Whitcoulls Recommends: Air and John and Paul

The Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin

Air by John Boyne. This is the fourth book in a series about the four elements of matter (the preceding titles are Water Earth and Fire), where he takes each element and writes a story around it. This time the novel is set while the protagonists are on a flight, 30,000 feet up in the air, on a trip towards a woman who isn’t expecting them. It’s story of a father and a son on a moving journey to mend their troubled lives. I love John Boyne and read everything he writes.

John and Paul by Ian Leslie. You think you’ve heard it all before about Paul and John – but this new biography is amazing. It has the music at its heart – the story of two lonely kids both of whom had suffered great grief in their early lives and who formed a really strong bond – and as the author says, when they couldn’t talk about a thing they sang it and even after breaking up maintained a musical dialogue at a distance, in songs full of recrimination, regret, and affection. It’s full of remarkable insight.

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