The Hiding Game
Naomi Wood
Picador, £14.99, pp352
The author of the critically acclaimed Mrs Hemingway turns her attention to the political and cultural landscape of Germany in the 1920s. When Paul Beckermann arrives at the Bauhaus art school in 1922, he’s captivated not only by his teachers but his fellow students too, not least the enigmatic Charlotte. But while Paul is immersed in the seductions and rivalries among his new friends, the rise of the far right threatens the Bauhaus’s very existence. Interweaving the personal and the political, Wood creates an atmospheric backdrop through which to explore the impact of macro events on art, culture, friendship and personal freedoms.
Passionate Spirit: The Life of Alma Mahler
Cate Haste
Bloomsbury, £26, pp496
In this meticulously researched and absorbing biography, Haste reassesses the life of Alma Mahler: socialite, composer and muse. Through extensive reference to diaries, previously unpublished letters and interviews with Mahler’s granddaughter, Haste draws a portrait of a complex, ambitious, highly accomplished woman. Married three times – to composer Gustav Mahler, architect and founder of the Bauhaus, Walter Gropius, and writer Franz Werfel – Mahler is depicted as a woman who not only facilitated the creative pursuits of her husbands and lovers, but was an intellectual and creative force in her own right.
The Trick to Time
Kit de Waal
Penguin, £8.99, pp272
Mona will soon turn 60. She lives alone by the sea, running a shop where she makes beautiful outfits for dolls. When she meets a local man and they begin taking day trips together, the newfound intimacy ignites memories from her troubled past: a tragic childhood, a difficult marriage, the death of loved ones. But Mona has found a means of coping with her grief – a process she shares with others in similar circumstances – in scenes that are as unexpected as they are moving. De Waal is a compassionate and insightful writer, and here she tackles addiction, depression and illness in luminous prose and with emotional acuity.
• To order The Hiding Game, Passionate Spirit or The Trick to Time, go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £15, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
