Take a virtual tour of Tokyo via fiction

Take a virtual tour into the heart of Tokyo.............

A coming of age story, almost a novella, that charts the relationship between Takashi and Haruka.
For us at TripFiction, this is a fabulous novel that weaves its way into the heart of Tokyo life and brings the city into sharp focus for the reader. This is a great novel for exploring frenetic Tokyo life, offering up little aspects that make Tokyo, well, Tokyo. The automatic opening of taxi doors, the young peoples' love of Western and Japanese named brands,descriptions of the kotatsu heaters that many older style dwellings still have. Pocky Sticks! The intricacies of the subway lines. And the delightful examples of how the Japanese enthusiastically embrace western words and names that result in what, to us, are plain wacky: the author mentions two wedding magazines called Zexy and 25ans, and the coffee shop "hors et dans". It's all there, little vignettes of how the city works.... and not a single mention of Pocari Sweat!! If you fancy an armchair trip to Tokyo, either to rekindle memories of a visit, or to prepare for an upcoming journey; or just because you want a bit of insight, then give this book a go. It is a a quick read and can be purchased via this link:

http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2294

If you fancy a couple of other novel suggestions, then click on this link to our previous Tokyo blogspot. They are all top reads and will transport you to the city via fiction.

http://tripfiction.blogspot.ch/2012/05/two-books-for-starters-in-tokyo.html

Tanoshimu! 

Hanoi set fiction

The Beauty of Humanity Movement by Camilla Gibb

This post can now be found on the TripFiction blog here

A couple of novel suggestions for ROME

We are taking you on a journey to Rome this week, via some wonderful fiction. We have chosen just a couple of books that are perhaps less well known than some of the more obvious choices like: 

•  Eat, Pray, Love http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/196
•  I, Claudius http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/484 
• Angels and Demons http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/1429

or the novels by Steven Saylor or Iain Pears, for example. For us these two iconic novels just capture the feel of the Eternal City from two very unusual perspectives. There are lots more books that will evoke Rome through their pages at www.TripFiction.com -  just pay us a visit!

"see a location through an author's eyes"

"This is not really like anything else I have read (the Road, perhaps?). One single sentence guides you through just over 100 pages from beginning to end. 1943, a young pregnant woman mulls over her situation, the situation of the world, and her place in Rome, and Rome's place in the world, in a stream of consciousness. I read it in a couple of hours and was bowled over." http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2248

A small, culturally mixed community living in an apartment building in the centre of Rome is thrown into disarray when one of the neighbours is murdered. As each of the victim's neighbours is questioned, the reader is offered an all-access pass into the most colourful neighbourhood in contemporary Rome. Each character recounts his or her story - revealing the dramas of emigration, immigration, and the fears and misunderstandings of a life spent on society's margins, abused by mainstream culture's fears, preconceptions and insensitivities. (and isn't the title just wonderfully quirky?) http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/178

Please help us the build this site into a really valuable resource for travellers: you can do this by buying your books through our site, as we get a small commission from every sale with no cost to the purchaser (if you buy a Maserati through our site, for example, that would help us greatly!); come and write reviews and, of course, suggest more titles to add to the over 2000 titles. It's a great way to get to know a destination in such a unique way.

Cool coffee fiction

 

Drinking a glorious cup of coffee, a Flat White, a Macchiato, a Verlängerter, a Cappuccino, an Espresso, a Café crème .... where did the coffee craze start? We have selected a couple of historical novels that just capture the essence of the bean, with a bit of chutzpah and some great writing.


Amsterdam in the 1600s. Lienzo, a Portugese Jew, stumbles across a new commodity - coffee - which, if he plays his cards right, will make him the richest man in Holland. But others stand in his way - rival traders who do all in their power to confuse the exchange and scupper his plans, his brother who is jealous of his financial wizardry and even his brother's beautiful wife who both tempts and spurns him in equal measure. http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/1181

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Ethiopia, 1895. Robert Wallis, would-be poet, bohemian and impoverished dandy, accepts a commission from coffee merchant Samuel Pinker to categorise the different tastes of coffee - and encounters Pinker's free-thinking daughters, Philomenia, Ada and Emily. As romance blossoms with Emily, Robert realises that the Muse and marriage may not be incompatible after all. Sent to Abyssinia to make his fortune in the coffee trade, he becomes obsessed with a negro slave girl, Fikre. He decides to use the money he has saved to buy her from her owner - a decision that will change not only his own life, but the lives of the three Pinker sisters . http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/848

Please do suggest any other coffee themed novels that you know of. We would love to be able to build up a collection of books with coffee at their heart - just let us know via the Comments Box.

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Amazing fiction set in Amsterdam

A couple of delectable novels set in Amsterdam, both very different and selected from our collection of city set fiction. If you are looking for a specific genre just title an e mail Book Butler at contact@TripFiction.com and we will help you find great literature that evokes a location - an innovative way to get a feel for a place.

"see a location through an author's eyes"

A strange and mesmerising book, set in Amsterdam. Two couples - the two men are brothers - meet over dinner one evening and the structure of the book is governed by the courses of the meal, various dishes pepper the plot, you can almost hear the sound of the cutlery clinking on plates. The polite discourse circumnavigates the core event, perpetrated as we find out by the offspring of the two couples. It is a stylish and sometimes quirky read, darkly delicious in parts and thought provoking. Does it conjure up Amsterdam? It certainly has a Dutch flavour but it is the storyline that captures the imagination. http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2241



In contrast this is a richly evocative novel set in the wintry city. This is a story which stretches back over 250 years. Ruth Braams is an art historian who works on processing claims on artwork stolen by the Nazis during their occupation of the Netherlands. One day in the Rijksmuseum, she meets an elderly lady called Lydia who has registered a claim on an odd little painting - and here begins a dark adventure. http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/1703



Whether it is The Diary of a Young Girl (Anne Frank) or books about Tulip Fever, come and share the books that have transported you to the canals of Amsterdam here, in Comments. Love to hear from you....help us to make this a valuable resource for travellers.

Viva Las Vegas in Fiction

As Las Vegas has been in the news recently (the flashing of some very royal peaches in the city caused quite a stir), we thought we would select a couple of novels from the 2,100 currently on our database, that just ooze glitter, light and action, set in this, the grandest (and seediest) of North American desert cities. These are dazzling reads, and truly transport you the reader to the city, almost as if you were there yourself....

"see a location through an author's eyes" 



16 stories. Las Vegas provides the classic sophistication and darkness necessary for a deadly noir story. Stylish, sultry, brimming with ambition and greed, the characters who populate this literary Las Vegas are pushed to the extremes of human experience. From the neon glitter of the Strip to the treacherous views of Red Rock Canyon and Boulder City, from the desperation of Naked City to the racial tensions of the Westside, no other location offers so many different avenues leading to serious trouble.
http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/1940

Angela receives a letter from the immigration service revoking her visa. 30 days to obtain another visa or leave the country! Best friend Jenny Lopez suggests that she marries boyfriend Alex................
http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2082

It's Halloween in Las Vegas and things are crazier than normal for Connie the wedding planner. Vicky and Frank are in town for their nuptials but she soon realises that he has more on his mind than wedding bells. Vicky's teenage daughter Tina is less than impressed until she meets Connie's moody and enigmatic son Kyle. Frank's brother John is trying to hold everyone together but then something happens that turns the wedding party on their heads at 4am in Las Vegas! http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2133

You can support www.TripFiction.com in so many ways -
become a member via Google Friends here, follow us onTwitter and Facebook; write reviews, buy books through our site and suggest titles that are evocative of location. Together we can build this site into a great resource for travellers. Thank you to all supporters.

Come to Kerala via fiction

Two very different books to transport the reader to Kerala....

The first is aimed at young adults, and is the story of Cassia who accompanies her Mum Lula to Kerala. Through her eyes , the reader experiences Cassia's take on India, and her zeal for engaging others in her love for dance, coupled with the anxieties of her age group, both real and imagined. This book is due out early September 2012 and is the Winner of  the 2011 Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices children's Book Award.
http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2357





The second is the story of Rahel and Estha, twins growing up among the banana vats and peppercorns of their blind grandmother’s factory, and amid scenes of political turbulence in Kerala. Armed only with the innocence of youth, they fashion a childhood in the shade of the wreck that is their family: their lonely, lovely mother, their beloved Uncle Chacko (pickle baron, radical Marxist, bottom-pincher) and their sworn enemy, Baby Kochamma (ex-nun, incumbent grand-aunt). Winner of the Booker Prize. http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/214


Pop over to our Facebook page where we are randomly giving away top novels set in location to readers who give us a LIKE. https://www.facebook.com/pages/TripFiction/170507589708729?ref=hl

The Scent of Lemon Leaves...in Spain...

We were really pleased to discover The Scent of Lemon Leaves by Clara Sánchez, a great novel set in a small part of Spain that many Europeans will have visited in their Summer holidays. It conjures up the real feel of a Spanish Urbanización and surrounding countryside as the story unfolds with the change of seasons.......
Click on the cover to find out more.



The story of young woman Sandra and older gentleman Julian. Their paths cross by the ocean on the Costa Blanca, near Javea (El Tosalet) and gradually they build a friendship that is based on examining the true origins of a community of elderly foreign nationals who live there. Sandra finds herself lodging with Karin and Fredrik, an elderly Norwegian couple who are not all they initially seem. Julian has been a witness to the couple's history in the concentration camps of the Second World War and the atrocities they were capable of. Beautifully translated by Julie Wark this is a book that lingers on beyond the final page.


Plenty of novels set in and evocative of Spain. Tell us which is your favourite in the Comments Box below.

Cambodia - In the Shadow of the Banyan - stunning!

 

"impossibly beautiful"

There is not much to add to that comment, this is a tremendous book set in Cambodia, it is absolutely in our Top 20 reads. If you want a bit about history of the revolution that took place in there 1975-1979 and a beautifully told story, part autobiographical, then this is an absolute must. Cambodia just lifts off the pages,the jungle, the heat, the oppression, the animal life, all observed throught the eyes of Raami, an 8 year old girl. Written in a style that is both lyrical and profound it is a book that lingers long after the book has been closed for the last time.

As it says on the cover it is in the mould of The Other Hand, Half of a Yellow Sun and The Kite Runner. http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2334

We will be starting a top 20 list of titles set around the world, this will certainly feature on our list. If you have a top title, share it with us and our readers in the

 Comments Box
This is one of the other books that will definitely appear on our top top reading list http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2160 (set in Tokyo/Beijing)

ROME and La Dolce Vita via fiction

Three fabulous novels that absosulutely capture the feel of the 1950s and 1960s in Rome and La Dolce Vita - Mario Lanza, Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren, Audrey Hepburn...suddenly Rome has become the most glamourous place on earth. Enjoy these specially selected books and transport yourself back in time.

"SEE A LOCATION THROUGH AN AUTHOR'S EYES"

Rome of the 1950s, a terrific period of gorgeous frocks, glittering events and movie stars. Rome is all about narrow streets and alleyways, grand boulevards, fountains and piazzas full of life in the heat of the day, sultry at night, cafes and bars full of music and larger than life characters: .... Mario Lanza - this is the novel of Serafina, a poor girl who finds her way into the great singer's household and becomes an important member of the entourage.

And if you want even more glamour, this is another terrific read, evocative of both the era and the places, Rome and Hollywood. The story begins on the Italian coast in 1962. A young innkeeper watches in disbelief as a beautiful American girl gets out of a boat and climbs towards his hotel. She turns out to be an actress, on the run from the shenanigans going on down the coast in Rome at the filming of Cleopatra. A few days later international star Richard Burton, much the worse for wear, appears in the village too.

Half a century later, and half a world away in Hollywood, an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio's back lot - searching for the woman he last saw in his hotel fifty years before.

And in this final selection, real crime, behind the scenes of the glamourous lifestyle in this historical exposé. On 9 April 1953 an attractive twenty-one-year-old woman went missing from her family home in Rome. Thirty-six hours later her body was found washed up on a neglected beach at Torvaianica, forty kilometres from the Italian capital. Some said it was suicide; others, a tragic accident. But as the police tried to close the case, darker rumours bubbled to the surface. Could it be that the mysterious death of this quiet, conservative girl was linked to a drug-fuelled orgy, involving some of the richest and most powerful men in Italy?. 

 

AT TRIPFICTION WE FEATURE 2,500 NOVELS SET IN OVER 760 LOCATIONS - GOING ON A TRIP SOON? THEN CHOOSE YOUR FICTION TO EVOKE YOUR CHOSEN LOCATION - IT'S A FASCINATING WAY OF GETTING TO KNOW A PLACE. CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW WHICH WILL TAKE YOU STRAIGHT TO THE WEBSITE TO BROWSE.



Farang on Phuket

We feature a couple of novels set on the island of Phuket to whet your appetite - feel the sun blazing down, settle down in a hammock and drift into the world of island life in Thailand.

Catching the Sun tells the story of the Finn family and their move to the North of Phuket. The experience of the farang (it is farang in plural rather than farangs??), the Westerners who try to make the island paradise their home. The scenery is lush and evocative, but life and natural events take their toll. The beach is real, the story is fiction - and you can tell that Parsons has a real sense of what it means to dive into Thai island life, the bars are there, the fairy lights, the festivals, the food, the smells and the sun going down over the glassy ocean. Raise a Singha beer to good fiction and enjoy a rollercoaster ride!
http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2225


Another story of what lurks beneath the island idyll. Welcome to Phuket. It s a paradise, for the rich, the beautiful and the heavily armed. When Jack Shepherd runs into international racketeer and fugitive Plato Karsarkis in a Phuket beach bar one night, little can he imagine the series of events the chance encounter sets in motion. Jack finds himself swiftly embroiled in a world of arms deals, extortion and blackmail.

http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/1854



Do drop by our site www.TripFiction.com and if you know of a book that deserves recognition because it really brings a place to life (and we don't already feature it) let us know. We are also starting to take reviews of books - so imagine coming to the site to look for readers' Top Three Fiction set in Paris, or Top Three Crime set in Bangkok - this is a new and exciting way to get to know a place and find inspiration for new reading material!

Passion (and food) in Paris

This book landed one day in our letterbox and we thought, hmmm, not another gastro tour through the great city. But this is truly insightful, intelligent and at times funny (though, ok, we got a bit lost on some of the references to American culture) and it is pepperered with luscious recipes. Here are some highlights from the book that caught our eye:

1. So, who knew (this is an aside gleaned from the book) that the Mona Lisa has a ganglion cyst on her thumb (look carefully at her portrait and you will see it!).

2. Check out the author's thoughts on French women who pick at their food (and what might that say about their sex lives?????)

3. A great tip for getting willowy souffles: "Everyone wants her souffles (oops, don't mind the incorrect use of the pronoun here, the proof editing has missed a few typos in our copy, and moving on swiftly....) to reach towering heights. Our friend Virginie has an interesting trick. When you butter the sides of the ramekin, use vertical strokes, going from bottom to top. It helps the souffle "crawl" up the sides as it bakes".

4. And to finish off, this is an example of why we found this book such a beautiful read: "I ordered a salad with smoked salmon. I know that doesn't sound like a particularly decadent repast,  but it is. That's because the French long ago mastered the art of serving salad so it doesn't feel like a punishment for something. There are always a few caramel-crusted potatoes on your salade niçoise, or a plump chicken liver  or two bedded down in a nest of lamb's lettuce. Or your salad might be topped with what is called a tartine - a large thin slice of country bread (Poilâne if you are lucky) topped with anything from melted goat cheese to shrimp and avocado.
My lunch arrived, a well-worn wooden planche heaped with pillowy green lettuce, folded in a creamy, cloudy, mustardy vinaigrette. Balanced on top were three half slice of pain Poilâne, spread with the merest millimeter of butter, topped with coral folds of salmon."

Click on the cover to find out more. Available to purchase through TripFiction and local bookstores

Share your favourite books that are especially evocative of Paris with us here in the Comments Box.

Into the zone of East Germany

In this selection of books we take you back to the era around the Fall of the Berlin Wall, second half to the 20th Century, to capture the feel of life behind the Wall and recommend some terrific reads to evoke the times.


A thriller set in the paranoid last weeks before the Fall of the Berlin Wall, depicting the special squads of armed officers, the torture chambers in the Stasi jail, the hundreds of thousands of informers who could do nothing to prevent the rebellion that saw the fall of the Berlin Wall....

"Porter's success lies in his ability to weave the fictitious lives of his characters into the real history of the period".

http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2301


So, anyone who has had the experience of crossing into East Berlin before the Wall came down will probably get a huge amount from this book, just the small observations of life as it was, the border crossings, the intrigue and paranoia. And a good plot that re-evokes the period.

http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/346




"Extraordinary tales from the underbelly of the former East Germany"

The two Germanies are reunited, and East Germany ceases to exist. Funder exposes life Behind the Wall as she trawls through documents and meets people who have stories to tell.

http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/284






http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/332 The setting is the divided city of Berlin. Twenty-five-year-old Leonard Marnham is assigned to a British-American surveillance team.Though only a pawn in an international plot that is never fully revealed to him, Leonard uses his secret work to escape the bonds of his ordinary life - and to lose his unwanted innocence; and a horrific turn of events leads the reader gasping.



In our Comments Box do suggest other novels that evoke the period of division between the two Germanies - there are lots of fascinating reads out there, which ones would you recommend?

Two complementary books set in Japan

We are very lucky to to have great people who introduce us to books that perhaps we wouldn't come across in everyday life. The Ginger Tree by Oswald Wynd is without doubt a real find! Here, we bring together two fabulous books that superbly describe Japan in the earlier part of the 20th century, each featuring a very determined woman, who struggles to find her position in contemporary society. Both books, we have to say, are firmly in our Top 20! Beautiful style, evocative of locale....need we say more?


http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2160 A young woman travels from Edinburgh to Peking in the early 20th century, and writes about her experiences in diary form. She is trapped in a loveless marriage to a stiff and conventional man, falls in love with a Japanese warrior and pays dearly for that passion. It is then that Mary's real journey begins, as she courageously starts to forge a new life for herself in Tokyo, just as Japan is witnessing the first rumblings of the industrial powerhouse it was to become. Just a wonderful book!



http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/1284 Chiyo-chan is a nine year old girl from a small fishing village,who has experienced a simple life until her Mother becomes fatally ill. She is sent by her Father to Gion, one of the Geisha areas of districts of Kyoto. She grows into the most stunning Geisha Sayuri and this is her story beautifully told. There are references, too, to actual places frequented by geisha and their patrons, such as the Ichiriki Ochaya, and brings the life of a Geisha of Gion to life (and if you are fortunate you can still catch a glimpse of a traditional 'Geisha' in the alleys of Gion in Kyoto)


If you feel inspired to read a couple of books set in, and about Tokyo, then take a look at this past blog - these book choices are designed to help you get a new and inspired perspective and to see a location through an author's eyes. There are many more books "set in" on our website: www.TripFiction.com - do drop by.

http://tripfiction.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/two-books-for-starters-in-tokyo.html

These are the books we would take to Sicily

Pick up some of our suggested novels if you are heading for Sicily and get right under the skin of the largest of the Mediterranean islands! These are our book tips to help you get a real feel for this complex and beautiful place, and to get the most out of a visit there. Click on the covers to find our more.



From Guardian columnist Matthew Fort comes this delicious travelogue, as he muses about life, food, family and sooo much more, as he scoots round Sicily on a Vespa.

"If you are travelling to Sicily you absolutely have to take this "






If you are holidaying in peak holiday time, in August, then this seems a very apt choice to add to our list. Andrea Camilleri has written several books featuring Inspector Montalbano, gastronome, and solver of crimes, all set around, and hugely evocative of the island. Some of Camilleri's novels have recently been adapted for the BBC.






Starting in Palermo this book trawls through a bit of art, food, history and literature to shed light on southern Italy's legacy of political corruption and violent crime. It brings to life the doors banging shut, the odd voice, but you don't see anyone about. Spooky! This is the kind of book that gets under the skin of a place and is a great read to explore Sicily, offering all kinds of interesting information...




We have plenty more books set in Sicily to tempt you, so please do browse here. And if you would like to us to add any books set in Sicily that have captured the feel and flavour of the island for you - and we don't already feature them - then please let us know. Help us to build up this site and make it a really superb resource for travellers!

Novels and "Tells Alls" for Mile High readers

About to jet off to your chosen destination? Then pick up one of our novels set  around flying. Choose a novel or a "tell all".  Find out what really goes on behind the Business Class curtain, the goings on backstage when you are asleep, or what it is like to be airborne and work your socks off. Ever wanted to know what can happen if you misbehave as a passenger? Is there really a cupboard to store a body if someone dies? Come and circumnavigate the globe via books, and then touch down at your chosen destination and choose your novel via www.TripFiction.com. Lots of amusing insights and storylines in our Mile High fiction section! Time to jet off.....

Our collection of "flying" novels can now be found over on Pinterest

Warm up for the Olympics with more London based fiction

Eyes will soon be directed towards London and the big sporting event coming up there. We bring you some more novels set in different areas of  the Metropolis, which, we feel, offer the reader a quintessential feel to the city, in all its wonderful diversity. 

If you decide you would like to buy one of our featured books, you would help us enormously by clicking on the link. This will take you straight through to the book and then to Amazon; for each sale that clicks through from our site - and, dear reader, this includes Porsche cars as well as books - then we receive a small percentage from that sale. This will enable us to get funding together so that we can build this site into a truly top resource for those who want to experience a location via fiction. If you are new to this concept, then just give our recommended books a go, follow the characters along the capital's streets, see the English in their own environment, and enjoy the city from a very different and intimate perspective.

Stratford East - Barbara Nadel brings us a new and original pair of detectives in poverty-stricken Stratford East, whose inhabitants are cynical about any possible improvements the Olympic Park can make to their wretched lives. Here another set of Londoners is impelled towards disaster. Maria, a faded stand-up comedian whose fame reached its apogee 20 years ago, seeks the help of dodgy private investigator Lee Arnold when she begins to experience frightening delusions. Maybe they're not all in her mind, which is, frankly, rather filthy....... http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2259


Belgravia - Disgruntled servants working in salubrious Belgravia. Not all are unhappy with their lot, for there are Dickensian below-stairs exploiters as well as thoughtless bankers and aristocrats in the grand apartments above, although the chauffeur who finds himself obliged to service both the mistress and the daughter of the house is uncertain as to his good fortune. The novel's plot forms a complex web in which power sways back and forth between employer and employed, where every coming or going has an observer, and it's not long before we anticipate at least two deaths on the way. http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2258


SOHO - Alice lives in Soho and her life revolves around her career and attending glamorous premieres and parties. But her life is completely transformed when her partner decides to buy a puppy. Hilarious anecdotes and how to clear up mess (do not wear a scarf!) in this romp through London.....

"A must read if you love dogs!!"

http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2261



In a past blog we have featured books set in the following areas of London:

Greenwich -   http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/1901

Brick Lane -  http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2135

Hatton Garden - http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2190

Fiction fit for the Olympics 2012

Capture the Olympic feel through these novels - spectate ringside, via TV or delve into a good read, you are never going to be far from some sporting intrigue and achievement over the next few weeks.

And if you would you like to add any other Olympic-themed books that you know of, then please use the Comments Box below to notify us - let's try and build up a comprehensive list.


Cox by Kate Lace
http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2249

Rowing. Dan, Rollo and Amy. In a boat Dan and Rollo row perfectly together, but on land they despise each other. So with the addition of Amy to the mix, sporting behaviour is the last thing on their mind. May the best man win? Not a chance. From Henley Regatta to the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, and finally to the biggest race of their lives,the Olympics, their determination to settle old scores threatens to capsize everyone's plans.


Gold by Chris Cleave
http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2146

Cycling. This book opens at the 2004 Olympic Games with Zoe about to race for gold in the Women's Sprint Cycling event. Three GB cyclists, Kate, Jack and Zoe who go back years. Kate and Zoe are rivals. This is the world of the Olympic cycling athlete, preparing for London 2012. But it is so much more than cycling!




The Fastest Loser by Gideon A Mailer http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2250

After witnessing the senseless deaths at the Munich Olympic Village in 1972, Herman aims to find sporting heroes, with different nationalities and ethnicities, who are willing to conceive and raise a child. In essence, to make new life from love and bridge ethnic divides. What better place to do so than in the Olympic Village, a place where the world's youth assemble in their sexual and athletic prime. "What a great novel! It makes me wish I were back in the Village!"

Fine Florentine Fiction

At TripFiction we have a great selection of books set in the wonderful city of Florence. If we wanted to be reminded of a visit there.... if we wanted to explore the city via fiction and discover a new stimulus....if we wanted to recapture the moments of a memorable trip........ then these are the books we would choose as a starter, truly evocative of the city, encompassing a bit of history, a bit of art and a bit of crime.

And if you have any books set in Florence that you want to share with us, then do so in the Comments Box below.

"See a location through an author's eyes"

Alessandra is not quite fifteen when her prosperous merchant father brings a young painter back with him from Holland to adorn the walls of the new family chapel. She is fascinated by his talents and envious of his abilities and opportunities to paint to the glory of God. Soon her love of art and her lively independence are luring her into closer involvement with all sorts of taboo areas of life. On excursions into the streets of night-time Florence she observes a terrible evil stalking the city and witnesses the rise of the fiery young priest, Savanarola, who has set out to rid the city of vice, richness, even art itself. 




The narrator is Mary Warren, an American. She has been the victim of a near fatal attack in the Boboli Gardens during which her husband was murdered. Two years later, the suspected murderer having been killed in a car crash, she returns to Florence to be with her lover. More murders occur in these crumbling alleyways of this beautiful city. 

‘A claustrophobic, atmospheric novel, which vividly evokes a city full of ghosts and painted angels.’


In 1966 the Arno River in Florence floods its banks causing huge devastation to stored artworks, and antique books. As a book conservator Margot Harrington flies in – along with many other volunteers – to add expert help in the conservation of fine art. They are known as the “Mud Angels”. She finds her way to a Carmelite convent where she discovers a book, bound within a book of erotic drawings. She is charged in secret to find the highest bidder for these drawings by the abbess, so the convent might supplement its meagre income. This is the story of her quest to conserve this masterpiece, her love affair and the trials of those working under duress to preserve as many items as possible for posterity. 

Click on the covers for more information and here you can find all the books we feature in Florence.

Flake down the warps in Spetses, then the Atlantic

Spetses - The Atlantic  - St Lucia

Two great sailing themed books

 

We were taken with  the compact book Three Ways to Capsize a Boat by Chris Stewart, the memoirs of an inexperienced mariner who sails against the tide in the Solent in his first ever sailing lesson. He then picks up a crabber and sails around Spetses in Greece, which he captures in delightful detail:


http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/1560



"The little harbour teemed with fish and there were candles in jam jars on the tables, the scent of jasmine and honeysuckle complemented by dishes of fried squid with the lightest coating of batter glistening with droplets of freshly squeezed lemon"

Stewart goes on to join a crew on a vintage wooden boat, en route to Iceland and the Northern Hemipshere, and then across the Atlantic. He shares his experiences and observations of being boat-bound for many days on the trot, but despite the vast greyness, he soon sees that birds are the flowers of the sea; learns that the fulmar doesn't lay her first eggs until she is eight, so careens around the oceans with nowhere to perch for comfort and warmth; that dolphins come to skitter and play around the boat as it ploughs onwards.... Even how (not) to use a sextant...
The reader learns alongside the author the joys, fears and occasional lunacy of crewing a boat.

Our second choice continues the nautical theme, in the mystery genre, Final Passage by Timothy Frost. When Martin Lancaster was eighteen, his father was tragically lost at sea during a transatlantic yacht race. Twenty-five years later, Martin discovers hidden logbooks in his mother's attic, and vows to find out the truth. His quest takes him racing across the Atlantic in the Columbus Cup, the world's largest-ever regatta, an event that becomes a personal voyage of discovery and disaster. On the Caribbean island of St Lucia, with his enemies closing in, Martin must make one desperate final sea passage to discover the shocking truth about his family - and himself. http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2198


And as always if you would like to suggest any maritime-themed books, that are evocative of location, then please let us know. We would love to hear from you...

"See a location through an author's eyes"

Insider tips for LONDON via fiction - some real gems!

A couple of books set just out of the centre of London. Truly evocative, truly brilliant - read the books set in our selected areas, and the environs literally jump off the pages; three different genres that reflect the huge diversity of this grand, Olympic city, a little something for everyone.

First off is maritime GREENWICH, captured in this great book by Penny Hancock. Life set on the Thames just lifts off the pages, and a gripping psycho thriller to boot. Find out the meaning of Tamasa, the original name given to the Thames; take the bus to Blackheath which derives its name from the burials there of the victims of the Black Death; experience views onto the Wapping Tobacco Warehouse, once the biggest public building in the world...
"The visual descriptions of the river and the house are incredibly compelling"

http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/1901



To HATTON GARDEN, the heart of London's jewellery trade, with author Rachel Lichtenstein, and explore the byways and highways of this little known quarter of London. Discover the rich layers of history in this well researched exploration of London.

http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2190




Monica Ali has written a super book about the BRICK LANE area of London; we thought we would feature a book that is perhap a little less well known.
After ten years living abroad, Tarquin Hall wanted to return to his native London. Lured by his nostalgia for a leafy suburban childhood spent in south-west London, he returned with his Indian-born, American fiance in tow. But, priced out of the housing market, they found themselves living not in a townhouse, oozing Victorian charm, but in a squalid attic above a Bangladeshi sweatshop on London's Brick Lane. A grimy skylight provided their only window on the new world.
http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2135

Do come and leave reviews on our site www.TripFiction.com. Tell others whether a book you have read is soooo evocative of location that you are almost there with the characters - it's a great way to experience somewhere new or to revisit a destination that you have loved!

"See a location through an author's eyes"

The GAP YEAR and BACKPACKER experience via novels, set in more places than can be counted

Descriptions of several beautiful countries in our selected books are enough to get you jumping onto the next plane, though some of the stories might have your hair standing on end........

China ☀ Burma ☀ India ☀ Indonesia ☀ Koh Pha-Ngan ☀ Australia ☀ Hong Kong

Are you Experienced? by William Sutcliffe will have you in stitches. The protagonist is Dave, a 19-year-old Londoner on a gap year before starting university. He had no intention of leaving Europe, until his best mate James, who's about to go on a trek through the Himalayas, challenges him. "Do you want to learn Fwench David? Something pwactical for your CV?" he taunts when he hears Dave is going to be a waiter at a Swiss ski resort. So Dave is persuaded to head off on the gap year experience of his life in India... http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/2177




Border Run by Simon Lewis.......Bored of the ‘mango smoothie’ trail and keen to spice up their Facebook albums, and maybe their sex lives, Jake and Will take a tour into China’s jungle borderland with Burma. Their guide, however, has his own agenda and gradually the two gap-year students slip into a nightmarish spiral of murder and moral decay, their chance of survival determined by a game of hide and seek played out with deadly crossbows.
A fast paced, adrenaline ride of a novel: Deliverance meets Lord of the Flies. http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/1576

The Backpacker by John Harris - The author's trip to India starts badly when he finds himself looking at the sharp end of a knife in a train station cubicle. His life is saved by the enigmatic Rick, who persuades John to abandon his mundane plans for the future for much, much more. Fast forward to the Thai island of Koh Pha-Ngan where they pose as millionaire aristocrats in a hedonistic Eden of beautiful girls, free drugs and wild beach parties. Soon pursued by Thai Mafia, they escape to Indonesia, Australia and Hong Kong, facing danger at every turn. http://www.tripfiction.com/Book/634


As ever, if you have a title you think we could feature - a book that is set in and evocative of a location - then just let us know via the Comments Box