Three Indie Publishers' Books

 
The last ten months or so have been extremely difficult for the publishing industry in general, and especially difficult for small indie presses that have managed to bring brilliant new books into the world despite a pandemic. Exit Management by Naomi Booth, published by Dead Ink Books last summer, is one of them. Lauren, who is originally from the north of England, works as a graduate HR executive at a City firm and specializes in "exit management," also known as firing people in less formal terms. She is very ambitious about moving up the property ladder, even in a city where a bedsit in Deptford is always advertised as a "luxury studio in outer Greenwich." Callum is a young man in his twenties who lives in Croydon with his parents and gets a job at GuestHouse, a company that finds elite temporary residences in London for the super-rich. Callum develops a close relationship with one of his clients, József, a terminally ill elderly man who came to England as a refugee from Hungary.



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When Callum and Lauren happen to meet outside József's home in Elgin Mews, Lauren assumes Callum owns the property, and the three characters' lives become interconnected in unexpected ways. Characterisation is particularly strong in this novel, as it explores Lauren and Callum's relationship in more interesting ways than simply depicting them as millennials struggling to make ends meet in London. I'm looking forward to reading Booth's debut eco-horror novel, 'Sealed.'

The Sound Mirror by Heidi James was also published last year by Bluemoose, the Yorkshire-based publisher of Leonard and Hungry Paul, and it is yet another word-of-mouth success that I have heard a lot about on Twitter. It tells three intertwining stories from Tamara, Ada, and Claire's points of view. Tamara is traveling from London to Kent in modern-day England when she is introduced with the line, "She is going to kill her mother today."

Ada is starting a new life in England after India gains independence from Britain several decades earlier, while Claire is the daughter of Italian immigrant parents who was evacuated to Wales as a child during the war and later ends up with caring responsibilities of her own. The narrative jumps back and forth between the three characters in very short chapters, exploring themes of motherhood and trauma. I guessed one of the main character connections that isn't fully revealed until the end, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of this excellent novel in the least.

I've had Judith Heneghan's Snegurochka on my shelves for a while now, and I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. It was published a few years ago by Salt and tells the story of Rachel, who moves from the United Kingdom to Kiev in 1992 with her baby son Ivan to join her husband Lucas, a BBC journalist. The family lives in a rented house on the 13th floor of an austere tower block, and Rachel struggles to adjust to motherhood as well as a different way of life in a foreign country, where not speaking the language is just one of many challenges.

Locals are mystified as to why Rachel would choose to move from an affluent country to one where shortages are widespread, the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 remain a serious concern, and transactions for obtaining goods such as a washing machine are far from simple. Heneghan has used her own experiences living in Ukraine in the 1990s to demonstrate how Rachel views the city very differently than Lucas. Heneghan skillfully builds tension and brilliantly conveys the unsettling atmosphere, in addition to a distinct sense of place. It comes highly recommended.











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