Book of the Week from Just Books

The Winter Vault by Anne Michaels

Anne Michael’s new novel is a mesmerizing love story set in Canada and Egypt during the 1960s, with flashbacks to England and Poland during World War II. Avery, an engineer, and Jean, a botanist, newly married, have traveled to Egypt to save the Abu Simbel temple from the flooding of the new Ashwan dam. The two create a new world around themselves, as they watch the ancient world around them destroyed. After a tragedy occurs, they return to separate lives in Toronto. Jean meets Lucjan, a Polish artist who unburdens his memories of war-torn Warsaw to her, drawing her farther and farther away from Avery.

The Winter Vault paints very intimate moments of individual lives against the background of historical events, exploring the emotional as well as the physical worlds of its characters. Avery and Jean must learn to let go of the past and to move forward. This is a novel about life’s triumphs and failures, and the choice to remain broken or to heal. “Regret is not the end of the story; it is the middle of the story”.

Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada

Written by a man who lived through it, Every Man Dies Alone is about life in Nazi Germany. Based on real life people, the novel follows Otto and Anna Quangel, who begin a private campaign of resistance after their son dies in the war. Over the course of two years, the couple writes letters and postcards denouncing Hitler and the Third Reich, and drops them all over Berlin. Surrounded by terrified and angry people, with the Gestapo hot on their trail, the Quangels strive to remain true to themselves, and to fight, in some small way, against the evil in their country.

Fallada paints a stark and true portrait of war-time Berlin, filled with snoops, snitches, and suspicious neighbors. His straight-forward and blunt leaves nothing to the imagination; this is how life was. Written in a 24 day rush and published right after Fallada’s death in 1947, this first ever translation of Every Man Dies Alone includes a biography of the author and parts of the actual Gestapo file on Otto and Elise Hampel, the real-life counterparts of the Quangels. Ultimately, Every Man Dies Alone is a story about life, love, and the human experience. It is about how people survived, and what they were or were not willing to give up in doing so, in Nazi Germany.

The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister

In Erica Bauermeister’s debut novel of a Monday night cooking class, eight people gather once a month to learn from Lillian, a chef and restaurant owner, who believes in the healing and magical properties of food. As she shares her understanding and expertise with her students, the reader is quickly drawn into the lessons, and into the lives of her students as well.
As Lillian tells her class, there is no list of “essential ingredients” or recipe handouts – everyone will learn what they need to. Cooking and food, while shared with others, become very personal; every class is told from the perspective of a different student, with the meal having a certain impact on their life. From finding a part of themselves that was lost, to letting a part of themselves go, Lillian’s food encourages the students to come to terms with his or her past, present, and future.

In The School of Essential Ingredients, Lillian instructs her students to truly cook food for the soul. Bauermeister shares each character’s story with grace and integrity, as well as great insight, from the misfit teenager, to the recent widower, to the head chef Lillian, herself. The prose seamlessly blends Lillian’s recipes and vignettes of the students’ lives, along with lessons about life and love. The School of Essential Ingredients tells of the joyous and tragic moments in life, and of nine lives brought together by food.

The School of Essential Ingredients is available at Just Books , 28 Arcadia Road, Old Greenwich

Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell

Even at first glance, Dr. Peter Brown does not appear to be a normal intern at the most rundown hospital in Manhattan. Along with a shift from hell, he has a hidden past with close ties to the Witness Protection Program. Everything is actually going pretty well, until a new patient arrives in the ward. Nicholas LoBrutto, better known as Eddy Squillante, recognizes Brown as Pietro “Bearclaw” Brnwa, a hit man for the mob. Eddy triggers a chain of events that brings Brown’s old friends and enemies running.

Bazell’s debut novel is the most savage, thrilling, and utterly hilarious book I have read in a while. Peter Brown’s narrative is bold and original, even educational. The recounting of his background in the mob actually induces sympathy; Brown turns out to be a hit man with a conscience, doing his best to get by, just like everyone else. Beat the Reaper will draw you in for a wild ride through Brown’s eight-hour shift from hell, with the mob, the government, and the Reaper closing in fast…

Beat the Reaper is available at Just Books, 28 Arcadia Road in Old Greenwich.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962, The Help is a novel about three women who come together to try and make change, however small, in their town. Skeeter is a 22-year-old recent college graduate recently returned home to a mother obsessed with marrying her off. Aibileen is a black maid raising yet another white child, bitter after her own son recently died. Minny is Aibileen’s best friend and the best cook in Jackson, but has just lost another job because of her sass. Slowly the three women find each other and unite against the prejudices that surround them, and set out to do something about it.

In The Help, Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny show how ordinary women can make a difference. Against tremendous adversity these three women change each others’ lives, and their town for the better. Stockett writes with amazing insight and truth about a troubled time in American history, and about social issues that are still relevant today. Her novel is about women—black and white, mothers and daughters—and triumph over hate and fear.

The Help is available at Just Books, 28 Arcadia Road in Old Greenwich.