Run, The Girl in the Red Coat and The Buried Giant

Run is just a wonderful book. We read Ann Patchett's "State of Wonder" for book club but this is far better, more than equal to her brilliant award winning "Bel Canto". It all happens over a couple of days in snowy Boston. There is a piece early on when one of two brothers is involved in an accident and the other cannot help his fixation with quoting politicians. Their father reprimands him with "Oh for God's sake Teddy. Not Reagan. Not now".

There is also a bit about politicians later on that is brilliant. It ends "what you wound up with in the end were a long string of generalities, stirring platitudes, that would not buy you supper".

But it is eleven year old Kenya that is the star of this story. She is one of those characters that you would love the author to come back to. If I have one criticism it is that there is just a little too much introspection. But the prose is outstanding, the characters vivid and you could feel the cold Boston winter seeping through the pages.

Manipulative. (I gave up half way through). I thought I'd had enough of child abduction after recently reading "Our Endless Numbered Days" but with The Girl in the Red Coat, here we go again.

The Buried Giant is an extraordinary book. Set around 500/600 AD, beyond the iron age, the Britons and Saxons are living in peace. Or are they? The language Kazuo Ishiguro uses is fascinating, a type of formal but stylised English that suits this time in history: "Forgive my poor manners. Travelling this far west, I find myself nostalgic for my childhood, though I know it's some distance yet. I find myself seeing everywhere shadows of half-remembered faces. Are you and your good wife returning home this morning?" There is so much wonderful dialogue, the author certainly has the talent for how people converse.

I also loved the conversational tone: "I am sorry to paint such a picture of our country at that time, but there you are." An elderly married couple hope to find their son, but this is much more than a medieval road trip. The elusiveness of memory is central to the story, but can love conquer all if the past is finally revealed?