Sample Saturday is when I wade through the eleventy billion samples I have downloaded on my Kindle. I’m slowly chipping away and deciding whether it’s buy or bye.
How to Set a Fire and Why by Jesse Ball
Why I have it: No idea.
Summary: Lucia makes friends by lighting fires.
I’m thinking: Maybe (although the sample was stupidly short…).
The China Factory by Mary Costello
Why I have it: Recommended when I did my Irish misery porn post.
Summary: Short stories about love, misery and the suburbs.
I’m thinking: Yes. Costello’s restraint with words is beautiful.
“I smiled when I passed the other girls those first days, and longed to speak, but feared that words would betray the yearning for friendship that I felt inside.”
Fever at Dawn by Peter Gardos
Why I have it: No idea.
Summary: Holocaust survivor Miklós is shipped from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp to Sweden. While being treated for tuberculosis, he writes 117 letters to 117 Hungarian girls, with the aim of eventually choosing a wife from among them.
I’m thinking: Maybe (again, a very short sample, hardly enough to get a feel for the writing).