In brief: The Giver of Stars; Letters from an Astrophysicist; The Pianist of Yarmouk – reviews
The Giver of Stars
Jojo Moyes
Penguin, £20, pp400
In 1930s Kentucky, Alice Wright marries an American to escape her claustrophobic English family, only to find herself stuck with an inattentive husband and an overbearing father-in-law. Undaunted, she joins a travelling horseback library, through which she meets a remarkable group of women and learns that independence is born of friendship and self-fulfilment. Based on a true story – the library was an initiative of Eleanor Roosevelt’s – Moyes’s book delivers evocative descriptions of the Kentucky landscape and rich historical detail, as well as thoughtfully probing themes of class, race, poverty and violence. But it is in her compassionate portrayal of well-drawn characters that the novel’s greatest strength lies.
Letters from an Astrophysicist
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Penguin, £14.99, pp272
This selection of candid correspondence compiled by the celebrity scientist covers everything from life and death to hope, hate and race. In one, Tyson is replying to his friend Henry Louis Gates, declining an invitation to take part in Gates’s genealogy series: “I don’t look to relatives. I look to all human beings. That is the genetic relationship that matters to me.” When fans write to share their personal fears, Tyson is equally forthright: “Don’t fear change or failure. The only thing to fear is loss of ambition.”
The Pianist of Yarmouk
Aeham Ahmad
Penguin, £9.99, pp288
In 2014, a photograph appeared in newspapers around the world, of a young man playing the piano amid the rubble in Damascus. The man was Aeham Ahmad, a second-generation Palestinian refugee. His memoir tells of the difficulties growing up in Syria, life in a refugee camp in Yarmouk and about facing the daily threat of bombs and snipers. His piano was eventually burned, and the family’s music shop bombed. Now living in Germany, having escaped the Syrian conflict with his wife and children in 2015, Ahmad has created a moving and visceral account of conflict, hope and the power of music.
• To order The Giver of Stars, Letters from an Astrophysicist or The Pianist of Yarmouk go to guardianbookshop.com or call 020-3176 3837. Free UK p&p over £15, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
