2008 books

8) Bruce Chatwin, The Viceroy of Ouidah, 1980
Chatwin originally intended to write a biography of the 19th Century slave trader Francisco Felix da Souza, but instead turned his research into a work of fiction about a similar Brazilian adventurer, one who sought to control the slave trade that ran through Dahomey's port city. Chatwin instead was able to produce something that is richly imagined, leaving out very little in terms of atmospheric detail that is somehow able to seep off the page, while at the same time the written tone remains both terse and compelling. The story itself does take time to get going and I found it necessary to re-read the anachronistic first chapter to completely understand the context and perspective of the whole book, which is otherwise completely memorable. Now I need to seek out Werner Herzog's film Cobra Verde, which was based on The Viceroy of Ouidah (if only to get another fix of Klaus Kinski).

2008 books

9) Neil Gaiman, Coraline, 2002
Gaiman's children's novel that won a Hugo, a Nebula and a Bram Stoker Award, by golly. Coraline is a girl who discovers an alternate version of her own family through an unused door in her house. The tone and pacing of the story are pretty much flawless (despite a few passages of dialogue which I felt could have done with some tightening up), but the tale itself is often a very creepy one, full of stuff kids will inevitably love. I really ought to read more Gaiman, and I'll probably pick Neverwhere or Smoke and Mirrors next.