I have rarely been so over-awed by a modern novel.Ī bit surprising, I know! But this 1985 epic western sat on my shelves for thirty years before I finally decided to give it a go, and at last I see why it won the Pulitzer Prize. Think Grand Budapest Hotel crossed with The Shawshank Redemption, all focused on a protagonist so beautifully realised he might have been conceived in a great work of nineteenth-century Russian literature. Although living in Brighton where her recent Constable Twitten mysteries are set, the former Times columnist has maintained close links to the Island and was only too happy to kick off our new blog series.įirst published in 2016, this is the gloriously absorbing and humane story of a courtly, gentle White Russian aristocrat confined to a high-class Moscow hotel for the decades following the Russian Revolution. Known to many as the author of Eats, Shoots and Leaves, the brilliantly entertaining book on punctuation that sold over 3 million copies worldwide, Lynne’s earlier novel Tennyson’s Gift was an hilarious take on the Freshwater laureate and his Island friends. Our first respondent is the bestselling author Lynne Truss.
At Medina Bookshop we are keen to celebrate this and are asking various people to share with us the books which have got them through lockdown. For many people, the pandemic has been a great opportunity to get through that pile of books waiting to be read, and for some, books have been their salvation.
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