Books - Review

Chip and Sid are the rhythm section of a 1930's/40's jazz band - the only surviving members - at least until Chip gets a letter from Hiero, the young and gifted trumpeter who was last seen by Sid being arrested by the Germans in a Paris cafe. Chip persuades Sid to revisit modern Berlin and the two go on a journey into their past discovering how secrets and lies, loyalty, love and ambition have affected their lives ever since.

Pretty good. Great story of German oppression and persecution told from a new perspective. Also completes my reading of the 2011 Booker shortlist :)

Washington Black is a slave boy on a Barbados sugar plantation but he is rescued from slavery by the plantation owner's eccentric brother with whom he escapes in a balloon to new adventures in the Far North and then London, where he helps construct an aquarium.

This was quite good, but required a bit of an effort to finish, for some reason.