2025/117: The Travelling Cat Chronicles — Hiro Arikawa (translated by Phillip Gabriel)

I am Satoru’s one and only cat. And Satoru is my one and only pal. And a proud cat like me wasn’t about to abandon his pal. If living as a stray was what it took to be Satoru’s cat to the very end, then bring it on. [loc. 2825]

Nana (not his choice of name) is a streetwise stray cat who, after being hit by a car, is taken in and cared for by a man named Satoru. They live together happily for five years, but then Satoru takes Nana on a series of road trips to visit old friends who he hopes will give Nana a home: 'Something came up, and we can’t live together any more'. None of the friends -- whose backstories are told in third person -- are able to offer a suitable home, and eventually Satoru and Nana end up living with Satoru's aunt Noriko, who is not a cat person. At least not to start with.

This could have been a cloyingly sentimental book, but Nana's sassy street-cat voice elevates it. It's a story about loss and grief as well as about the love between a man and his 'darling cat'. It brought tears to my eyes at several points (the ending is sad but hopeful). I also found it immensely humane and comforting. 

While I was reading, I was mostly interested in Nana: after I'd finished, I went back to look at how Satoru's past -- revealed as he meets each set of friends -- affected Satoru as he grew to adulthood. There is loss and grief, but Satoru weathers those episodes with grace. He doesn't seem to have had romantic relationships (or possibly Nana just didn't notice or care about them) but he is full of love for life, and for his friends and family. And for his darling cat.

2025/116: The Friend — Dorothy Koomson

Yvonne began to laugh. ‘You’re all so funny!’ she screeched. ‘You all act like you’re best mates, but really? You’re all so fucking pathetic with your stupid secrets and lies. I bet none of you know what I know about all of you.’ [loc. 5920]

Read for book club. Cece Solarin has just given up her job and moved to Brighton with her huband Sol and their three children: Sol's been promoted, and is seldom around. On her boys' first day at school Cece discovers that a popular parent, Yvonne, is in a coma after being attacked one night in the school playground. The brittle, fearful, suspicious atmosphere makes it even harder than she expected to make friends and connections, but she becomes friendly with three other young mothers -- Maxie, Hazel and Anaya, each of whom was friends with Yvonne, and each of whom has a Big Secret in her past.

Cece's ex, Gareth, shows up and more or less blackmails her into using her profiling skills to investigate her new friends and discover who tried to murder Yvonne: Gareth is convinced that it's one of the three. '...one of them has a caution on record for assault; one is being investigated for possible fraud and one, I don’t know, one of them there’s something about her' [loc. 3992]. Cece accepts the challenge.

This for me was a depiction of an alien world. None of the women seem interested in anything except their children and husbands: they don't read books, listen to music, take an interest in politics. The protagonists are racially diverse, but -- despite the Brighton setting -- I don't recall any characters who aren't cis-het. The women, Cece included, have Secrets: we know this because the first third of the book is basically 'oh, it would be Terrible if anyone knew about my Big Secret'. And of course Yvonne knew everything, or nearly everything: there's a motive! Once some of the secrets are revealed, the book became more interesting -- until the denouement, which stretched credibility to breaking point. (I'm also not convinced the timings worked.)

I may update this review after the book club discussion next weekend... maybe the discussion will help me see what I missed.

2025/115: A Thousand Sisters: The Heroic Airwomen of the Soviet Union in World War II — Elizabeth Wein

“Nobody knows the exact day when they started calling us night witches,” said pilot Serafima Amosova. “We were fighting in the Caucasus near the city of Mozdok... We were bombing the German positions almost every night, and none of us was ever shot down, so the Germans began saying these are night witches, because it seemed impossible to kill us or shoot us down.” [loc. 2889]

I love Wein's novels, which are mostly about young women during WW2, so thought I'd try her non-fiction. A Thousand Sisters is an account of female Soviet pilots in the Second World War -- the infamous 'Night Witches' -- who flew fighter planes and were united by the desire to 'liberate their land'. Many of them were teenagers: some were mothers. A third of female pilots did not survive.

Wein gives a good overview of Soviet culture, especially in the military. Between a quarter and a third of all Soviet pilots, by the end of the 1930s, were women: this was because any young person could learn to fly, free of charge. The women pilots seem to have experienced little, if any, sexual harrassment (though plenty of gender discrimination). Unlike American women -- who were not allowed to fly combat missions during WW2 -- the Soviet women pilots received equal pay and were not subject to racial discrimination.

Unlike the novels, Wein doesn't wax poetic on the joys of aviation. Instead, she focusses on the technical difficulties, and the dangers, of aerial combat. She details the various missions and offensives, quoting extensively from the womens' own accounts. (There's a thorough bibliography at the end of the book.) A Thousand Sisters is aimed at a young adult audience, and Wein engages the reader's sympathy and imagination by stressing the youth of the pilots, their camaraderie, and their determination to make a difference. "...change is possible. It can begin with one person. Go out and change the wind." [loc. 3806]

“When weather caused the cancellation of a mission, everyone stayed at the airfield and danced,” said Irina Rakobolskaya. “It would never come into any man’s head to do that, while waiting for permission to fly.” [loc. 1999]

2025/114: The Scandalous Letters of V and J — Felicia Davin

...on the way over Aunt S said, “The people we’re about to meet may tell you shocking things about me.”
“Shocking things like how you’ve aided your niece-nephew in perverting the social order and defying nature itself?” I asked.
“Oh, is that what you’re doing?” Aunt S said. “The social order seems intact to me. And if it’s your goal to defy nature, you might have to put in a bit more work.” [p. 172]

A young person -- 'I'd rather be Victor than Victorine' -- is evicted from the family home, and moves to Paris with their Aunt Sophie. In a run-down boarding house they encounter art student Julien, who is also Julie and who doesn't want to be trapped into being 'one or the other when I've always been both'. 

Julie(n)'s transformation is magical, achieved by painting self-portraits: they're very proud of their hands. Victor, it turns out, is also capable of changing the world: when he writes a strongly-felt letter with a particular pen, the recipient believes what's written. (Cue a bloodless heist of ten thousand francs.) But Julie knows more about magic than Victor does, and is keen that Victor destroy the 'cursed artifact'. Victor, though, is intrigued by this new hidden world, and realises that his mother's death -- and perhaps also his father disowning him -- is also due to magic...

Also, they are in love. And in lust.

I'd enjoyed Davin's SF M/M romance trilogy (Edge of Nowhere, Out of Nowhere and Nowhere Else) though I note that I purchased this novel well before I discovered those! The Scandalous Letters of V and J -- first in the 'French Letters' series: I've wishlisted the other two volumes -- is quite different in tone and setting (Paris in the 1820s rather than mysterious space stations), but the prose is as assured and witty as in the Nowhere books. V (transmasc) and J (non-binary) are fascinating characters with very different personalities and beliefs, and with distinctive voices. The magic system, and the abuses perpetrated using magic, are thoughtfully explored and well-integrated with the romance. And I especially liked the stories-within-the-story, told (usually as a prelude to, or a part of, a sexual encounter) by V.

This is a very steamy book and I wasn't really in the mood for the steam, which seems a waste. But even skimming the sex scenes I could appreciate how much they contribute to the plot and the characterisation.

2025/113: Emperor's Wrath — Kai Butler

The sky was blue, and three ravens sat on the wall above me, each looking deeply judgmental.
“Poor showing,” Terror said.
“Is this really the one we’re putting our faith in?” Dawn asked.
“I ate the mother mouse,” Ratcatcher said. “Haven’t had time to tell you yet.” [loc. 2302]

Second in the 'Emperor's Assassin' series, which I discovered while reading this volume is a trilogy with the finale due in autumn 2025 (aargh). Airón and Tallu are married, and Airón is beginning to understand Tallu's plan -- and the fate awaiting the last Emperor. The ravens are delightful; there are airships, elephants and ghosts; and there are several powerful, intelligent and deceptive women. Another big revelation at the end, and months to wait until the series finale!

Butler's prose is very readable, and her pacing is excellent: I really liked the touches of humour (which made a particular character's death all the more affecting) and the Machiavellian machinations of the various factions. And I do like Airón, though I'd love to read Tallu's perspective on events. (And to meet the rest of Airón's family, including the sister we glimpsed all too briefly at the beginning of the series.)

I expect I'll be rereading this and Betrothed to the Emperor later this year, in preparation for Shadow Throne King...

2025/112: Betrothed to the Emperor — Kai Butler

I felt as taut as a bowstring pulled, ready to release the arrow and realizing that I had to build the target I needed to hit. [loc. 1690]

Airón, prince of the Northern Empire, has been raised as an assassin: his twin sister Eonai is to marry the Emperor of the fearsome Imperium, after which Airón will kill his new brother-in-law. He doesn't expect to survive, but the Imperium must be destroyed. Except it all goes horribly wrong when Eonai and Airón are presented to Tallu, 'a viper' reportedly responsible for the deaths of his parents and younger sibling. Because Tallu decides that he will, instead, marry Airón...

Classic enemies-to-lovers plot, with the addition of a hilarious raven named Terror (Airón can talk to animals, part of his Northern heritage), some half-starved sea-serpents in the palace lake, a dragon egg -- which Airón does not treat with nearly enough care -- and a supporting cast of servants, nobles and soldiers. Because the story's told as Airón's narrative, we know as little as he does about the Emperor's true motives, which keeps Airón wrong-footed and the reader intrigued. The worldbuilding was intriguing, and the budding romance credibly slow.

I enjoyed this a great deal and instantly read the next in the series...

2025/111: Return to the Enchanted Island — Johary Ravaloson (translated by Allison M. Charette)

He got sent to a cell... went before the judge, did three months of community service at the Garches hospital, was all the same spared extradition—a random impulse would never extinguish his luck.[p. 96]

Translated from the French, this novel is the first I have read by a Malagasy author. It interweaves Malagasy heritage and history with the story of Ietsy Razak, privileged son of a wealthy family, named after the 'first man' in Malagasy myth. Ietsy is sent to France to 'continue his education' after a misadventure with drugs in which a schoolmate dies. There, he meets and falls in love with Ninon, and is devastated at the end of their affair. He becomes an illegal alien when he forgets to renew his visa. 

Despite being lazy and prone to depression, Ietsy tends to fall on his feet. He has good (and patient) friends, and seems to get away with a great deal. It's a clash of cultures -- Madagascan nobility versus modern, democratic France -- and only by returning to Madagascar can he find peace and happiness.

I don't think the audiobook -- capably narrated by Ron Butler -- was the best way to appreciate this novel. I found it difficult to understand the parallels between the mythic and the real Ietsys, and I didn't really warm to the protagonist, a spoilt slacker exploiting his social status to get away with ... well, with causing the deaths of others. But Return to the Enchanted Island did offer a portrait of Malagasy life, culture and history, and in that respect was interesting.

I note that the original title, Les larmes d’Ietsé, translates as 'The Tears of Ietsy': perhaps a more descriptive and less generic title than the rather vague Return to the Enchanted Island.