Daniel Kalla in Shanghai

The Far Side of the Sky by Daniel Kalla languished in my “too read” pile for a couple of years, until it’s sequel Rising Sun, Falling Shadow was published this fall.

The Far Side of the Sky was a departure for this author who is well known for his medical thrillers. Daniel Kalla is an emergency room physician in Vancouver whose first book Pandemic was published in 2005. Pandemic was based on Dr. Kalla’s experience during the SARS crisis in 2003 – but, he considered, what if this virus was being spread on purpose? A good idea for a thriller he thought and he has been at it ever since writing several books, all thrillers, in medical settings.

The Far Side of the Sky takes place during the Second World War, in Shanghai. This novel would be considered more literary fiction than thriller – although the danger the Jews who left Europe for Shanghai experienced made their lives extremely thrilling, as they hoped to survive the war in this place so far from what had been home.

The story itself is fascinating – a doctor, Franz Adler, widowed, flees Vienna with his young daughter, Hannah, leaving behind his elderly father. He is also accompanied by his sister in law, Esther, whose husband was brutally killed when the Nazis marched into Austria. All Austrian Jews were considered stateless as they were not German citizens and consequently had great difficulty in obtaining entry visas to other countries when they attempted to leave Europe. Shanghai, however, had no such restrictions and many European Jews headed there as they fled the Nazis.

Dr. Adler finds work in both the local hospital and a hospital catering to refugees, where he meets an enthusiastic and brash young American working on behalf of Jewish refuges. He also meets a young Chinese woman, Soon Yi known as “Sunny” and you can already guess what happens next. I found myself reading what is really a rather ordinary novel – but one that held my interest primarily because of the real history behind the fiction. Daniel Kalla’s writing is a little too floral for my taste – more suited to what I’d expect of a bodice ripper, and although there is lots of love in this novel it is all very proper. With that being said, I was interested enough to immediately read Daniel Kalla’s most recent novel Rising Sun, Falling Shadow as he continues the story into the final years of the Second World War.

Rising Sun, Falling Shadow finds Dr. Franz Adler and Sunny still working at the Refugee hospital, although they have few supplies and often operate without adequate anesthetic. There are shortages of all kinds in the area where the Jews are allowed to live, smuggling is dangerous but is attempted by many. There is a strict curfew and life often feels futile, as the months become years and these stateless refuges wait out the war just trying to stay alive. Children are born in spite of the dreadful conditions, bringing the joy of new life to their parents even as they fear for their survival. Those involved in the underground attempt to hide others and protect their community from the reprisals of the Nazis. The Japanese are in charge in Shanghai, and have no issues with the Jews, allowing them to live as other refugees, but there is unease between the Japanese and their German allies. The Nazis would like to imprison and ultimately annihilate the Jews but the Japanese will not give up control over all refugees in Shanghai, and ultimately they are saved.

Daniel Kalla has drawn on family stories and historical research for both The Far Side of the Sky and Rising Sun, Falling Shadow creating two novels that capture a fascinating time and place.

Jack 1939 by Francine Mathews

Jack 1939 by Francine Mathews I am just old enough to remember the day that John “Jack” Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated on 22 November 1963. It was an event that shocked the world and turned the man into a mythical character, the subject of hundreds of books and much speculation. We are all familiar with the images of Jack and Jackie, of JFK and Marilyn Monroe, and on and on.

So, I was intrigued when I came across Jack 1939, a novel by Francine Mathews. This is the year when an almost 22-year-old John F. Kennedy “Jack” was working on his Harvard thesis. His father, Joe Kennedy, was the American Ambassador in London, Franklin Roosevelt was President of the United States, and J Edgar Hoover was the head of the FBI. All of these men are the main characters in what becomes, essentially, an espionage thriller.

We meet Jack in a hospital ward; he is very ill, thin and lethargic. His illness baffles his doctors and there is fear that there may not be a cure. A radical and rather strange treatment is attempted and seems to have a positive affect. Released from the hospital Jack is summoned to meet with the President, offered a commission that must remain a secret even, perhaps especially, from his own father.

It is in Europe that Jack will begin his work for the President. He sails for England, and the home of his parents and siblings. I will admit that I know little about the lives of the Kennedy family apart from the events that got into the newspapers over the past 50 years or so. I knew nothing about the life of the Kennedy family in the years before, and during, the Second World War. We all know the Americans were late in coming into the war, and that Chamberlain was blind by intention or ignorance about what was really going on in Europe just prior to the invasion of Poland. I learned a lot about those years from this novel.

Francine Mathews stresses that Jack 1939 is a novel, a work of fiction, but it is compelling enough, as a novel, that after reading this book I was left very curious about what Jack Kennedy was really doing at that time and how close to truth this novel might come. Of course we know that JFK, as he came to be known, did not die of a rare disorder, but I discovered by doing a little research that he did indeed have a rare disease as a young man – in fact was plagued by it all of his life. His doctor later said that after he was finally diagnosed with Addison’s Disease and treated, he was in the best health he had ever been at the time of his assassination.

There is of course a woman involved in the novel, perhaps the only woman the fictional Jack would truly love. Jack is shown to be a man who became as famous a womanizer as his father, if one is to believe the portrait painted of that rather unappealing man. Joe Kennedy was not an easy father. Jack, as the second son, had it easy compared to Joe Jr. who was being groomed for the future presidency by his ambitious father. And there appears to have been no love lost between the parents – Rose, a mother who ignored her children as much as possible, often away for months at a time.

After reading Jack 1939 I thought that if John F Kennedy was even slightly as fascinating in real life as he is in fiction, I’d like to read more about the man and the truth about his life during the Second World War and after.

Kate Ellis – The Jackal Man, The Cadaver Games, The Shadow Catcher

A trio of mystery novels for comfy cozy lazy reading Kate Ellis – The Jackal Man, The Cadaver Games, The Shadow Catcher

When I first discovered the mystery novels written by Kate Ellis, I read all that had beenpublished and continued to read as each new installment was published until two years ago when for some reason I missed a couple. This fall I thought I would catch up and read the three most recent, all featuring Detective Inspector Wesley Peterson, his wife Pam, his fellow policemen, and his archaeologist friend Neil Watson.

Wesley is an educated policeman with a degree in Archaeology, he is a black man, a novelty still in the small town of Tradmouth in he West Country of England.

The Jackal Man, fifteenth in the series is, as always, both a modern day murder mystery, and the mystery of a death from the past discovered while Neil is working on a job at the nearby Varley Castle.

When the first body shows up wrapped in linen it reminds Wesley of the Egyptian death rituals he once studied. It seems far too much of a coincidence that Neil is close by cataloguing the collection of the late Sir Frederick Varley (no, not the Canadian painter!) but an Edwardian collector of Egyptian artifacts. Varley Castle has been inherited by a great-granddaughter, Caroline, and Neil, always with an eye for the women, decides although he’d rather be outdoors digging he might just be able to tolerate this job.

As I settled into the novel, which seemed at first a little too light weight after a summer of reading great literary fiction, I remembered why I had enjoyed these books by Kate Ellis so much – there is both the history and the present day murder mystery to follow. I enjoyed reading about the relationships in Wesley’s work life, and his life at home, and even if I think I have an inkling about who might have done it, I am, happily, often not completely right.

The Cadaver Game comes next, with a case that involves local teenagers. When a young couple do not return after a night out it may or may not be that they have just gone off together for a lark. How worried should their parents be? And who else has something to hide? Too many as it turns out. This time Neil is taking on an even more miserable job – in an effort to raise funds for his archaeological organization he has agreed to dig up the recent burial of a “performance art” picnic that took place some years ago. The so-called “artist” is difficult to work for and Neil is not too unhappy when the discovery of a body complicates the project.

I carried right on to the most recent in the series The Shadow Collector. Reading in this way is just like watching your weekly British murder mystery on the television, and just as lazy and comfortable.

This time we have a convicted murderer who has served her prison sentence before returning to her home near Tradmouth. Convicted of killing two teenage girls, whose bodies were never found, Lilith is determined to live in her home again, in spite of the anger still felt by the locals. When another young woman is found dead things heat up for Lilith and for Wesley and his cohorts. This time Neil is called in to supervise the excavation of the basement of an historically important home. When a connection is found between the owners of the home and the murder weapon Neil and Wesley are once again working together. And, when Neil is critically injured it is Wesley who is determined to discover why and who is responsible.

As always we have the life at home, Wesley always working too much, Pam teaching during the school year or at home alone with full responsibility for the children, the eldest Michael struggling as he leaves primary school and must prepare to prove himself at a new school.

We read about places with names like Mercy Hall and Devil’s Tree Cottage and our detectives devour lunches of bacon butties and pints of local ale. The cobbled streets of Tradmouth, with a view to the river, all give us all that we look for in a British murder mystery. Comfy cosy – and just a little (well maybe a lot) lazy.

Unexploded by Alison Macleod

Unexploded by Alison Macleod Brighton is one of those places on my “wish to visit” list. It keeps getting bumped off and I’ve not yet been to this city on England’s south coast. But after reading the novel Unexploded by Alison Macleod I think I’ll move it up on the list.

Geographically Brighton was on the front line as a potential target for the German Luftwaffe, and many of those who lived in Brighton during the Second World War remember vividly the fear they felt during those years. Life became smaller and more insular with restrictions of movement and curfews, from 6pm to 9 am when residents could not leave their homes. There were defensive sand bag trenches along the coast - the beach was out of bounds – laid with mines and barbed wire. Two of the magnificent piers were demolished.

A radio program, widely listened to, by William Joyce, an American born broadcaster of German propaganda dubbed “Lord Haw-Haw”, declared that Hitler would make Brighton his headquarters in England, and therefore would not bomb the Royal Pavilion.

There was, still, a very real fear of both a German landing and bombing – and when bombing eventually came it was devastating. In September1940 the local cinema, full of children, was bombed on a Saturday morning and in November 1940 the Royal Pavilion and the Dome were seriously damaged. The bombing of Park Crescent as described in Unexploded was very real.

So we have very real wartime history and the experience of the residents of Brighton woven into this novel. Alison Macleod, a transplanted Canadian, has done her research. Set into this time and place are her characters, Evelyn and Geoffrey, and their son Philip. Men whose positions were considered essential services were not drafted but were expected to do their part, and Geoffrey Beaumont, as the local bank manager, takes on the position of Superintendent of the nearby enemy alien camp. His wife Evelyn does not work outside the home but takes on the volunteer position of reading to some of those imprisoned while Philip is at school.

They all live with the fear of German invasion, listening to the doom and gloom of Lord Haw-Haw, the news as irresistible as it is dreaded. Philip sneaks off with school friends to the barricaded beaches – Evelyn attends a lecture by Virginia Woolf, an author who lives nearby. Geoffrey prepares for an invasion by burying money in the back garden - along with a more menacing item he does not disclose to this family but one that takes on importance in the progress of the novel.

As a reader who was once obsessed with Virginia Woolf and her work, I loved the fact that Evelyn is reading The Waves aloud to a prisoner in the camp, and makes reference to her throughout the novel. When Mrs. Woolf does not appear for a talk about her new novel, The Years, in April 1942, sadly I knew why.

People behave differently in wartime when life may be short, and both Geoffrey and Evelyn find themselves involved in activities that they would never have remotely considered in earlier times.

But I will tell you no more – one of the wonderful things about this novel was that I knew nothing about it before I started – the cover attracted me – and the fact that it was a novel set in war time England and was longlisted for the 2013 Booker prize. I enjoyed discoveries I made about wartime Brighton and the lives of those who lived at that time. The characters Alison Macleod peopled her novel with were delightful to spend time with. What more can one ask of a novel – Unexploded is a jolly good read.

International Festival of Authors Wednesday 23 October

The International Festival of Authors Parry Sound presents an evening to celebrate the written word, with readings by four authors – Lewis DeSoto, Alexander Maksik, Janet E. Cameron and Nicole Lundrigan - Wednesday 23 October at the Charles W. Stockey Centre. This week’s review has been written by Stevan McCallum, an educator currently teaching at our local High School, and a member of the committee that arranges to bring authors to Parry Sound.

A Marker to Measure Drift by Alexander Maksik – reviewed by Stevan McCallum When readers encounter a gifted writer with an important story to tell, they are afforded an opportunity to enter the minds of people they might never happen upon in a lifetime. Such readers can easily be transported across oceans, and through time, to destinations they could never otherwise look upon. In Alexander Maksik’s second novel A Marker to Measure Drift, he leads readers to places, and into people’s lives, which are at once enlightening and uncomfortable, but frighteningly believable.

Readers follow Jacqueline, a woman who has fled Liberia in the early-going of the Second Liberian Civil War. We are at times eavesdropping on her imagined conversations with the sister and mother left behind. At other times, we witness her fond recollections of her not-too-distant past. Both occur as she finds her way around a Greek Island.

Jacqueline, however, is only playing the part of a tourist. She has arrived illegally and carries with her little more than memories of her family (memories she struggles to keep, and it is only in the end we understand their value). Passing as an American student with impeccable English, we are reminded of her facts: “You are alone. You have the clothes you’re wearing. You have the contents of your pack. Including twenty euros. It will soon by night. It will soon be colder. You are thirsty. You will soon be hungry again.”

I found Jacqueline’s situation so vivid I couldn’t help feel I would make many of her same decisions. I also found her concerns believable: she takes great pain to avoid looking homeless, recognizing that she will be treated differently if she is discovered to be homeless--a fate she seems to dread more than being arrested. The desire to pass as a tourist often supersedes hunger, shelter or friendship.

It is between Jacqueline and reader where a vital parallel is created. At points, like her, we desire for her to meet someone, hope she can find the courage to ask for help, and question the methods of her parents. The parallel remains through to the end where I struggled hearing Jacqueline’s story as much as she did telling it. Moreover, the shock I experienced in hearing the story is minute compared to the shock Jacqueline experiences living it.

Though despite the focus on Jacqueline, Maksik offers other characters with whom we are able to see ourselves...or potential selves. In the tourists, residents of the island, and others like Jacqueline, we are presented with a variety of attitudes to Jacqueline. Her desire to form relationships is developed alongside the reader’s snapshots of tourists, some which hit close to home. It was in these other characters I questioned, which character am I most like? Which tourists have I been? And, most telling, am I the person who resembles the character I’d most like to be?

If fiction is about taking readers places and offering new or different perspectives, then we can be thankful our escape is figurative. To know that Jacqueline’s escape was a necessity--and is a necessary and literal escape playing-out with great frequency in our newspapers and television--is horrifying.

Alexander Maksik will read from A Marker to Measure Drift at the Charles W. Stockey Centre tonight at 7:30 pm.