Reading for pleasure

Katherine Heiny (Fourth Estate: £14.99; e-book £0.99)

Jane, a teacher in her 20s – “very pretty when she remembered to sit up straight, and pretty enough when she slouched” – moves to a small town in Michigan and falls for woodworker/handyman Duncan, a nonchalantly good-looking man in his 40s who, as Jane discovers to her discomfiture, has already romanced just about every other woman in the area. It would be unduly simplistic to call this their love story, because there’s much more going on: there’s a lot of humour and happiness, but there’s also plenty of loss, pain and heartbreak. Author Heiny, though, has the very lightest of touches, and Early Morning Riser is laugh-out-loud funny in places, with a memorable cast of characters, a handful of delightful extended set pieces, and some devastatingly acute observations. In all the ways that count, this is a remarkable novel.

Anthony Quinn (Little Brown: £8.99; e-book £4.99)

It’s sobering to discover that a historical novel can legitimately be set in 1979, which I’d rather thought was perhaps four or five years ago. Just as well, then, that London, Burning is more than entertaining enough to take my mind off the passage of time. For a few hours, anyway.

Anthony Quinn’s four protagonists – newspaper reporter Hannah, Irish academic Callum, police officer Vicky, and troubled theatre director Freddie – are thrown into a late-70s stew of terrorism, police corruption, political intrigue, and personal infidelity, in a grubby and declining London. It might be a heighted version of reality, but for those of us who can remember the period it feels authentic enough. It’s no surprise that the paths of the four will cross and cross again. What’s more unexpected, perhaps, is how sympathetic the author is towards his creations, with each of them – even the apparently disagreeable Freddie – afforded an opportunity for redemption. London, Burning is a cleverly plotted and literate page-turner.

Jonathan Freedland (John Murray: £20; e-book £10.99)

This is a remarkable book, telling an even more remarkable story. Written by Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland, it tells the story of 19 year old Rudolf Vrba, who along with Fred Wetzler, escaped from Auschwitz, in April 1944, making their way back to Slovakia, their homeland. Vrba’s purpose in doing so was singular: to alert the world to the fate of the Jews with the intention that the Hungarian Jews, who they knew were next for mass deportation, would heed the warnings, resist, rebel and not suffer the fate of so many others. 

Vrba wrote his autobiography. However, Freedland has researched the story with incredible vigour, and spoken with a wide number of individuals including Vrba’s wife, who handed over a suitcase of letters and other written material. 

Vrba was born Walter Rosenberg. The name he adopted was on the false papers he was given on escaping Auschwitz. We follow Vrba as he attempts to escape his home town and deportation; his arrest and transfer to the first camp. The life and conditions he endured at Auschwitz are told in unsparing detail, as are the fate of those who escaped but were captured, the systematic looting of the personal belongings of those sent to the gas chambers – and yet how, with unnerving bravery, risking their lives every day, the prisoners, including Vrba, appropriated some of the clothes, food, papers, gold, money and diamonds, for themselves and also to bribe some of the others in the camps, whether Kapos or Nazi guards. 

Freedland demonstrates clearly that which Vrba so clearly identified, that the Nazis had developed a convincing narrative that deportation was resettlement. This led to an element of trust among those deported such that they took books, salami, cheese, bread, diamonds and money sewn into clothes, which they packed into the one suitcase of belongings they were permitted to take with them. But this became the currency that ultimately assisted Vrba and Wetzler escape. Vrba also methodically memorised the numbers of prisoners he witnessed being sent to their death. 

On their eventual arrival in Slovakia, both men told their story to the Jewish leaders. While Jews were deported from Hungary, Freedland has identified that by ensuring the truth of Auschwitz was made known, 200,000 Hungarian Jews were not deported. The US President and Churchill were made aware of the report compiled by Vrba and Wetzler. Neither acted, Churchill noting “What is to be done”. Freedland has brought to life a story which was largely unknown but which needs retelling. In his hands, it is a masterpiece.