Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett
If ever a book cried out for a Kindle, it’s this behemoth, the concluding wodge of Follett’s mega-selling “Century” trilogy. The lists of characters are awesome; besides the mob of fictional people, there are personal appearances from the likes of JFK and Ronald Reagan, and the plot is basically most of world history, from the raising of the Berlin Wall to President Obama’s Oval Office. Follett’s prose is clunky and his dialogue wooden, but of course there’s a reason he’s a bestseller — he can so tell a story. The first page finds Rebecca Hoffman, a young East German teacher in 1961, worrying that her lawyer husband is having an affair. When she is summoned by the secret police, she makes a dreadful discovery — and then we’re booted over to America, where a young mixed-race Harvard graduate named George is throwing himself into the civil rights movement. It’s like watching a high-end boxed set.
Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett, Macmillan, 1007pp, £20; ebook £8.99. To buy this book for £18, visit thetimes.co.uk/bookshop or call 0845 2712134
Clara’s Daughter by Meike Ziervogel
Michele is 49, and a successful businesswoman. Now that her children have grown up, she has more time to spend with her husband, Jim. She loves her job for “the status and the illusion of power that it gives her” — and any power is certainly an illusion, at least in her private life. Her mother, Clara, is ill and living alone with her dead husband’s cherished clothes. Jim suddenly leaves, and Michele packs her live husband’s clothes into binbags. Her basement in North London is converted into a flat for Clara, but the stubborn old thing hates the soulless, paint-smelling place. Michele, meanwhile, finds that she can’t stand having her mother at close quarters — in fact, has never been able to stand it. This searching, beautifully written novel gets to the heart of a woman’s attempts to step out of the role of her mother’s daughter, and make sense of the person she has become. Terrific.
Clara’s Daughter by Meike Ziervogel, Salt, 133pp, £9.99. To buy this book for £9.49, visit thetimes.co.uk/bookshop or call 0845 2712134
Two More Pints by Roddy Doyle Cape
In 2011, Doyle published Two Pints, a little book that was simply a collection of conversations in a Dublin pub about world events. Here’s more of the same, even funnier than the last (and so crammed with cheerful obscenities that quoting is decidedly tricky). Jimmy Savile? “Well, look it, I went to the Christian Brothers. I didn’t have to look at Top o’ the Pops to know what a paedophile looked like.” The menswear chain Abercrombie & Fitch? That’s “where the young fellas nearly show off their tackle.” And “Fiscal Cliff” is not a rapper. The dialogues are hilarious, and it’s easy to race through Two More Pints in a very short time. The observations are so witty, however, that it’s worth keeping it handy for whenever you need to raise a smile. And it’s never too early to think of great gifts; the whole family will be quoting this on Boxing Day.
Two More Pints by Roddy Doyle, Cape, 114pp, £7.99; ebook £4.48. To buy this book for £7.59, visit thetimes.co.uk/bookshop or call 0845 2712134