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Mirror Book Club: Deborah Orr's brilliant memoir and Jo Nesbo's best yet


In this week’s rundown of the best reads, the Mirror Book Club shines a spotlight on Motherwell by the late journalist Deborah Orr.

Meanwhile the 12th instalment of the Harry Hole series is arguably Jo Nesbo’s best yet.

A devastatingly good novel by Jeanine Cummins opens with a massacre and we look at a nostalgic tale of devastating but enduring love by Jane Sanderson.

And don’t forget to join the Mirror Book Club – details below.

Motherwell, by Deborah Orr

W&N, £16.99

In this brilliant and searingly honest memoir, the late journalist Deborah Orr examines the long-term impact of growing up in a dysfunctional family in Scotland in the 60s and 70s. She was born in Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, in 1962. Her mother Win was a difficult woman whose obsession with keeping up appearances meant she could never understand her daughter’s desire for a different life. Win seems determined at every turn to crush her daughter’s aspirations.

“My childhood,” says Orr, “was like growing up in a religious cult without the religion. It felt very harsh at times.”

In Motherwell, Orr re-evaluates her childhood, and her recent death from cancer makes this fascinating account all the more poignant.

BY MERNIE GILMORE

Motherwell by Deborah Orr and Knife by Jo Nesbo

American Dirt, by Jeanine Cummins

Tinder Press, £14.99

This devastatingly good novel opens with a massacre as a Mexican family of 16 are gunned down by gangsters at a barbecue. The only survivors are Lydia and son Luca. As the pair attempt to evade the killers, nowhere, is safe. In breathtakingly tense prose, Cummins describes their race to escape Mexico and reach the American border. They jump on buses, hide in a hotel and take a terrifying ride atop a train. Thrilling.

BY EITHNE FARRY

Knife, by Jo Nesbo

Vintage, £8.99

The 12th instalment of the Harry Hole series is arguably Nesbo’s best yet. Hole is in a bad place – the love of his life, Rakel, has kicked him out, he’s hit the bottle and lost his job. And his first big arrest, killer Svein Finne, is out of prison having sworn revenge on Hole, which threatens to make his downward spiral worse. Knife is the perfect blend of police procedural and a thriller packed with suspense, heartbreak and intrigue.

BY JON COATES

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins and Mix Tape by Jane Sanderson

Mix Tape, by Jane Sanderson

Bantam Press, £12.99

Music obsessives Alison and Daniel are besotted teens in 1970s Sheffield. Alison lives with an alcoholic mum and her abusive partner, so Daniel’s family offer shelter in a storm. But one day Alison disappears, leaving Daniel heartbroken.

Thirty years on, Alison and Daniel live on opposite sides of the world with their families. Then their paths cross again in a nostalgic tale of devastating but enduring love.

BY HANNAH BRITT

Join the Mirror Book Club!

Each month we choose a paperback we think you’ll enjoy, either fiction or non-fiction. When you’ve read it, we’d love you to join our Facebook
group and tell us what you thought, good or bad.

Current Mirror Book Club read:

A Keeper, by Graham Norton





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