Our book club is currently discussing The Bell in the Lake by Lars Mytting, a mythology-influenced historical novel set in 19th-century Norway that reflects on connections between the past and present.

In Editor's Choice, we bring you another stunning work of historical fiction, Kate Atkinson's sprawling London-based Jazz Age romp Shrines of Gaiety. Our accompanying Beyond the Book article touches on nightclub "Queen" Kate Meyrick, the real-life inspiration behind a character of Atkinson's as well as one created by the famous novelist Evelyn Waugh.

We also have 50 copies to give away of Billy-Ray Belcourt's recently released and already well-praised debut novel A Minor Chorus, and an update on John Shors upcoming Literary Tours.

With best wishes,

Davina Morgan-Witts

BookBrowse Publisher

As long as people could remember, the stave church's bells had rung over the isolated village of Butangen, Norway. Cast in memory of conjoined twins, the bells are said to ring on their own in times of danger. In 1879, young pastor Kai Schweigaard moves to the village, where young Astrid Hekne yearns for a modern life. She sees a way out on the arm of the new pastor, who needs a tie to the community to cull favor for his plan for the old stave church, with its pagan deity effigies and supernatural bells. When the pastor makes a deal that brings an outsider, a sophisticated German architect, into their world, the village and Astrid are caught between past and future, as dark forces come into play.

"I loved this book as one of the best I've read in a few years. Many decades ago I spent time in Norway... This book brought back the memory of the forests, deep valleys so difficult to traverse, the light, legends and language... I love books where the landscape is so important as to be another character and this book provided that. I have already ordered the second volume in the trilogy as I couldn't bear for it to end." - Lloster

"There are strong, convincing characters, even distinctive minor characters... The conflict is multi-layered and raises many issues that are very relevant today, in particular the struggle to choose which aspects of the past should be preserved or rejected, and which aspects of the present are progressive, or not. I also loved the interweaving of myths and legends." - JLPen77

"I enjoyed the book so much that I read it twice. I read historical fiction so I can learn something new. I enjoyed learning about the church and the hardships the weather imposed upon the residents. I marvel at the old ways of building." - Holland

Bestselling author John Shors is offering a series of exceptional tours in 2023 (more about John's books and his tours in our blog).

He personally leads all tours, which in 2023 will include:

Cambodia – January 2023. John will co-lead a literary tour to Cambodia, alongside Loung Ung, the author of First They Killed My Father. This tour will dive deeply into the origins of Loung’s book; as well as Temple of a Thousand Faces, John’s novel about Angkor Wat.

Cambodia – February 2023. For this tour John has hired a yoga master to accompany the group, and there will be daily yoga and meditation classes at special sites.

Bhutan – April 2023. This tour will feature an extraordinary itinerary emphasizing the past and present wonders of this legendary Himalayan country.

Japan – May 2023. John lived for several years in Japan and has created a one-of-a-kind itinerary that will give participants an exciting and rich cultural experience.

Uzbekistan – September 2023. Participants will enjoy a wonderful journey along The Silk Road; staying in fabled cities, experiencing the best sights of a beautiful country.

This issue contains 16 reviews and Beyond the Book articles. The books we cover include Pulitzer Prize finalist Marianne Wiggins' Properties of Thirst, Kate Atkinson's Shrines of Gaiety and Freya Sampson's The Lost Ticket. We also have a book giveaway, a new Wordplay, and much more inside.

This twice-monthly e-magazine is just one benefit of being a BookBrowse member. Sign up for an individual membership today or ask your library if they subscribe (or check for yourself).

Whether or not it was Atkinson's intention to give readers who feel disappointed by our current era a little literary escapism into the previous '20s, that's what's on offer in her novel Shrines of Gaiety, a delightfully manic journey into London's Jazz Age underworld, which she so brilliantly brings to life.

Atkinson's novel opens outside Holloway prison, where a crowd has gathered to witness the release of one of London's most unlikely criminals: middle-class, Irish-born, diminutive Nellie Coker, who's been locked up for licensing violations at one of the many nightclubs she operates throughout the city.

Looking on the scene with less gaiety is Detective Chief Inspector Frobisher, recently relocated from Scotland Yard to Covent Garden's Bow Street station to investigate a string of missing girls, who may or may not have connections to the dozens of dancers Ma Coker employs in her nightclubs. He's joined by a surprising but very eager sidekick, Gwendolen Kelling, a former librarian who has traveled from York to London to look into the disappearance of Freda Murgatroyd, a friend's sister—and perhaps to find a bit of adventure for herself. ... continued

In an Author's Note in her novel Shrines of Gaiety, Kate Atkinson reveals that the real-life inspiration for her character Nellie Coker was Kate Meyrick, the impresario known as the "Queen of Nightclubs." Much like Atkinson's character, "Ma" Meyrick built an empire of sorts during the Jazz Age, owning and operating a string of clubs in London (and, for a brief time, in Paris), often with the assistance of her adult children.

The most famous of Meyrick's clubs was the "43 Club," so called for its address at 43 Gerrard Street, Soho in what is now London's Chinatown. Opened in 1921, the 43 Club attracted a distinguished guest list: Greek and Romanian royalty, British aristocrats, and the newly fashionable Hollywood set, including Rudolph Valentino, as well as writers like Evelyn Waugh and Barbara Cartland. The character Ma Mayfield and the Old Hundredth Club, appearing in Waugh's A Handful of Dust and Brideshead Revisited, were inspired by Meyrick and the 43 Club.

The 43 Club and Meyrick's other establishments were frequent targets of police raids; although there was no outright Prohibition like in the United States at this time, the British Home Secretary still sought to crack down on liquor license violations. ... continued

In the stark expanse of Northern Alberta, a queer Indigenous doctoral student steps away from his dissertation to write a novel, informed by a series of poignant encounters: a heart-to-heart with fellow doctoral student River over the mounting pressure placed on marginalized scholars; a meeting with Michael, a closeted man from his hometown whose vulnerability and loneliness punctuate the realities of queer life on the fringe. Woven throughout these conversations are memories of Jack, a cousin caught in the cycle of police violence, drugs, and survival.

"An achingly gorgeous debut novel of Indigenous survival…This is a breathtaking and hypnotic achievement." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"With his first novel, wunderkind Belcourt cements what has become increasingly clear across two poetry collections and a memoiristic book of essays: he is a fearless writer... [A Minor Chorus is] a ruminative constellation of ideas regarding colonial trauma, heteropatriarchy, and the innate sociality of writing; Belcourt's boldest, freest, and most linguistically assured work yet." - Library Journal (starred review)

"A Minor Chorus is a feat of technical brilliance, a novel that questions the worth of writing even as it asserts its own value. It is a slippery, scholarly work, rooted in the layered complexity of Indigenous life." - BookPage (starred review)

We have 50 print copies of Billy-Ray Belcourt's debut A Minor Chorus to give away. If a winner is in a book club they will receive a copy for each member of their book club (up to a maximum of 12 copies); if a winner is not in a book club they will receive 4 copies (one for themselves and three to share with friends).