On The Radar: A Javier Calvo novel and a short story collection from Jay Mcinerney

“On the Radar” provides small incidental rundowns on books which I’ve discovered, but haven’t yet purchased. These are titles that I’ve either added to my wishlist or am keeping a close eye on, with a view to adding them. In addition, these are books which I feel may be of some interest to fellow readers, and I welcome feedback as always, on your own opinions and thoughts on the listed titles – especially if you’ve already had the pleasure of reading them.

Wonderful World by Javier Calvo [ISBN: 0061557684] – Spotted as one of the ‘staff picks’ in the latest Hot@Harper newsletter, Wonderful World looks to be a promising title (not least because of its gorgeous cover *grins*). It debuts as the Spanish author’s first novel to be translated to English, and it seems to be one of these novels that has a bit of everything. Publisher’s Weekly seems to sum it up best of all in saying that Wonderful World is “a frenetic and magnificent mashup of family drama, mob revenge story and surreal mystery featuring a gigantic enforcer obsessed with comic books, a 12-year-old girl fixated on Stephen King, a namby-pamby antiques dealer on a mad quest and a crime lord with a penchant for women’s coats.” Sound crazy and intriguing enough for you? I thought so too!

How it Ended by Jay McInerney [ISBN: 0-307-26805-5] – As much as I’m into short stories I’ve never read any that have come from the pen of this author. Now may well be the best time to do that however, as the short story collection How it Ended is released in the US today, courtesy of Random House. Why would I be so interested? Well on the publisher page for the title RH have quoted The New York Times Book Review as saying “These stories, with their bold, clean characterizations, their emphatic ironies and their disciplined adherence to sound storytelling principles, reminded me of, well, Fitzgerald and also of Hemingway…” High praise indeed, and when someone mentions Fitzgerald and Hemingway in the same sentence, then my interest is most certainly piqued. No word on a specific UK release (RH didn’t reply to my tweet asking them ( – not their fault. I’m sure they’re very busy), but definitely one to add to my watch list. ::discovered via Random House on Twitter.