I did some book-shopping-as-therapy on Wednesday, and here’s what I managed to pick up and will probably get around to reading sometime after 2013.

House of Meetings – Martin Amis

There were conjugal visits in the slave camps of the USSR. Valiant women would travel continental distances in the hope of spending a night, with their particular enemy of the people, in the House of Meetings. In this short novel of great depth and richness, Martin Amis tells the story of one such liaison. It is a triangular romance: two brothers fall in love with the same girl, a nineteen-year-old Jewess, in Moscow. When both brothers end up in a slave camp above the Arctic Circle, their rivalry slowly complicates itself over the course of a decade.

The Information – Martin Amis

How can one writer hurt another where it really counts? This is the problem facing novelist Richard Tull, contemplating the success of his friend and rival Gwyn Barry. Revenger’s tragedy, comedy of errors, contemporary satire, The Information is an extraordinary novel of dark humour and piercing insight.

My experience with the work of Martin Amis is limited – I remember reading London Fields immediately after I finished my final high school exams, but don’t really remember too much about it. The bits and pieces I’ve read from this are really good, seems to be very funny and sharp. I’d like to put this higher on my to-read list, but I think it might be a bit too similar – in theme, maybe, rather than style? – to the book I’m reading at the moment.

I’m quite keen on these Vintage published covers of Amis’ fiction. Strikingly designed. Then there’s this brooding portrait of Amis, photographed by his fiancée Angela Gorgas in 1980.

Martin Amis photographed by Angela Gorgas in Paris in 1980

The Coast of Akron – Adrienne Miller

The Coast of Akron is the story of the gloriously unorthodox, maladjusted, brilliant Haven family from Akron, Ohio. In the thirty years since artists Jenny and Lowell met, inspired each other, and separated, Lowell has achieved international fame. But five years ago, he suddenly stopped painting and the world wants to know why. The answer lies with Merit, Lowell and Jenny’s daughter, who is running as fast as she can from her family. In an attempt to solve the mystery and heal old wounds Fergus, Lowell’s dyspeptic lover, lures the family and guests back to the hallowed faux-Tudor mansion where it all began. It is at this lavish gathering that long-standing secrets, as well as bonds, will be revealed.

I’ve had my eye on this one for a while, but I don’t really know why. I’ve just realized that some of the review quotes liken it to White Noise, the book I am reading at the moment that I mentioned as possibly being too similar to The Information. Consistency? Serendipity? Either way, it’s clearly meant to be in my possession.

If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things – Jon McGregor

On a street in a town in the North of England, perfectly ordinary people are doing totally normal things – children play cricket, window-frames are painted, a couple argues, students pack up their belongings, and nameless people pass each other like every other day, interweaving yet never connecting. But a terrible event shatters the quiet of the summer evening and no one who witnesses it will ever be the same again.

That’s a rather vague summary! This book gets quoted on lj/literaryquotes a lot so there is a strong possibility that as a whole it will disappoint. And the reference to students packing up their belongings just reminds me of the opening paragraph of White Noise …!

Speaking of which, I’ve spent all day cleaning (all my books are most definitely not in any order, but at least they’re now a bit more manageable) and I have the empty quiet house all to myself, a bit of Cadbury Fruit & Nut, so I think I’ll go and do some reading.