Welcome to the website of Smiffs Book & Card Store, the local English language bookshop for Nerja, Andalucia.  We are currently redeveloping the site. Please bookmark us. Note from our advertisement below that we open all day, 10.00 - 19.00 on weekdays in December up to Christmas to allow those still fortunate enough to be working in Nerja the opportunity to buy cards, wrap and other seasonal trimmings during lunch breaks.

OPENING HOURS FLASH: Due to unforeseen circumstances we will close early at 17.00 hours on the evenings of Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th of December. We apologise to customers for any inconvenience.

2011/2010

What' s About to Hit the Shelves and What You May Have Missed

If you cannot find it on the shelves, order it through us.

Key: (p) paperback (l) hardback or large paperback depending on availability

DECEMBER 2011

We like to think that the locals will get a look in when customers are considering Christmas book buying, and the December Hotlist is topped by a title released in the quiet period of late spring but worthy of a place on any gift list. Our Local Book of the Year accolade goes to Tejeda, Almijara y Alhama: Parque Natural(h), a magnificent collection of photographs of scenery, flora and fauna in the mountains of the Axarquía.

It represents nearly 30 years of work by Frigiliana based Sebastián García Acosta who first got the sierra bug from listening to his grandfather's tales of the cabra montés wild mountain goats.

Here are imposing peaks, shattered pinnacles, swallow-tailed waterfalls and green gorges, mist, snow, ice, searing sun and luxuriant stands of trees in summer green and autumn gold, deserted posadas and abandoned Guardia Civil outposts. More than 40 species of wild orchids are included as well as other flowers, fungi, some insects and snakes, the elusive wildcat and birds of prey.

With just enough text in both Spanish and English, this is a tremendous gift or acquisition for lovers of 'our sierras' whether they have walked them or, like most, have simply admired them from a distance yet unaware of the hidden glories.

Red hot favourites in demand in the lead up to December 25 include: Inheritance (lp), the fourth part of Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle that started with Eragon; The Diary of A Wimpy Kid - Cabin Fever (lp), by Jeff Kinney; River Cottage Veg Every Day (lp), a cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall; Steve Jobs – the Exclusive Biography (lp), by Walter Isaacson; The Affair (p), by Lee Child; Jamie’s Great Britain (lp), by Jamie Oliver; Gangsta Granny (p), from David Wallliams; The Help (p). by Kathryn Stockett; One Day (p), by David Nicholls; Lily Alone (p), by Jacqueline Wilson; The World of Downton Abbey (.lp), by Jessica Fellowes; The Thread (lp), by Victoria Hislop; and Private Eye Annual 2011.

New releases due in January and for which you may consider buying in-store gift vouchers now include:Believing the Lie (lp), the new Elizabeth George thriller featuring Inspector Lynley; V is For Vengeance (lp), the latest unputdownable Kinsey Milhone novel from Sue Grafton; Seizure (lp), thee latest in the Virals teen series by Kathy Reichs; and As Easy as Murder (lp), Quintin Jardine’s newest Blackstone (but not Oz!) mystery, which is set in a Spanish seaside village.

Have you ever wanted to escape from reality, to create your own? Well look out for the January release of Empire State:A Novel (p), by Adam Christopher. On one level it is simply a stunning noir-fantasy thriller set in ‘the other’ New York. Think Philip K Dick and science heroes. But publishers Angry Robot also want you to build on and expand the alternative reality that the author describes. Check the website at www.EmpireState.cc to see how they are inviting people to create more stories, music, art and other stuff.

The Costa Book Awards, among the most prestigious in the United Kingdom, are also coming up next month, but you can do your own judging from a shortlist of already published novels that include: My Dear I Wanted to Tell You (p), by Louisa Young; Pure (p), by Andrew Miller; The Sense of an Ending (lp), Julian Barnes’ Man Booker award winner; and A Summer of Drowning (lp), from John Burnside. Shortlisted debuts novels are: The City of Bohane (lp), by Kevin Barry; Pao (p), by Kerry Young; and Tiny Sunbirds Far Away (p), by Christie Watson. The children’s fiction frontrunners are:Blood Red Road (p), by Moira Young; Flip (p), by Martyn Bedford; Small Change for Stuart (p), by Lissa Evans; and The Unforgotten Coat (p), from Frank CottrellBoyce.

If you wish to push the boat out on a major biography, look no further than Charles Dickens:A Life (lp), by the redoubtable Claire Tomalin. From earlier in the year, we recommend Catherine of Aragon (p), by Giles Tremlett.
We started with a pick of the year and we will finish with one. Our top choice of fiction translated from the Spanish is Almudena Grandes’ work The Frozen Heart (p), an epic tale focused on how lives were buffeted by civil war and great conflicts. From the provincial heartlands of Civil War Spain to Spain's Legión Azul in the World War II battlefields of Russia, it is a mesmerising journey through a war that tore families apart, pitted fathers against sons, brothers against brothers, wives against husbands. Against such a past, where do faith and loyalty lie?

Seasons greetings to all!

NOVEMBER 2011

The Prague Cemetery is Umberto Eco at his most exciting, a novel immediately hailed as his masterpiece and which tops this month’s Hotlist of titles, some new, some in mass market paperback for the first time, and all due on the Costa on various dates in November and early December.

Nineteenth-century Europe, from Turin to Prague to Paris, abounds with the ghastly and the mysterious. Conspiracies rule history. Jesuits plot against Freemasons. Italian republicans strangle priests with their own intestines. French criminals plan bombings by day and celebrate black masses at night. Every nation has its own secret service, perpetrating forgeries, plots, and massacres.

From the unification of Italy to the Paris Commune to the Alfred Dreyfus Affair to the notorious forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Europe is in tumult and everyone needs a scapegoat. But what if, behind all of these conspiracies both real and imagined, lay one lone man? And what if that evil genius created the most infamous document of all? Eco takes his readers on an unforgettable journey through the underbelly of world-shattering events.

Staying with the Prague theme, Philip Kerr's sequence of historical thrillers featuring private detective Bernie Gunther moves on to the gumshoe’s eighth outing in Prague Fatale (l). Set in 1942 in what was then Czechoslovakia, it delivers all the fast-paced and quick-witted action that we have come to expect from a writer at the top of his game and whose Gunther stories compare to the great series of the two masters of the genre, Len Deighton and John le Carré. These gritty, noir thrillers, narrated in Gunther's wry, sardonic voice, range all over Europe and beyond over a 20-year period from the mid 1930s to the mid 50s

Other thrillers to watch out for include: Sanctus (p), by Simon Toye; Wrath of God (p), from Jack Higgins; Micro (l), by Michael Crichton; 11.22.63 (l), Stephen King’s ‘what if JFK had not been assassinated’ imagining; Fair Game (p), by Stephen Leather; Perfect People (l), by Peter James; Red Mist (l), by Patricia Cornwell; The House of Silk (l), a new Sherlock Holmes mystery from Anthony Horowitz; The Fifth Witness (p), by Michael Connelly; Kill Me If You Can (l) and Tick Tock (p), both by James Patterson; and The Bomber (p), by Lisa Marklund.

The Secret Letters of the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari (p) is the much-anticipated new book in Robin Sharma’s number 1 bestselling Monk series, a compelling and timely fable about living your best life in these complex times Published in more than 50 languages, with more than four million copies sold, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari has touched people around the world.

Published to coincide with the fifteenth anniversary of the very first The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari book, Sharma has written a powerful and moving fable that will resonate with readers now and for years to come. When the now-famous character of Julian Mantle falls ill, he sends his nephew on an international adventure to retrieve Julian's mementos and secret letters, writings that reflect what Julian has learned over many years about living a remarkable life, a collection that may become his legacy. It is a moving and fascinating journey from the Bosphorus in Turkey to a remote fishing community in India to the catacombs of Paris. The Secret Letters of the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari offers transformational lessons for happiness and true success and shows readers how to live an authentic and meaningful life.

Sir Alex Ferguson : The Official Manchester United Celebration of 25 Years at Old Trafford (h) is a collector’s item. When Alex Ferguson joined Manchester United Football Club in November 1986, he came with a great track record from his time in charge of Aberdeen FC. But re-establishing MUFC as the most successful club in the United Kingdom and a global brand was an enormous task. This fascinating book not only celebrates what Sir Alex has achieved at Man U, but also seeks to explain just how he has gone about creating this remarkable dynasty, constantly rebuilding the team and driving them forward to yet more glory. In an era when most managers are lucky if they last two years, his achievement in lasting twenty-five years at the very top is truly astonishing. This is the club's fitting tribute to his career.

Cabin Fever, the sixth in Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, is published on ‘Wimpy Kid Wednesday’ November 16, but can be ordered in advance. This is the highlight of the kids’ list this month, but there will a round-up of children’s titles for Christmas soon.

Why are Orangutans Orange? (p) is a classic collection of popular science questions and answers from the UK’s New Scientist (NS) magazine. Illustrated for the first time, with 80 full-colour photos showing the beauty, complexity and mystery of the natural world, it is the next eagerly awaited volume. From ripples in glass to 'holograms' in ice, theses wonders are unravelled by NS’ knowledgeable readers.

And finally: The lizards are alarmed. The snakes are scared. The antelopes are apoplectic. Why? The meerkats have turned mean. They look cute with their little noses in the air. Some of them assuredly are; but have you ever paused to wonder what's really going on in those cosy communities? There is a darker side to the cuddly meerkat, and the shocking truth is revealed here for the first time in When Meerkats Turn Bad, a stocking filler from Kitty Litter (we kid you not!).

OCTOBER 2011

HERE’s Harry! Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch in back in The Drop (l). Bosch is facing the end of the line, serving out three final years in the Deferred Retirement Option Plan. Keen to make the most of the time, he is not disappointed as a clutch of apparently unrelated cases start coiling around each other like strand of DNA genetic material. Vintage Connelly.

The Drop tops our hotlist of titles, some new, some in standard paperback for the first time, and all due in stores or to order on various dates in October and early November.

It is great looking month all round for crime, so to speak. The Impossible Dead (l), is Ian Rankin’s latest Scot-crime offering following Malcolm Fox and his team from Internal Affairs who are sent to investigate a possible case of police corruption in Fife, which is Scotland’s equivalent of Mars (OK, just kidding eh! Our own families include East Neuk fisher folk and farm hands.). But what looks like a simple job turns out to be far more complex and that’s even without a brutal murder with a weapon that should not exist. Great atmosphere and the usual dark Rankin humour.

John Grisham, master of the legal thriller, weights in with The Litigators (l) while other big guns commanding attention are: Faithless (l), by Martina Cole; Live Wire (l), the latest Myron Bolitar instalment from Harlan Coben; Dead Man’s Grip (p), by Peter James; Don’t Blink (p), by James Patterson; Virals (p), from Kathy Reichs; Jonathan Kellerman’s Mystery (p); Linda Fairstein’s Silent Mercy (p); and The Consumatta (p), a novel started in the late 1960s by mystery master Mickey Spillane as a follow-up to The Delta Factor and now completed four decades on by Max Allan Collins. It has to be worth a look.

Off – the- wall choices? Stieg Larsson’s English language publishers are urging us to try Cell 8 (l) by their latest great hope from Sweden, the crime writing duo Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom, an ex-criminal. Set in Scandinavia and the USA, it has a cunning twist that demands debate about the death penalty. Splinter (p), a translated psychological bestseller from Germany also catches the eye: it is by Sebastian Fitzek.

Jeffery Eugenides blew us away a few years ago with the transgender novel Middlesex and proved it was no fluke with his follow-up, The Virgin Suicides. Now comes The Marriage Plot (l), a heartbreaking yet funny tale of young love. Top writer: check it out! Snow Falling on Cedars was a similarly wonderful find some years ago and author David Guterson deserves another look with the publication of Ed King (l), a dazzling, darkly funny retelling of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex that moves from the 1962 Seattle World Fair in the USA to the 21st century HQ of an internet search giant.

The Thread (l) is the next inevitable bestseller for Victoria Hislop, who shot the celebrity with The Island and then The Return which was set in Granada modern and Civil War times. She repeats the time-shift trick in Thessaloniki, Greece, in a yarn spun around the awful things that the Turks and Greeks did to each other in the first half of the last century. She has many fans and this will play well with them.
Other options include: The Midnight Palace (p), by Carlos Ruiz Zafón; Midnight (p), from Josephine Cox; Cecilia Ahern’s The Time of My Life (l); And Then It Happened (p), by Jane Green; The Magic of Home (p), by Nora Roberts; The Weekend (p), by Bernhard Schlink of ‘The Reader’ fame; and The Stranger’s Child (l), from Alan Hollinghurst who is best known for The Line of Beauty, the 2004 Booker Prize winner.

The Dovekeepers (l), by Alice Hoffman, has been drawing out eye in the catalogues. It revolves around how the live of four bold and remarkable women in the year 70AD in the desperate days of the siege of Masada, Israel, as supplies dwindle and the Romans draw near. All the women are dovekeepers, and all keepers of secrets, about who they are, where they come from, who fathered them, and whom they love.

October marks the 75th anniversary of the publication of The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien’s charming prequel to his magisterial trilogy The Lord of the Rings. Publisher HarperCollins is issuing a new paperback edition of The Hobbit in smart black cover that ties it in with its series of The Lord of the Rings. This new collection would make a nice gift for Tolkien fans.

There is a paperback boxed set option too - all four titles – or how about The History of the Hobbit, a lovely hardback edition that includes the revised and updated examination of how Tolkien came to write it. It includes the complete unpublished draft version of the story, together with his notes and original illustrations. See Middle Earth come alive and evolve in his imagination!

A Remembrance Day Offer

A special mention is due for Loving Our Heroes (p), a collection of three, armed forces romances for Remembrance Day, November 11, in the United Kingdom. The book is endorsed by the UK’s Help the Heroes charity and every book sold sees one British pound, about one euro fifteen euro cents at current rates, donated to the cause. To help sales along here we are offering one euro fifty cents off the book if ordered through us, and the charity still gets its £1. This is to honour the memory of GWDC, an old soldier who is much missed by his family and friends. We would be pleased if other bookstores did likewise. Delivery is due towards the end of October but orders can be placed now.

SEPTEMBER

WE have spent the hottest summer months dreaming of the cool of autumn, so perhaps a book based on the Norse myth of Ragnarok, aka the Twilight of the Gods, was bound to appeal with the deep-frozen imagery of its prelude, the great winter.

Publisher Canongate’s reworking of the world’s great myths moves on to Ragnarok, penned by the celebrated British author A.S. Byatt. It tops our Hotlist of titles, some brand new, others in mass market paperback for the first time, and all available to buy or order from Costa bookstores on various dates in September and early October.

Byatt has been spellbound by Ragnarok since her father gave her a book of Norse stories more than 60 years ago. It is the myth in which the gods Odin, Freya and Thor die, the sun and moon are swallowed by the wolf Fenrir, the serpent Midgard eats his own tail as he crushes the world, and the seas boil with poison. Only after such monstrous death and destruction can the world begin anew. Frankly, it makes global warming look like a scenario for wimps. Byatt has taken this remarkable Nordic ‘endgame’ and used it to underpin a highly personal and politically charged retelling.

Citadel (l), by Kate Mosse is the third heart-stopping adventure exploring the incredible history, legends and hidden secrets of Carcassonne and the Languedoc in the far south of France. Think Cathars and all that.

Set during World War II, it is an action-packed mystery investigated under Nazi occupation. While war blazes at the front, back home a different battle is waged, full of clandestine bravery, treachery and secrets.

As a cell of Maquis resistance fighters, codenamed Citadel, fight for everything they hold dear, their struggle reveals an older, darker combat being fought in the shadows. Combining the rugged action of Labyrinth with the haunting mystery of Sepulchre, this is a story of courage, of lives risked for beliefs and of astonishing secrets buried in time.

Turning to crime, as it were: If Stieg Larsson and Jo Nesbo have left you with a sense of ‘seen it-done it’ where Scando crime is concerned, then maybe Asa Larsson will revive your appetite.

Larsson’s Savage Altar (p), due in paperback in late September, is the first in a series of six thrillers featuring lawyer Rebecka Martinsson, a character in the mould of Clarice Starling from The Silence of the Lambs. Set in the glittering, frozen wastes of Northern Sweden, it is a tale to chill the marrow but set the pulses racing.

Or The Bull Kills You (p), Jason Webster’s engaging detective novel set in Valencia moves into standard paperback, as does Blood Count (p), by Robert Goddard. Other titles keeping the pot boiling for big name thriller authors include: The Accident (l), by Linwood Barclay; Shelter (l), from Harlan Coben; Silent Voices (p), by Ann Cleeves; Tom Clancy’s Dead or Alive (p); The Fear Index (l), by Robert Harris; Kill Alex Cross (l), from James Patterson; Flash & Bones (l), by Kathy Reichs; Bad Blood (p), by John Sandford; and Val McDermid’s Retribution (l).

The Auschwitz Violin (p), by the Catalan poet and author Maria Angels Anglada (1930-1999), is our tip for a slow-burn, word-of-mouth success. In the winter of 1991, at a concert in Poland, an older woman with a wonderfully pitched violin meets a fellow musician who is captivated by her instrument. She reveals the remarkable story behind its origin and the role that it played in the life of a young man imprisoned in a notorious concentration camp. More than just a novel, this is a testament to the strength of the human spirit and the power of beauty, art, and hope to triumph over the darkest adversity.

Night of the Water Spirits (p), is Barbara Bisco’s spellbinding tale of the search for love and identity in cross-cultural Bangkok. Bailey of The Saints (p), is football journalist David Alejandro Fearnhead’s fast-paced and intelligent novel set against the backdrop of international soccer.

It is the first of a planned series of stories following the adventures of fictional player Jack Bailey. It will be interesting to see if he turns into an overpaid, self-obsessed, womanising, publicity seeking Twitterer like many modern ‘stars’ or whether he will be a role model hero for our times.

Other general fiction titles worth noting include: Only Time Will Tell (p), by Jeffrey Archer; The Decision (p), from Penny Vicenzi; Freedom (p), by Jonathan Franzen; Lights Out in Wonderland (p), by DBC Pierre; Snowdrops (p), by AD Miller; The Cold Eye of Heaven (p), by Christine Hickey; The Brothers’ Lot (p), by Kevin Holohan; and Antwerp (h), Roberto Bolano’s crazy novel set, despite the title, on the Costa Brava.

The late Michel Thomas’ language methods – no books, but listen, repeat and converse – have helped legions of learners over the hurdles on the track to fluency. The latest all-audio Thomas product, Masterclass Spanish, is for people who want to build on their existing basic knowledge to express themselves more fully and to use idiomatic phrases.

Calling all Tykes: if you are looking for early Christmas ideas to order now, then consider David Hockney: My Yorkshire (h). One of the most influential British artists of the last century, Hockney spent his formative years in the county of Yorkshire but avoided England in his work until he was 60. In this book of interviews, he talks frankly about his life and methods in a volume graced with beautifully reproduced, full page spreads of his Yorkshire paintings.

AUGUST 

GRANADA has inspired a number of recent high impact novels by United Kingdom writers, notably The Return by Victoria Hislop and, to a lesser extent, Blood Wedding, a thriller which introduced the half-Scots half-Spanish detective Max Romero to the world.

As a debut novel, Blood Wedding displayed some signs of promise which are further developed in A Darker Night, the second Max Romero tale, available now in paperback.

This title by P J Brooke, the collective moniker of husband and wife writing team Philip J O’Brien and Jane Brooke, tops the SolTalk Hotlist, some new, some in soft cover for the first time, and all due on the shelves on various dates in August and early September. The Hotlist allows you to budget for the books you really want.

Sub Inspector Romero is called in to investigate when gypsy guitarist Paco is found dead in a Sacromonte cave. What appears to be a simple case becomes more sinister when Max reveals a link with a major property speculation, corruption and a powerful religious society. While these plot elements have almost become clichés in stories set in Spain, the story hangs together well and is a good beach read for these balmy days.

Less balmy by far was the cruel winter of January 1809 when hard-pressed allied troops in Spain beat the retreat to La Coruna in Galicia harassed all the way by an overwhelming French force led by Napoleon himself. 

True Soldier Gentleman, by the acclaimed historian Adrian Goldsworthy is set against the background of Sir John Moore’s gallantry and the evacuation of large numbers of allies in what was the Dunkirk of its day.

While the 106th Regiment of Foot fights a desperate rearguard action, the retreat turns into an unexpectedly personal drama for newly promoted Hamish Williams. Separated from the army, he chances upon Jane MacAndrews, daughter of his commanding officer. As they battle the elements and the French, picking up stragglers along the way, the strict boundaries of their social relationship are tested, with surprising results. Lovers of Sharpe take note.

Becoming Jane Eyre is Sheila Kohler’s beautifully imagined tale of the Brontë sisters. The year is 1846. In a cold vicarage on the gloomy Yorkshire moors in England, a family seems cursed. A mother and two children dead. A father sick, without fortune, and hardened by the loss of two beloved family members. A son destroyed by alcohol and opiates. And three strong, intelligent young women, reduced to poverty and spinsterhood, with nothing to save them. Nothing except their remarkable literary talent. So unfolds the story of the Brontës. At its centre is Charlotte and the writing of Jane Eyre. Delicately unravelling the connections between one of fiction's most indelible heroines and the remarkable woman who created her, this will appeal to fans of historical fiction and, of course, the millions who love Jane Eyre.

Michael Ondaatje, best known for The English Patient, returns to the bestseller lists with The Cat’s Table. In the early 1950s, an 11 year old boy boards a huge liner bound for England. At mealtimes, he is placed at the lowly ‘Cat's Table’ with an eccentric group of adults and two other boys, Cassius and Ramadhin.

As the ship crosses the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal, into the Mediterranean, the boys become involved in the worlds and stories of the adults, tumbling from one adventure and delicious discovery to another. At night, they spy on a shackled prisoner, his crime and fate a mystery that will haunt them forever.

It is a spellbinding story about the difference between the magical openness of childhood and the burdens of earned understanding: a story told with a child’s sense of wonder by a novelist at the height of his powers.

All Yours, by Argentinean novelist, playwright and journalist Claudia Pineiro, is available in English for the first time. Inés is convinced that every wife is bound to be betrayed one day and is unsurprised to find a note in husband Ernesto’s briefcase with a heart smeared in lipstick crossed by the words, ‘All Yours’.

Following him to a park in Buenos Aires on a rainy winter evening, she witnesses a violent quarrel between her husband and another woman. The woman collapses; Ernesto sinks her body in a nearby lake. When Ernesto becomes a suspect in the case, Ines provides him with an alibi. After all, hatred can bring people together as urgently as love. But Ernesto cannot bring his pecadillos to an end, so Ines concocts a plan for revenge from which there is no return.

Pittacus Lore’s Lorien Legacies move on to book two, The Power of Six.
Pittacus, you will understand is a Loric Elder, from the planet Lorien, which is 480 million kilometres from earth, a planet that he has visited many times. He is one of ten Elders who lived on Lorien, where everyone was gifted. Compared to humans, they are incredibly strong, fast; and able to do things the superheroes in Hollywood films are capable of doing. They are also born with powers called legacies: invisibility, the ability to control the elements, imperviousness to heat and cold, telekinesis, the gift of communication with animals, and many others. The Elders are born with all of them. Many human myths of people with extraordinary powers are not actually myths. They were Loric. And now, they are the last defence. Superior fantasy fiction.

Anthony Sharp, the Frigiliana based writer and musician has published My Steinway Blues. It is a merry romp through Cambridge days and the London club and jazz scene and culminates in the saga of a piano bar, and the piano itself, in a Spanish town identified only as ‘Nirvana’. Tony is never less than original and this will please his friends and admirers.

JULY

As a child Sebastián García Acosta thrilled to his grandfather's tales of the cabra montés wild mountain goats near their pueblo, Frigiliana, and of the local hunters who stalked the beasts.

When he was old enough, Sebastián became a hunter too until, one day, he took the scope from his rifle and used it instead to find subjects to shoot with his newly acquired camera, a modest affair from Kodak.

Thirty years on, and now sporting a trusty Nikon, his pictures of the mountains behind the eastern Costa, and of the wildlife within, have been published in Tejeda, Almijara y Alhama: Parque Natural, a magnificent glossy collection of images shot in time out from his profession as a house painter.

It tops this month's Hotlist of titles, some new, some in mass paperback for the first time, and all due for buying or ordering on various dates in July and early August.

Here are imposing peaks, shattered pinnacles, swallow-tailed waterfalls and green gorges, mist, snow, ice, searing sun and luxuriant stands of trees in summer green and autumn gold, deserted posadas and abandoned Guardia Civil outposts. More than 40 species of wild orchids are included as well as other flowers, fungi, some insects and snakes, the elusive wildcat and birds of prey.

The stars of the show are the nimbled footed goats that perch death-defyingly on impossible footholds above sheer drops to valley floor or blue sea.

With just enough text in both Spanish and English, this is a tremendous gift or acquisition for lovers of 'our sierras' whether they have walked them or, like most, have simply admired them from a distance unaware of the hidden glories. At 50 euros, it is less that a decent dinner out for two, will last a lot longer, and represents a chance to buy work from a man whose images have graced National Geographic magazines.

From the sublime now to a housing estate, but not just any old urbanizacion. El Capistrano Village, the rustic looking gaggle of villas and apartments that tumbles down the hill above the main road on the East of Nerja, has had a special place in the affections of owners and tenants since it was founded in 1971.

It lives up to its name with a range of residents' activities including a library, lectures, films, trips, two of the better pools in the town, and other elements of a self-contained community. El Capistrano's story is a slice of Costa life as it was once lived.

Written by Michael Bardsley, who moved there two years ago, El Capistrano Village: Forty Years On will appeal most to former and current residents who, he tells us, have ordered hundreds of copies in advance. But there is something here too for anyone interested in the late 20th century history of Nerja as reflected in this highly international enclave in its midst. It is topped off by a goodly collection of photos. The book is on general sale.

Continuing an Iberian theme to this month’s Hotlist, our fiction recommendations are headed by The Wrong Blood (p), by Manuel de Lope. On the cusp of war in a coastal village in the Basque country, three men stop off at Extarri's bar on their way to a wedding. There, a bizarre and seemingly incidental event marks the beginning of a powerful story about a bond and a secret that endures even in death.

Abandoned by her parents shortly after the outbreak of war, sixteen-year-old Maria Antonia Extarri is left at the mercy of soldiers. Meanwhile, Isabel enjoys a blissful honeymoon, but just a few months later her valiant Captain is shot as a traitor. Both Maria and Isabel suddenly find themselves violently altered, alone, and pregnant. A crippled young doctor is the only witness to the mysterious agreement silently formed between the two desperate women.

Two decades after Portuguese novelist and Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago shocked the religious world with his novel, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, he has done it again with Cain (h), a satire of the Old Testament.

Written in the last years of Saramago's life, it tackles many of the moral and logical non sequiturs created by a wilful, authoritarian God, and forms part of Saramago's long argument with religion. The stories are witty and provocative. Saramago died just over a year ago, shortly after the controversial Portuguese publication of Cain but before he could participate in its publication in other countries. This English edition is part of a tribute to Saramago's life and work which includes the gradual reissue of his previous novels as Vintage Classics.

Pereira Maintains (p), Antonio Tabucchi’s novel about learning to take a stand, moves into paperback. Dr. Pereira, an editor at a second-rate Lisbon newspaper, wants nothing to do with European politics. He's happy to translate 19th-century French stories.

His closest confidante is a photograph of his late wife. All this changes when he meets Francesco Monteiro Rossi, an oddly charismatic young man. Pereira gives Rossi work, and continues to pay him, even after discovering that he is using the money to recruit for the anti-Franco International Brigade. Tabucchi chronicles Pereira's ascent to consciousness, culminating in a devastating and reckless act of rebellion.

Barcelona Noir (p) features 14 crime stories by eminent crime writers such as Andreu Martin, Lolita Bosch and Santiago Roncagliolo. Repression, vice, immigration – the stories take readers beyond the lively Ramblas and Gaudí spires into the city’s tainted, darker side that does not feature on any walking tours. Barçelona, with all its illustrious colour and exterior fineness is unable to curb the yearnings of its Hyde side. This is a collection for lovers of noir.

Anthony Sharp, the Frigiliana based writer and musician has completed My Steinway Blues, his memoirs. Coming your way some time in the next few months is his engaging account of a colourful life taking in Cambridge University, rubbing shoulders with Dudley Moore, organ playing, radio days, tinkling the ivories for some jazz greats, the ups and downs of owning a piano bar in Nerja, and a life of literary creation up the hill with the aguanosos. Be warned: he would not say if names have been changed to protect the not so innocent.

JUNE

MIDNIGHT Palace is Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s haunting story, set in India, of a secret society and a labyrinthine railway station with a dark past. Originally published in Spain for young adults, it is a great ‘crossover’ title that will appeal to fans of ‘The Book Thief’ and Philip Pullman as well as Ruiz Zafón’s own admirers who thrilled to The Shadow of the Wind and The Angel’s Game.

It tops this month’s Hotlist of titles, some new, some in small paperback for the first time, and due in Spain on dates in June and early July.

Midnight Palace begins with a chase through the streets of Calcutta in May 1916 as Lieutenant Peake flees assassins. He is sheltering two newborn twins beneath his coat and entrusts to the care of one Aryami Bose. In 1932, Bose tells the twins the story of the parents they never knew. As the novel unfolds, it becomes apparent there is more to this story than meets the eye and the twins are lured by a shadowy figure from the past into a final showdown.

Barçelona’s Juan Gomez-Jurado has been dubbed ‘Spain’s Ken Follett’. Based on a true story, his novel The Traitor’s Emblem (l) is a dark and thrilling tale about family betrayal, impossible love and the price of revenge set against the menacing backdrop of Depression-era Munich and the rise of Nazism.

The Traitor’s Emblem won Spain's second biggest literary award, the Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja. It is available in English from around mid June at the same time as God’s Spy (p), another bestseller by the same author and which will appeal to fans of Dan Brown. The Catalan’s website is at juangomezjurado.com

Other crime and thriller titles coming soon include: Sissel-Jo Gazan’s The Dinosaur Feather (l), a suspenseful murder mystery set among the academics of Copenhagen University, Denmark; The Lady of Sorrows (p), Anne Zouroudi’s continuing tales of the Greek detective Hermes Diaktoros; 1222 (p), superior Scando-crime from Norway’s Anne Holt; Out of Range (p), from CJ Box; Dead Man’s Grip (l), another Roy Grace mystery by Peter James; Never Look Away (p), from Linwood Barclay; Elegy For April (p), featuring Benjamin Black’s Quirke in another Dublin thriller; Spy (p), by Clive Cussler; Private London (l) and Cross Fire (p), by James Patterson; Broken (p), by Karin Slaughter; and new titles too from Chris Ryan, Lynda La Plante, Andy McNab, Nicci French, and Anna Smith.

Looking for something different, heart warming and funny? Bed (p), by David Whitehouse, chronicles the metamorphosis of one extraordinary man and explores what love, loss and family can do to you in a lifetime. Highly recommended.

We also hear good things about Pao (l), by Kerry Young, a captivating novel that tells the remarkable history of twentieth century Jamaica as seen through the eyes of a Chinese-Jamaican racketeer.

Anne Patchett’s State of Wonder (l) is a dazzling story of science and ritual, terror and love set among the tangled waterways and giant anacondas of the Brazilian Rio Negro. Patchett, who won the Orange Prize with Bel Canto some years ago, rarely fails to impress. Her other popular works include The Magician’s Assistant.

Fall of Giants, the first part of Ken Follett’s epic spanning the 20th century moves into soft cover as do: Minding Frankie, by Maeve Binchy; Jodi Picoult’s Harvesting the Heart; The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, by Philip Pullman; The Island Beneath the Sea, by Isabel Allende; Sunset Park (p), from Paul Auster; Kamchatka, by the Argentinean author Marcelo Figueras; and To the Moon and Back, from Jill Mansell.

The Fort (p), by Bernard Cornwell, also moves into paperback in the historical fiction lists. In summer 1779, three small ships of the Royal Navy and 750 British soldiers received orders: to build a fort above a harbour at Penobscot to create a base from which to control the New England seaboard of the United States. 41 American ships and more than 900 men were ordered to expel the British. The battle that followed was a classic example of how the best-laid plans can be disrupted by personality and politics, and of how warfare can bring out both the best and worst in men.

New children’s titles include Withering Tights 2, the hotly anticipated sequel to Louise Rennison’s winner of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Laugh your tights off as Tallulah Casey and her crazy mates return to a new term at Dother Hall Performing Arts College. Boys, snogging and bad acting guaranteed!  Sir Terry Pratchett’s I Shall Wear Midnight is now in paperback.

Elizabeth David convinced a whole generation of Britons that they could cook like French peasants. Her classic, French Country Cooking (h), first published 60 years ago when food rationing was still in force in the United Kingdom, has been brought back to life in a new edition by Grub Street and at a good price.

With many of the traditional ingredients of French cuisine also available readily and affordably in Spain, this is a good addition to the kitchen shelf and is frankly essential for any serious cookery collection alongside Summer Cooking (p), Elizabeth David’s collection of fresh, seasonal recipes from around the world.

Thinking of making over a house or room? Art publisher Taschen’s Living in Morocco (h) is a budget priced collection of pictures and text showcasing homes that demonstrate all that is wonderful about that country’s style.

MAY

Real Madrid Inc (p) is noted Spanish journalist Fernando González Urbaneja’s penetrating analysis of what keeps a great sporting institution ahead of the pack. The club was recently named by FIFA, soccer’s international governing body, as the most successful football club of the 20th Century.

Top international accountants Deloitte rank it the richest by revenue. Its sporting prowess is legendary. Less is known about its financial structure and how it can keep signing Galácticos, globally idolised superstars such as Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, Luis Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo. Journalist, broadcaster and economics analyst González Urbaneja answers all in this unique look at the club nicknamed ‘Los Merengues’.

It tops the our Hotlist of titles, some new, some in paperback for the first times, and all due on the bookshelves in Spain during May or early June.

Only Time Will Tell (l), is the first of Jeffery Archer’s Clifton Chronicles, his most ambitious work in four decades. The epic tale of Harry Clifton's life begins in 1920, with the chilling words, 'I was told that my father was killed in the war'. But twenty years on, when Harry discovers how his father really died, he wonders who he really was: the child of a humble Bristol dockworker, or first-born son of a scion of West Country society, whose family owns a shipping line? Only Time Will Tell spans 1920 to 1940, and introduces a cast of memorable characters. The Times newspaper has compared it to John Galsworthy’s The Forsyte Saga.

Matterhorn (p), Karl Marlantes’ epic New York Times Bestseller, is one of the most profound and devastating novels ever to have come out of Vietnam, or any war, according to that paper’s critic, Sebastian Junger. Be a part of Bravo Company when the novel moves into paperback this month.

Others worth a look include: Pets in a Pickle (p), a humourous novel based on the experiences of British country veterinarian Malcolm Welshman; Surprise Party (p), from Sue Welfare; The Finkler Question (p), Howard Jacobson’s Man Booker Prize winner; The Good Muslim (l), by Tahmima Anam; and The Life & Opinons of Maf the Dog (p), Andrew O’Hagan’s hilarious peek at the life of a canine hero.

There are also new or paperback offerings from Alan Bennett, Lisa Jewell, Sarah Challis, Sheila O’Flanagan, Amelia Carr, Melissa Hill, Julia Stagg, Erica James, Kate Morton, John Boyne, and Jim Crace. Welcome back to Lloyd Jones who knocked us dead with the novel Mr Pip a few years ago and is once more on the shelves with a daring but enjoyable book that will live in the memory, Hand Me Down World (p).

Carte Blanche (l) is a new James Bond spy thriller from the pen of Jeffery Deaver at the behest of the rights holders, Ian Fleming Publications. In the world of espionage, giving an agent carte blanche on a mission comes with an enormous amount of trust and constantly tests both personal and professional judgement. Part of the non-stop suspense in the novel is the looming question of what is acceptable in matters of national and international security. Are there lines that even Agent 007 should not cross? '

Deaver maintains the persona of James Bond as Ian Fleming created him and the unique tone that the latter brought to his books, while incorporating Deaver’s literary trademarks: detailed research, fast pacing and surprise twists. It takes place in the present day over a short period of time, and sees Bond visit three or four exotic locations around the globe, one of which is Dubai.

Other thrillers to look out for include: The End of the Wasp Season (l), by Denise Mina; Mercy (p), dark deeds in Denmark from Jussi Adler-Olsen; The Family (p), by Martina Cole; Head Shot (p), a Bob Skinner mystery from Quintin Jardine; Eoin Colfer’s Plugged (l); The Dealer & The Dead (p), by Gerald Seymour; City of Veils (p), a coruscating take on life in Saudi Arabia from crime writer Zoe Ferraris; Sixkill (l), from Robert B Parker; The Confession (p), by John Grisham; and Patricia Cornwell’s Port Mortuary.

This month’s sci-fi pick is Embassytown (l), from China Miéville. Fiction Fantasy biggies include Rogue (l), the second instalment in Trudi Canavan’s Traitor Spy Trilogy and On Stranger Tides (p), from Tim Powers.

The cream of the non-fiction crop features Buried Alive (l), a heart-warming account of the Chilean mining disaster and extraordinary rescue that gripped the world last year. It is written by Manuel Pino, a Chilean journalist who was there as the story developed.

If you are still perplexed by how Ireland’s ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy became an alley cat mewing for EU scraps then read Bust (p), Dearbhail McDonald’s account of how the real villains of the piece – bankers and developers – have tried and failed to keep the courts exposing what is rotten at the core of the country’s economy. To be honest, it could be anywhere – UK, Spain, the Baltic States, Iceland – so read, rage and learn.

The Man Who Left Too Soon (p), is Barry Forsman’s penetrating biography of Stieg Larsson, the brilliant Swedish journalist, anti-Nazi campaigner and author behind the Millennium Trilogy. Forsman inevitably speculates over whether Larsson really did die from a heart attack or if his enemies played a role in his death.

APRIL 2011

In the Spanish Cockpit, the Austrian journalist Franz Borkenau, provided an eyewitness account of the tragedy along the road as German warships and Italian fighter planes bombarded and strafed the fleeing columns. The pioneering Canadian doctor and communist Norman Bethune's exploits in helping the injured, sick and fugitive are recalled in the biography, The Scalpel The Sword.

MARCH 2011

The Frozen Heart is to Spain what Dr Zhivago was to Russia, an epic work of fiction focused on how lives were buffeted by civil war and great conflicts.

Almudena Grande' novel, translated into English, moves into standard paperback format and tops our hotlist of titles, some new, others such as The Frozen Heart out in soft cover for the first time.

From the provincial heartlands of Civil War Spain to Spain's Legión Azul in the World War II battlefields of Russia, The Frozen Heart is a mesmerising journey through a war that tore families apart, pitted fathers against sons, brothers against brothers, wives against husbands. Against such a past, where do faith and loyalty lie?

The Loner (l) is an engaging one-off thriller from Scotland's Quintin Jardine. Xavi Aislado is a gentle giant, half Spanish, half Scot, reared in Edinburgh by his grandmother, Paloma Puig, a ferocious old lady whose grim brand of care sees him into his teens, until his father moves back to Spain, leaving Xavi to grow up fast. His emergence into manhood is colourful, and eventful. After a short career as a professional footballer, he turns to journalism, and has a bloody introduction to the trade, as his first assignment ends in violent death.

Xavi' s life and love become entwined with his work, and he is immersed in tragedy, loss and betrayal, going halfway round the world in search of a truth that may destroy him. This is an memorable story of a man riding a one-way train to oblivion. Will he escape before it hits the buffers full-speed?

David Baird, best known for Between Two Fires, the remarkable history of the guerrilla war against Franco in the mountains behind Nerja, is publishing a new novel to follow the success of Don’t Miss The Fiesta!, the Spain based chiller that was his first foray into fiction.

Typhoon Season (p), a fast-moving thriller set in Hong Kong (HK), is due at the end of March. Its ingredients include an execution in Bangkok, a body floating in the South China Sea, a missing heroin stash, corruption in high places, dark forces at work during the swansong of the British Empire, and a meddling reporter who asks too many questions.

David worked as a journalist in HK both when it was a British colony and later when it returned to Chinese rule. He has reported for major international newspapers and magazines and his books have been translated into several languages.

Other thriller and chillers due in March or early April include: The Troubled Man (l), the first new Wallander novel in a decade from Henning Mankell; A Question of Belief (p), by Donna Leon; Blood Count (l), by Robert Goddard; Blueeyed Boy (p), by Joanne Harris; Field Grey (p), a Bernie Gunther novel from Philip Kerr; From the Dead (p), by Mark Billingham; Savage Run (p), by C J Box; Second Sight (p), the latest Paul Christoper spy novel by Charles McCarry; Camilla Lackberg's Stone Cutter (p); Mystery (l), an Alex Delaware adventure by Jonathan Kellerman; Theodore Boone (p), John Grisham' first ‘teen’ novel featuring a 13 year old lawyer wannabe; Live Wire (l), another Myron Bolitar tale from Harlan Coben; Red Herring Without Mustard (l), the third in Alan Bradley's absolutely brilliant series featuring Flavia de Luce, an 11 year old village sleuth and poisons expert; The Mayan Prophecy (p), from Steve Alten; and 10^th Anniversary (l), a Women's Murder Club mystery by James Patterson.

The Hand of Fatima (l) is the latest epic from Ildefonso Falcones, the Barçelona author and lawyer who stormed onto the English reading world' radar with Cathedral of the Sea. The Hand of Fatima's release in the United Kingdom was announced last year but was delayed until now.

Snared between two cultures and two loves, one man is forced to choose. 1564, the Kingdom of Granada. After years of Christian oppression, the Moors take arms against their masters and daub the white houses of Sierra Nevada with the blood of their victims. Caught in the conflict is young Hernando, the son of an Arab woman who was raped by a Christian priest.

Despised by the townsfolk and by his own stepfather for his supposedly tainted heritage, he is banished to live in the stables and becomes an expert muleteer. When Hernando meets Fatima, a beautiful girl with black eyes, she becomes the love of his life. But his stepfather accuses Hernando of Christian sympathies and condemns him to slavery.

Then news reaches Hernando that Fatima has been murdered. In despair, he embarks on a plan to unite the two warring faiths and the two halves of his identity. It is an epic of good and evil, of love and hate, of dreams dashed and hopes regained.

Carlos Ruiz Zafon took the English book world by storm with The Shadow of the Wind and its prequel, The Angel' Game. The latest translation of his work is The Prince of Mist (p), now available in paperback. Aimed at teens and adults, it is a chilling tale of mystery, imagination, whispers, and ghosts from the past.

Prescription for Nutritional Healing (p), by Phyllis A Balch, has been a slow-burn bestseller for more than 20 years and has a number of local devotees. At last, this A to Z guide of nutrients, supplements and herbs for holistic health has been updated for the 21^st century and published in a paperback, pocket editition.

Wanderers take note: Lonely Planet's guide to Spain moves into its eighth edition. It includes special sections on Gaudi, the Picos de Europa, architecture and many Spanish cities as well as 3D illustrations of major tourist attractions.

FEBRUARY 2011

JASON WEBSTER, author of a number of bestselling non-fiction works about Spanish history, life and culture - Duende, Andalus, Guerra, and Sacred Sierra – bursts into fiction this month with Or The Bull Kills You, billed as ‘intelligent, compelling detective fiction in the tradition of Michael Dibdin’s, no doubt with an eye to the United Kingdom televising of Dibdin's Aurelio Zen mysteries. This is the first in Webster's planned series of novels featuring detective Max Camara, whose passions are brandy and flamenco greats such as Camaron de la Isla and Enrique Morente.

Chief Inspector Camara thinks in proverbs, ones his Anarchist grandfather, Hilario, repeats all the time, but hates bullfighting. So when the pot-smoking detective investigates the slaying of Spain's most celebrated matador, found dead in the Valencia bullring, he has to deal with violent shadows from his own past, as well confronting the suspicion of the bullfighting community and the stonewalling of local politicians in full electoral campaign. Moreover, Fallas, Spain's loudest fiesta, is in full swing and his girlfriend is having problems getting pregnant, blaming it on him. For Camara, it seems, the problems have only just begun.

Is this the start of a cult fictional detective? Judge for yourself. Or The Bull Kills You is available in large paperback format on the Costa.

A Short Cut to Paradise (p), by the Barcelona author Teresa Solana, is the second novel featuring private detective twins Eduard & Borja. On the night that she wins a major literary prize, media celebrity and bestselling author Marina Bolc is murdered in The Ritz, Barcelona, by a killer who bludgeons her to death with her trophy. When the police arrest the runner-up, Amadeu Cabestany, the twins are hired to prove his innocence. The unlikely duo is plunged into the murky waters of the Catalan capital's literary scene and need all their wit and improvisation to solve the case. A Not So Perfect Crime, the first Eduard & Borja caper, may still be ordered in paperback.

Other thrillers to watch out for include: First Thrills (l), by Lee Child; Open Season (p), from CJ Box; The Library of Gold (p), by Gayle Lynds; Michael Ridpath's Where The Shadows Lie (p); The Red Coffin (l), by Sam Eastland; Trinity Six (l), a superior Cold War spy thriller from Charles Cumming; A Rush of Blood (p), the latest Skinner mystery from Quintin Jardine; Bad Boy (p), by Peter Robinson; This Body of Death (p), from Elizabeth George; Dennis Lehane' Moonlight Mile (l); Cure (l), a dark and gripping medical thriller by Robin Cook; Silent Voices (l), by Ann Cleeves, a DI Vera Stanhope thriller that coincides with the screening on UK television of a drama series based on Stanhope; Caught (p), from Harlan Coben; and Mortal Remains (l), by Kathy Reichs.

In the general fiction lists, Books Burn Badly (p), by the celebrated Galician author Manuel Rivas, is now out in paperback. Also worth watching are: Even the Dogs (p), by John McGregor; Mornings in Jenin (p), from Susan Abulhawa; Michael Arditti's provocative new novel, Jubilate (l); Warsaw Anagrams (p), from Richard Zimler; Parrot & Olivier in America (p), by Peter Carey; The Widow's Tale (p), from Mick Jackson; Love in a Warm Climate (p); Helena Frith Powell's humorous novel about the French art of having affairs; Last Dance With Valentino (l), by Daisy Waugh; and new or ‘first-time in paperback’ offerings from Josephine Cox, Jill Mansell, Andrea Levy, Alexander McCall-Smith, Lesley Pearse, Kate Atkinson, Dorothy Koomson, Helen Dunmore, Marian Keyes, and Cormac McCarthy

Anthony Sharp, the Frigiliana based writer and musician, is back in print with a new novel, To Mama With Love. Following in the darkly satirical tradition of his previous works, the madcap plot involves Amanda Davidson, a Jewish, boutique owner who marries a German arms manufacturer, Carl Himmler (no relation!) and enjoys twelve years of happy marriage until a serious threat to her husband' business brings in the police, security services, and heads of state. She faces a threat herself from a deviant son whose obsession with neo-Nazis spills over into violent behaviour. Tony promises a happy ending though.

Richard Ford (1796-1858), a British writer, wrote a trailblazing travel guide to Andalucia which was first published in 1845, sparking a wave of sightseeing among well-heeled Britons who, in the absence of Ryanair and Easyjet, made the trip by sea, train and road. Original copies of Ford's Handbook for Travellers in Spain change hands today for fabulous sums of money, depending on condition. Thankfully, it is now being offered in digestible and affordable instalments by James Cracknell Draffen, who is editing and publishing the work. Part I, The Peninsular, is available now in paperback at around 10 euros and is of the most general interest, including delightful insights into Spanish traits and foibles, many of them recognisable today.

Cooks take note: Casa Moro, Samantha & Samuel Clark's wonderful tome on the food and cookery of Andalucia, moves finally into paperback. This follow-up to their bestselling Moro: The Cookbook delivers the same excitement and elegance of its predecessor. Treasure it for your own use or buy it for giving. Meanwhile, Murdoch Book' excellently produced and affordable (around 12,99 euros) Food for Friends series now includes Spanish and Moroccan cookbooks featuring well-prepared, simple food and hundreds of illustrations in each.

A footnote: Sheila R Beecham, a local author who wrote the mini-novel Andalucian Oasis, has self-published Hello Spain (p), an autobiographical account of her move to Spain and life here so far.

JANUARY 2011

BANISH the winter blues with a paseo along the promenade at Torrox Costa or a foray inland from the same town. Elma Thompson, the Axarquia' most redoubtable compiler of walking guides, has finally revised her collection of expeditions from her home town, Torrox Costa.

After years out of print, they have been updated and are available now in leaflet form, adding thirty new options for walkers who have enjoyed similar Thompson guides for Nerja & Maro (24), Frigiliana (12), and the Alpujarras. Add in the new Axarquia Tour & Trail Map from Discovery Guides and you have the perfect combination for enjoying the great Costa outdoors, weather permitting.

If it turns out to be even half as rainy as last winter, be advised that we have now started importing a range of top quality jigsaws from House of Puzzles to keep fanatics satisfied through any dull days that come our way.

New book releases are not thick on the ground at this time of year, but there is quality to make up for lack of quantity.

If you pick only one, make it Room, by Emma Donoghue. If you were moved by The Kite Runner and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, this will leave you with the same bittersweet feeling. It tops our hotlist of books, some new, some in standard paperback for the first time, and all either in the stores or due during January and early Februrary.

It is Jack' s birthday, and he' s excited about turning five. Jack lives with his Ma in Room, which has a locked door and a skylight, and measures not much more than 10 square metres. He loves watching television and the cartoon characters he calls friends, but he knows that nothing he sees on screen is truly real, only him, Ma and the things in Room. Until the day Ma admits that there is a world outside .Told in Jack' s voice, this is the story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible. Unsentimental and sometimes funny, devastating yet uplifting, Room is a novel like no other. It will be mega in ’11.

Other general fiction titles that may appeal include: Jane Gardam's The Man in the Wooden Hat (p); Gallery Girl (p), from Wendy Holden; Hector & the Secrets of Love (p), by François Lelord; The Master of Bruges (p), by Terence Morgan; The Lake of Dreams (l), from Kim Edwards, who wrote The Memory Keeper' Daughter; The Convent (p), set in Spain, by Panos Karnezis; We Had it So Good (l), by Linda Grant; and The Good Fairies of New York, by Martin Miller.

The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink, was one of the best loved and most powerful books of  the last decade or so. In Gordian Knot (l), Schlink delivers a prize-winning Cold War spy novel.

Young lawyer Georg Polger gives up a comfortable existence in Germany to work as a freelance translator in the South of France. But business in the picturesque village is far from booming, and Georg struggles to make ends meet. One day he is approached by Mr Bulnakov, who wants him to take over a local translation agency.

The previous owner has just died in mysterious circumstances. Everything seems to be going perfectly: Georg falls in love with Bulnakov's attractive secretary, Françoise, and takes on a lucrative project left unfinished by his predecessor, translating plans for military helicopters. But everything changes when Georg notices Françoise copying his plans.

She tells Georg that Bulnakov has threatened to harm her brother, who lives in Poland, if she refuses to do his bidding. When Georg confronts Bulnakov, Francoise disappears, and mysterious elements within the village try to hound him out. All he has left of Francoise is a picture she gave him of a church, which she told him was in Warsaw.

When a friend tells him the church is actually in New York, Georg flies to America in a desperate bid to track down Françoise and unravel the web of deceit. Tailed from his arrival, he quickly realises that he is stuck between the CIA and the KGB, and further out of his depth than he can begin to comprehend. But which side was he working for? Who is the mysterious Mr Bulkanov? And did he ever know the real Fran Françoise? Fans of Le Carré and Alan Furst will love this novel which is expected later in the month.

Other thrillers to watch out for include: Blue Heaven (p), by CJ Box; Dark Blood (p), and Shatter the Bones (l), both from Stuart MacBride; What the Night Knows (l), by Dean Koontz; You Belong to Me (l), and Have You Seen Her (p), both by Karen Rose; The Whisperers (p), from John Connolly; The Templar Salvation (l), by Raymond Khoury; Deborah Crombie's latest, Necessary As Blood (p); Broken (p), from Karin Slaughter; Tick Tock(l), by James Patterson; and more from Tess Gerritsen, Vince Flynn, Mari Jungstedt; Mark Gimenez, Carol Topolski, and Clive Cussler.

Sci-Fi and Fantasy fans take note: there are new or paperback releases due from Dan Abnett, Cory Doctorow, Joe Abercrombie, James Lovegrove, Tad Williams, and Graham Hancock.

Slow Cooking seems to be all the rage again in the era of austerity. Three titles cover all budgets this month: Antony's Slow Cooking (l), from British TV celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson offers 100 easy recipes for slow cooker, oven or hob; 200 More Slow Cooker Recipes, a snip at around 6 or 7 euros; and Slow Cooking, in the venerable Australian Women' Weekly series. Or what about Stew, in which Mitzie Wilson covers one-pot cooking from around the world – meals that cook slowly but need minimum preparation and can transform the cheapest cuts of meat if you happen to be a carni- of omnivore.

NOVEMBER 2010

Malaga Football Club, by David Redshaw, is the colourful history in English of the team nicknamed  Los Boquerones. It tops this month' s hotlist of titles, some new, some in paperback for the first times, and all due here on various dates in November and early December. 

Some of MFC's history lives up to the fishiness of its nickname: match fixing scandals, ground closures, refusals to play, and the assassination of a club president. It is an obvious Christmas option for the foreign supporters, not a few of them too, that inhabit these parts, even if some of them buy season tickets so they can take friends to see Real Madrid and Barcelona on visits to the Rosaleda stadium. David saw his first Malaga game more than 20 years ago, moved to the Costa in 1986, and organises match day visits for the so-called guiri army of MFC foreign supporters including expats and holidaymakers. 

Death in Seville (p), by David Hewson, is being reissued as a completely rewritten tale with a new cover and research on locations in Seville. First published in 1996 as Semana Santa, it was later made into a movie starring Mira Sorvino and Olivier Martinez and marketed in the USA as Angel of Death. David has placed the rewritten story in real-life Seville and has introduced some new elements. The success of a reissue of his novel The Cemetery of Secrets helped to persuade his publishers that it would be worth the investment: brand extension via a time machine perhaps!

The Spanish Hotel (p), by Gary Philpott, is a rip-roaring tale of murder, starting in London, moving to a small Spanish village and climaxing in Dubai. Alice Evans mysteriously falls from her fifth floor balcony. Unable to prove it was not suicide, Detective Chief Inspector Collins senses there is more to the case. Alice' s mysterious final words, and her liberal love life with partners ranging from cafe owners to British Government advisors, convince DCI Collins to dig deeper. Links between Alice's death and the questionable conduct of a high profile British politician start to emerge. Along the way, Collins must battle against a wall of silence erected by authorities in Spain and the Middle East as he unravels a tangled web of vice and corruption.

Pereira Maintains (l), by Antonio Tabucchi, is a tale of reluctant heroism set in the sweltering summer of 1938 in Portugal, a country under the fascist shadow of Spain. Dr. Peirera, an editor at a second-rate Lisbon newspaper, wants nothing to do with European politics. He is happy to translate 19th century French stories. His closest confidante is a photograph of his late wife. All this changes when he meets Francesco Monteiro Rossi, an oddly charismatic young man. Pereira gives Rossi work, and continues to pay him, even after discovering that he is using the money to recruit for the anti-Franco International Brigades. Pereira Maintains chronicles Pereira' s ascent to consciousness, culminating in a devastating and reckless act of rebellion. Tabucchi is one of Italy's most acclaimed contemporary writers. He divides his time between Lisbon, Portugal, and Siena, Italy, where he teaches Portuguese language and literature at the University of Siena.

A footnote, so to speak: the new Axarquia Tour & Trail Map by Discovery Guides is selling well and has revealed itself to be even better than we were led to believe.

When it arrived, we were pleased to discover that not only does it cover the Axarquia south of the Tejeda, Almijara and Montes de Malaga, but also routes over the hills to destinations such as Venta de la Zaffaraya, Arenas del Rey and Jatar as well as hill tracks inland from Maro, La Herradura and some from Almunecar. All told, this is a great addition to the range of aides for walkers hereabouts. 

OCTOBER 2010

THINGS just got better for local walkers and drivers as temperatures cool and the hiking, touring, picnicking season begins in earnest. Discovery Guides, the well respected UK publisher of guides, will release a 1:40,000 large scale map of the Axarquia towards the end of this month.

Aimed at drivers and walkers exploring the fabulous scenery of the Sierras Almijara and Tejeda, the Axarquia Tour & Trail Map, tops our list of releases, some new, some in paperback for the first time, and all due on dates in October or early November.

The publishers say the design emphasises what you see on the roads or mountain tracks and trails and has clear road numbering, kilometre markers, viewpoints, cafes, picnic areas, plus roundabouts and petrol stations.

At a stroke, it is the most up to date large scale map of the area and claims to be the most accurate. Off the main tarmac roads, a comprehensive GPS ground survey has zeroed in on those confusing, narrow country lanes and the designers also distinguish between dirt ' roads' , which are graded and rolled and are regularly used by locals, and dirt ' tracks' that are often forestry tracks rather than unsurfaced roads.

On foot, the map covers all routes in the separate guidebook, Walk! Axarquia, as well as details of a lot more walking from some of the well-known locally published guides.

In a double helping of joy, Walk! Axarquia is being made available in a revised, second edition from about mid month. It includes 32 fully detailed walking routes ranging from moderate to stiffer challenges, complete with GPS waypoint references for the more technically minded. Full GPS waypoint files for this book are available on a separate, Personal Navigator Files CD that may be ordered through bookshops to input into your GPS gizmo if you have one.

Don' t forget too that local walking leaflets for the area are still in print, are updated regularly, and are still proving popular with people who like to pick and choose their jaunts. Tony Allen has just added two new leaflets to his series.

If you want something meatier and different, try The Skating Rink (l) by Roberto Bolano. Rife with political corruption, jealousy and frustrated passion, this is a darkly atmospheric chronicle of one summer season in the seaside town of Z, on the Costa Brava, north of Barcelona.

The story centres on a beautiful figure skating champion, Nuria Marti. When she is suddenly dropped from the Olympic team, an admirer builds a secret ice rink for her in the ruins of a mansion. What he does not tell her is how he paid for it, and the rink soon becomes a crime scene. This is an absorbing tale of murder and its motives.

(c) 2011 Smiffs