Featuring three books with Yorkshire links and two previous visitors to Kemps, this month includes harrowing historical fiction exploring Nazi war crimes, a mystery on the Yorkshire Moors, and fascinating non-fiction exploring a Victorian psychiatric hospital.
Also, throughout August, join Kemps in Malton every Wednesday morning for storytime perfect for young children this summer!
Meanwhile, here are some books to add to your summer reading list.
The Mare by Angharad Hampshire
York-based author and research fellow at York St. John University, Angharad Hampshire, has accentuated an often-overlooked aspect of Nazi history in her haunting debut novel.
Hermine Braunsteiner was the first person to be extradited from the United States for Nazi war crimes, after working in a concentration camp. Nicknamed the eponymous ‘The Mare’ by inmates due to her notoriety for kicking the incarcerated to death, Braunsteiner lived a normal, quiet life following liberation of the camps, beloved by those around her, including Russell Ryan, whom she married and emigrated to New York with. No one knew the detrimental secrets entrenched within her until her life was upended in 1964 by a journalist's revelations. Braced with the convictions of love and betrayal, Russell must navigate a moral dilemma as he offers unwavering support, despite the obfuscations and damning evidence of the horrors closest to him.
Through a fictionalised account, The Mare is a harrowing exploration into how ordinary people can descend into the banality of evil through indoctrination and fear as they become cogs in a dictatorial regime. It does not shy away from the egregious cruelty committed in concentration camps, but offers nuance through shifting perspectives, highlighting humanity’s violent capabilities and concluding that the true horror is found not in the similarity to the victims but the similarity to the perpetrators.
The Night Stairs by Erin Kelly
Set in the North Yorkshire Moors at a Catholic boarding school for girls, The Night Stairs is an atmospheric gothic thriller from Erin Kelly, a critically acclaimed voice in the crime-writing community and best-selling author.
St. Cordula’s is a religious institution steeped in tradition, with the legend of a fifteenth-century nun, Sister Matilda, ensuring the school's safety— as long as the words ‘God Forgive Me,' scrawled by Matilda before she fell to her death on the eerie chapel staircase, are repainted each year. When the sacred words were neglected and faded, a mysterious psychological affliction called ‘the spins’ gripped the school, resulting in the death of a pupil. Now, twenty-five years later, students display the same inexplicable bouts of vertigo, which Fiona must curtail as the vexation threatens to ruin the reputation of the revered school and before St.Cordula’s darkest secret claims another life.
Through a dual timeline and multiple narrators, the sense of foreboding is laced throughout and is expertly combined to reach the pinnacle of the unravelling. With themes consisting of grief, hysteria, betrayal, and faith, The Night Stairs is a layered mystery with supernatural elements and familiar Yorkshire setting.
Said the Dead by Doireann Ní Ghríofa
Devoted to examining how the past materialises within the present, Ní Ghríofa dedicated hours of archival research to publish her latest work — an exploration of a derelict Victorian psychiatric hospital in Cork, portrayed through a unique narrative that blends history and ghost story.
Following the introduction of deinstitutionalisation and subsequent closure in 1992, the subject of discussion opened as Eglinton Lunatic Asylum in 1852 and was rebranded as Our Lady’s Hospital a century later. Throughout those decades, hundreds of patients were admitted through those doors and their voices concealed within the archives. From acute melancholia and chronic mania to poverty and unwanted pregnancies, we meet numerous women who found themselves incarcerated, as well as Lucia Strangman, the first female psychiatrist to enter the asylum service of Ireland, who strived for moral treatment and to break the cyclical ‘no change’ inscribed on records by male doctors.
After initially abiding by confidentiality rules, the Reader believes it is a disservice to refer to the women with a single initial. Therefore, we meet Anna Martha, who pulled a revolver on the magistrates who decided whether she should be put in an asylum, and Bridget, who was a ‘vulnerable woman engineering a display of femininity in exchange for freedom,’ yet labelled as ‘homocidal’ and ‘treacherous.’
With murmurs from the archives and whispers from hospital walls, Said the Dead is an intriguing book that blurs past and present, fabrication and reality, leaving you immersed in case records alongside the Reader. It is permeated with compassion and sensitivity, resurrecting forgotten patients and doctors, allowing them to be heard.
Dreamland by Olivie Blake
Olivie Blake is a bestselling author of speculative fiction, with well-known books including The Atlas Six Trilogy, Masters of Death, and Girl Dinner. Her work revolves around the fantastical, paranormal, and supernatural, exploring a confluence of themes surrounding the complexities of love and life.
It is the summer of exsanguination in LA, and the stifling winds are blowing a strange energy into the city, where a flurry of girls are being found murdered. Anya Morris is an aspiring actress willing to do whatever it takes to break into Hollywood and escape her claustrophobic life, so when she is offered the opportunity to work with the eminent de Witt family, she jumps at the chance. Her job: keep watch over the adult son, Jude, whom she has met before. The aforementioned son has an ostensibly rare health condition that forces him to live a reclusive life, and, despite the glaring warning signs, Anya is captivated by the enigmatic son and becomes embroiled in the bloodstained secrets concealed behind the glamour of one of Hollywood’s dynasties.
Blurring the lines between metaphorical and existing demonic caricatures, Dreamland follows a non-linear narrative satirising the rich and famous. With themes of ambition, an insatiable desire for success, power, and corruption, it is an unsettling novel rich with symbolism, intersecting horror, noir, and dark fantasy.
Roman Mornings by Matson Taylor
Yorkshire author, design historian, and previous visitor to Kemps, Matson Taylor returns with a book of friendship, love, and grief set in the idyllic cobblestone streets of Rome, rendering it an ideal summer read.
Yorkshire-born teacher Clementine arrives in Rome in 1952 full of optimism and idealism for her new venture in Keats’ footsteps, with plans to share her joy of the arts and create a monograph on the Romantics. By 1976, her visionary output had faded and her youthful dreams quashed by time. But when her eccentric friend, Floss, graces her with a mint green Vespa, she cruises through the Italian streets admiring the figurative Renaissance features and immersing herself in aromatic bustling piazzas. It is during these explorations that she fortuitously meets Monty, a troubled young carpenter whom she crashes into; from there, Clemmie and Floss aid his convalescence, forging an unlikely friendship that conveys hope for all involved.
With a variation of characters, including a wise fluffy cat called Octavian, searching for their purpose in life, comes a whimsical tale of a found family. It is both wholesome and poignant, embracing Rome's history through its ecclesiastical features and Romantic poets, transporting you to the revered holiday destination.