of the Dan Browns when they came out, have worked my way through all of Steve Berry's books so I was thrilled to get my hands on a copy of D. J. McIntosh's debut novel The Witch of Babylon - the first book in The Mesopotamian Trilogy.

McIntosh introduces us to John Madison, a Turkish-American art dealer who has a bit of a checkered past. His older brother Samuel dies unexpectedly and it is only after his death that John learns of Samuel's desperate attempt to save a priceless relic from looting in Iraq. The relic has been stolen by Hal, a rival of John's. Hal is killed by factions determined to have the relic for themselves. But before he died, Hal secreted the relic away, leaving a series of intricate puzzles John must solve to find the treasure. And what is this relic that everyone is so desperate to save and to steal?

"Samuel had recognized Nahum's text as a prophetic Old Testament book called the Burden of Nineveh. He believed that not only was the text genuine but it contained a hidden message. Something to do with alchemical processes to make gold"

The detail and history McIntosh weaves into her story is impeccably researched. I often stopped midway through a chapter to hop on the computer and look up the past and events she writes about. And the Bible as well - Nahum is a small book in the Old Testament. The puzzles are included in the book, allowing the reader to 'play' along. (There's also a great website where you can play one of the puzzles - Babylon Squares.)

McIntosh successfully combines the fascinating world of historical fact and lore with the all too real problem of antiquities looting. Toss in action, travel, bad guys and a little romance and the result is a page turner that will surely land on the bestseller lists.

D.J. McIntosh talks about her lead character - John Madison:

My Leading Man

I’ve developed a steady relationship with a certain guy over the last couple of years and we just seem to grow closer as time goes on. He’s exceptionally good looking, comes from an exotic background, is smart though no snooty intellectual, has great social skills, oh….and, did I mention he’s thirty-three years younger than me?

He does have his failings. A tendency to skim the edges of legality if the money is good enough, a proclivity that stands him in good stead in his profession as an art and antiquities dealer. He has a strong sense of self-doubt that he covers up with bravado and occasional flashes of quick temper. But, hey, no one’s perfect. And he loves rock/blues guitar just as much as I do. That pretty much restores the balance for me.

I speak, of course, about my leading man – John Madison – the central character in The Witch of Babylon and the next two books in the Babylon Trilogy to come.Authors use many approaches to form a central character. Some draft a long list of attributes, interests and qualities that, like paint strokes on a canvas, eventually make up a coherent picture. Others model their protagonist after someone they know well or find many of their own personality traits reflected in their creation. And some writers create a hero or heroine who is symbolic of an ideal.

When it comes to plot development I need to work off a very detailed palette before putting words on the page. But with my lead character it’s just the reverse. He sprang, as it were, fully formed from my imagination. One day he was just “there” - his physical image, personality, even, John, his first name. I’d wished in fact to name him Edward or James, two of my favourite male names, but he wasn’t having any of that!

At the time the manuscript entered its first major revision, it was suggested that a tough, take no prisoners female protagonist was in vogue and would likely have more appeal in the publishing world. This notion has certainly proven itself true with the very successful work of Mr. Larsson. In fact it would have been the safer way to go if only because I’m female and writing what you know does tend to result in a richer reading experience.

But while my novel has undergone many changes since those early days – alterations that considerably improved the book – the prospect of wiping John off the page produced a gut clenching reaction. I just couldn’t do it."

And we're glad you didn't!  You can find D.J.McIntosh on Facebook and on Twitter.

Check out what others on the tour think:

Just a Lil Lost  June 13
The Literary Word  June 14  
My Ever Expanding Library June 16
Serendipitous Readings June 17
Let's Book It June 20  
Evie Bookish June 22
Lost for Words June 23
Snowdrop Dreams of Books June 24