The Observer, January 2020
Kingdomtide
Rye Curtis
Fourth Estate, £12.99, pp336
A strangely compelling debut novel, Kingdomtide begins when the elderly – but never frail – Cloris survives a plane crash in the Bitterroot mountains in Montana. The scene is set for a Touching the Void-style survival epic, but then the action switches to a Fargo-like town where forest ranger Debra seems less determined to find Cloris than her next bottle of Merlot. The two stories don’t entirely cohere – although an entire novel devoted to the prim Cloris would also have been too much. But there’s enough here, particularly in the vivid nature writing, to allow Kingdomtide to pull through.
The Other Half of Augusta Hope
Joanna Glen
Borough Press, £12.99, pp384
Shortlisted for the Costa first novel prize, Joanna Glen’s outsider protagonist is geeky, challenging, obsessed with words… and a twin. Augusta’s “other half”, though, is revealed in the alternating story of Parfait, a boy trying to escape the war-torn African state of Burundi (one of Augusta’s favourite words). It doesn’t take much to work out how the two narratives will align, but there’s a real joy in the fact they do, and the humour and pathos in their stories lends this first effort from Glen real heart and soul.
The Squiggly Career
Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis
Portfolio, £14.99, pp240
With more than 200,000 listeners, the Squiggly Careers podcast is an accessible look at modern careers. The tie-in book runs to self-help type but Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis have hit upon a simple idea: if you work out your values and what you’re good at, it’s likely to motivate you to be confident about what you want to do in the future. Of course, not everyone has the luxury of effectively designing their own career, but for those who find the possibility of moving fluidly between roles and companies either overwhelming or exciting, Tupper and Ellis are invaluable guides.
