Four Books Released in 2014 That You Probably Haven’t Read

Definitely the biggest surprise of last year was Tony Parsons’s new book, The Murder Bag. This British writer, known for his novels dealing with human relationships and psychological processes happening within them, has unexpectedly switched his well-known and recognized style for – crime fiction. The critics have received this novel quite well, comparing Parsons’s writing with celebrated crime fiction authors, such as Ian Rankin and Peter James. This captivating book dwells on a murderer targeting rich and powerful men, and therefore gaining public popularity. Detective Max Wolfe strives to put an end to the killings, only to find that his own life is at risk as well.

A love story of two young cancer patients has brought many to tears in the movie theaters last year. The Fault in Our Stars is based on a No.1 New York Times’ bestselling novel by John Green. The storyline follows two teenagers with terminal cancer, and their struggle with unusual teenage problems; knowing that death is undeniably close, they fight to give each day they spend together a meaning and purpose. We recommend you to take the time to read this breathtaking novel, and find out more about the way Hazel and Augustus challenge the way we perceive problems, and life itself.

This year’s Nobel Prize in Literature winner, Patrick Modiano, is enormously famous in his home country, France, but fairly unknown outside of it. Modiano, often referred to as “Marcel Proust of our time”, has released a new novel, Pour que tu ne te perdes pas dans le quartier (literally, “So that you don’t get lost in the neighbourhood”). This book takes us on a writer’s journey back into his childhood, where we gradually discover the not-so-innocent past of the surrogate family he was brought up in. The novel, said to be the writer’s most autobiographical one, deals with issues such as amnesia, old age, and the author’s own outlook on modern literature.

Harry Potter fans have had a special delight this Christmas. J.K. Rowling has released twelve new stories, corresponding to twelve days of Christmas, on her website www.pottermore.com. Every story was hidden behind a riddle, proving that Rowling did not intend them for a casual Harry Potter fan. Some of the narratives give a glimpse of some of the characters’ lives in the aftermath of the plotline; others connect different points in the story, or reveal side stories that did not make it into the “director’s cut”. If you are an enthusiast of Harry’s magical world, hurry to discover these tales that will leave you in awe! 

At the end, we would like to add to our must-read list a classic, dating all the way from 1945; however, its main idea is as relevant as ever. The Bridge on the Drina, for which the Serbian writer Ivo Andric has won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961, explores the stories around a bridge in the town of Visegrad in today’s Bosnia and Herzegovina, spans around four centuries. The novel contrasts the interminable existence of the bridge to perishable lives of the people living around it, and emphasizes how both the Christians and the Muslims from the city face same existential problems and difficulties. This is a point which should be recalled more often by everyone in Europe.

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