September 2015 Carabas New Book Recommends

September seems to mark endings and beginnings. Publishing from Corgi Children’s is the final Discworld novel by the great and much missed Terry Pratchett; but then there’s a new talent touted for greatness by Pratchett’s friend and co-conspirator (Good Omens) Neil Gaiman. Two trilogies end and there’s some noteworthy series beginning. In fact, given at Carabas we’re especially up for urban fantasy and steampunk, noteworthy is completely inadequate when the world’s leading urban fantasy author begins a new steampunk sequence!

And then there’s David Duchovny writing about cows. Yes cows. Yes that David Duchnovny. It’s kind of like Californication meets the X-Files – with cows; possibly.

It’s September. It’s when publishers start bringing out the big guns.
Tell your bank account to duck.

NB. We’re in the process of setting up affiliate links; we’ll just recommend supporting your local bricks and mortar shops and independents in the meantime. Title description from publisher; highlighted notes by us. Links to individual publisher pages covering their wider July to December output beneath, followed by the same to other monthly recommends articles.

Holy Cow by David Duchovny is a comic delight that will thrill fans of Jasper Fforde and Ben Aaronovitch. And anyone who enjoys a witty wisecrack in a novel.

Elsie Bovary is a cow and a pretty happy one at that. Until one night, Elsie sneaks out of the pasture and finds herself drawn to the farmhouse. Through the window, she sees the farmer’s family gathered around a bright Box God – and what the Box God reveals about something called an ‘industrial meat farm’ shakes Elsie’s understanding of her world to its core.

The only solution? To escape to a better, safer world. And so a motley crew is formed: Elsie; Shalom, a grumpy pig who’s recently converted to Judaism; and Tom, a suave turkey who can’t fly, but can work an iPhone with his beak. Toting stolen passports and slapdash human disguises, they head for the airport …

Elsie is a wise-cracking, slyly witty narrator; Tom dispenses psychiatric advice in a fake German accent; and Shalom ends up unexpectedly uniting Israelis and Palestinians. David Duchovny’s charismatic creatures point the way toward a mutual understanding and acceptance the world desperately needs.

Carabas.co.uk