Saturday [suggested by Simon Henshall]

Saturday, February 15, 2003. Henry Perowne, a successful neurosurgeon, stands at his bedroom window before dawn and watches a plane — ablaze with fire like a meteor — arcing across the London sky. Over the course of the following day, unease gathers about Perowne, as he moves amongst hundreds of thousands of anti-war protestors in the post-9/11 streets. A minor car accident brings him into confrontation with Baxter, a fidgety, aggressive man, who to Perowne’s professional eye appears to be profoundly unwell. But it is not until Baxter makes a sudden appearance at the Perowne family home that Henry’s earlier fears seem about to be realised. [product description from Amazon]

The book has its own Wikipedia page.

Author’s Wikipedia page.
Author’s website.

Shortlisted for this month

The book selector for the month can choose up to three books for nomination. This month Simon’s other selections were:

Beloved

It is the mid-1800s and as slavery looks to be coming to an end, Sethe is haunted by the violent trauma it wrought on her former enslaved life at Sweet Home, Kentucky. Her dead baby daughter, whose tombstone bears the single word, Beloved, returns as a spectre to punish her mother, but also to elicit her love. Told with heart-stopping clarity, melding horror and beauty, Beloved is Toni Morrison’s enduring masterpiece. [product description from Amazon]

The novel has its own Wikipedia page and was made into a film in 1998, which also has a Wikipedia page.

Author’s Wikipedia page
Morrison has no website at time of writing but biography.com does have some biographical notes for her.

The Inheritance of Loss

High in the Himalayas sits a dilapidated mansion, home to three people, each dreaming of another time.

The judge, broken by a world too messy for justice, is haunted by his past. His orphan granddaughter has fallen in love with her handsome tutor, despite their different backgrounds and ideals. The cook’s heart is with his son, who is working in a New York restaurant, mingling with an underclass from all over the globe as he seeks somewhere to call home.

Around the house swirl the forces of revolution and change. Civil unrest is making itself felt, stirring up inner conflicts as powerful as those dividing the community, pitting the past against the present, nationalism against love, a small place against the troubles of a big world. [Product description from Amazon]

The book has a Wikipedia page.

Author’s Wikipedia page.
Once again, no website for this author, but biographical notes here.