The Rotters’ Club – Jonathan Coe

They are not Rotters, but Trotters. However, at school thirteen-year-old Ben Trotter inevitably becomes Bent Rotter; his older sister, Lois, does little better as Lowest Rotter. It’s harmless, there are worse nicknames around, and as they get on well, they are happy to form an exclusive Rotters’ Club. Youngest sibling, Paul, is excluded; his name doesn’t lend itself and, anyway, he’s a pratt.

Ben’s life unfolds between 1973 and 1978, taking him and his schoolfriends from adolescence to the brink of university. There are schoolboy pranks, embarrassing moments, unrealistic ambitions, sexual awakenings, and awkward encounters with the girls from the adjacent school. The parents also get a slice of the action, and the late 1970’s involves some interesting political events – the winter of discontent, the Grunwick lockout, the Birmingham pub bombing, Thatcher’s rise to power, and the miners’ strike.

The coming of age stuff is very good, while avoiding the obvious clichés. The setting is Coe’s familiar suburban Birmingham. The characters are believable, and the period detail is on point. It is real life that Coe depicts, where seemingly small incidents mean much to Ben, his friends, and his family. That means when bigger character defining events happen, the effect is all the greater.

Funny in parts, occasionally moving, always interesting with cleverly woven narrative threads interacting and complementing each other. In addition, a nostalgic read for those of a certain generation.

American Dirt – Jeanine Cummins

When Lydia Perez takes her son, Luca, to the bathroom during her niece Yenifer’s fifteenth birthday celebrations, they avoid a murderous bloodbath that kills the other sixteen extended family members present. The hit, in Acapulco, is the work of the Los Jardineros cartel, ordered by its leader, Javier Crespo Fuentes, in revenge for a press exposé penned by Sebastien Delgardo, Lydia’s husband, Luca’s papi.

It is a shock, but not a surprise, for Lydia who knows what she must do is flee before they too are mopped up. Easier said than done in Mexico when there is a price on your head and the country is controlled by the cartels that have the police in their pockets and operate with impunity, imposing levies on businesses and tolls on the roads.

Lydia and Luca pack a bag, empty the bank account, and run. Safety means leaving the country and the only viable option is the United States. If that means joining the stream of migrants heading to ‘El Norte’, so be it. The best way to travel, they learn, is on top of freight trains, but getting aboard is perilous. As is dodging the cartels, vigilantes, and corrupt border guards who pray on the desperate, keen to extort every last dollar, peso, and sexual favour. Even if they get to the border, a successful crossing requires the expensive services of a ‘coyote’ to find a path through the desert.

Much of the narrative is told in the present tense, giving it immediacy and a heightened sense of peril. Some relief is provided by morsels of the back stories of Lydia and her fellow travellers, though they are no less harrowing for being survived. Lydia’s transformation from middle class bookstore owner to ragged, moneyless refugee is swift and entirely believable. The trials endured by the migrants are both heart stopping and heart wrenching.

Emotional investment in Lydia and Luca is total. Some books cannot be put down; at times this was one I was reluctant to pick up, such was my fear for their wellbeing.