1 00:00:07,133 --> 00:00:10,453 Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast 2 00:00:10,573 --> 00:00:13,773 Speaker 1: from News Talks at b twenty. 3 00:00:13,453 --> 00:00:15,133 Speaker 2: Three to twelve. Time to get your book picts for 4 00:00:15,213 --> 00:00:18,493 Speaker 2: this weekend. Catherine Rains, our book reviewer, is here with 5 00:00:18,613 --> 00:00:21,813 Speaker 2: us this morning. Cal to Catherine, Morning Jack. Let's begin 6 00:00:22,093 --> 00:00:25,333 Speaker 2: with The Truth about Ruby Cooper by Liz Nugent. 7 00:00:26,133 --> 00:00:28,453 Speaker 3: So this is about a family who are living in 8 00:00:28,573 --> 00:00:31,813 Speaker 3: Boston in the US and living the American dream. Things 9 00:00:31,813 --> 00:00:36,013 Speaker 3: are really good. Daughters Erin and Ruby really don't want 10 00:00:36,133 --> 00:00:39,773 Speaker 3: or need anything. Their pastor mother and pastor father and 11 00:00:40,013 --> 00:00:43,773 Speaker 3: mother love them dearly. But Ruby feels quite different from 12 00:00:43,813 --> 00:00:46,573 Speaker 3: her sister. She feels a little less loved because in 13 00:00:46,613 --> 00:00:50,053 Speaker 3: her eyes, her sister is smarter and more beautiful. And 14 00:00:50,093 --> 00:00:52,493 Speaker 3: then at the age of sixteen and nineteen ninety nine, 15 00:00:52,613 --> 00:00:55,853 Speaker 3: Ruby is involved in this terrible incident in the family 16 00:00:56,653 --> 00:01:02,173 Speaker 3: fractures and becomes almost irreparable. And Ruby is with her 17 00:01:02,213 --> 00:01:04,893 Speaker 3: Irish mother in Dublin and Aaron stays in Boston with 18 00:01:04,893 --> 00:01:08,573 Speaker 3: her father. And as the year go by, the depths 19 00:01:08,573 --> 00:01:12,173 Speaker 3: of their fractures get worse and Ruby really buries ahead 20 00:01:12,253 --> 00:01:14,973 Speaker 3: and from truth and reality as the ramifications of the 21 00:01:15,053 --> 00:01:18,333 Speaker 3: incident become more intense and the style of this novel 22 00:01:18,533 --> 00:01:21,133 Speaker 3: really draws you in and you get these different first 23 00:01:21,133 --> 00:01:23,773 Speaker 3: person accounts over the years, and all of these characters 24 00:01:23,773 --> 00:01:27,133 Speaker 3: feel like speaking to you, and the plot and the 25 00:01:27,293 --> 00:01:30,613 Speaker 3: storytelling is quite emotional, and there's just all sorts of 26 00:01:30,613 --> 00:01:33,333 Speaker 3: things that happen along the way and completely unexpected and 27 00:01:33,413 --> 00:01:35,293 Speaker 3: not really where you think the story is going to go. 28 00:01:36,013 --> 00:01:38,853 Speaker 3: And it's all about really how human emotions can lead 29 00:01:38,893 --> 00:01:41,893 Speaker 3: you and dictate future behaviors. And there's some tough themes 30 00:01:41,893 --> 00:01:46,053 Speaker 3: in here, and there's individual perceptions and delusions and things 31 00:01:46,133 --> 00:01:48,293 Speaker 3: change and uncover as you go. But if you like 32 00:01:48,333 --> 00:01:51,053 Speaker 3: a good psychological thriller, I think this is the one 33 00:01:51,093 --> 00:01:51,373 Speaker 3: for you. 34 00:01:51,453 --> 00:01:54,573 Speaker 2: Oh very good. Okay. So The Truth about Ruby Cooper 35 00:01:54,773 --> 00:01:58,253 Speaker 2: is by Liz NuGen mixed up Battle of the Arctic 36 00:01:58,333 --> 00:01:59,933 Speaker 2: by Hugh so Bag Montefiore. 37 00:02:01,413 --> 00:02:04,653 Speaker 3: This is a really well researched World War two history 38 00:02:05,213 --> 00:02:08,173 Speaker 3: and it's the account of that experience of the Arctic convoys. 39 00:02:08,213 --> 00:02:12,013 Speaker 3: And it's not really about what was happening politically or economically, 40 00:02:12,133 --> 00:02:15,453 Speaker 3: or you know, strategically what was happening, but about the 41 00:02:15,533 --> 00:02:18,853 Speaker 3: soldiers and what happened to them in their first convoys. 42 00:02:18,853 --> 00:02:22,213 Speaker 3: And to Russia, and it starts in August nineteen forty 43 00:02:22,253 --> 00:02:25,013 Speaker 3: one and goes through all of these convoys until sort 44 00:02:25,053 --> 00:02:28,613 Speaker 3: of March April nineteen forty five, and it cave as 45 00:02:28,653 --> 00:02:32,013 Speaker 3: some of the really notable actions that happened. There was 46 00:02:32,013 --> 00:02:35,293 Speaker 3: a destruction of the convoy PQ seventeen in June July 47 00:02:35,453 --> 00:02:38,213 Speaker 3: nineteen forty two, and he goes into a lot of 48 00:02:38,253 --> 00:02:40,653 Speaker 3: detail about that, but he also draws on these really 49 00:02:41,653 --> 00:02:44,973 Speaker 3: different official and unofficial sources that not a lot of 50 00:02:45,013 --> 00:02:48,053 Speaker 3: people have consulted before. And so've watched the Norwegian and 51 00:02:48,133 --> 00:02:51,693 Speaker 3: Russian and German and American material apart from the familiar 52 00:02:51,733 --> 00:02:55,093 Speaker 3: sort of British accounts about this time, and it's just 53 00:02:55,733 --> 00:03:01,293 Speaker 3: fascinating these merchants, seafares and these appalling Arctic climate and conditions, 54 00:03:01,333 --> 00:03:04,573 Speaker 3: and it's what comes through is the relentless horror of it. 55 00:03:04,733 --> 00:03:08,573 Speaker 3: And there's lots of testimonies and people from survivors and 56 00:03:08,613 --> 00:03:11,413 Speaker 3: the effects of what happened to them, like frostbite and 57 00:03:11,453 --> 00:03:15,493 Speaker 3: the casualties from sinkings, and what the man's hospital was 58 00:03:15,613 --> 00:03:17,973 Speaker 3: like with you know, lack of hygiene and painkillers or 59 00:03:18,013 --> 00:03:21,213 Speaker 3: even a clean bandage. And he tells the story of 60 00:03:21,253 --> 00:03:25,213 Speaker 3: these accounts of these survivors on merchant ships who had 61 00:03:25,333 --> 00:03:28,773 Speaker 3: ended up being dispatched from Iceland and the political pressure 62 00:03:28,773 --> 00:03:31,133 Speaker 3: and what happens to them to resume their supplies to 63 00:03:31,173 --> 00:03:35,093 Speaker 3: the Soviet Union, And it's really what comes through is 64 00:03:35,253 --> 00:03:39,093 Speaker 3: just how hard life was for these guys, and the 65 00:03:39,133 --> 00:03:42,573 Speaker 3: Soviet Union wasn't particularly hospitable. You know, the locals shun them, 66 00:03:42,573 --> 00:03:44,973 Speaker 3: and there was violence and arrest and the medical care 67 00:03:45,093 --> 00:03:48,693 Speaker 3: and these isolated communities and just you know, that extreme 68 00:03:48,893 --> 00:03:50,773 Speaker 3: condition of the art. It kind of keeps playing on 69 00:03:50,813 --> 00:03:53,453 Speaker 3: your mind and the fates of these soldiers, and it's 70 00:03:53,533 --> 00:03:56,173 Speaker 3: just it's a really interesting look at that Arctic campaign. 71 00:03:56,613 --> 00:03:59,933 Speaker 2: It just sounds so grim, very. 72 00:03:59,733 --> 00:04:03,493 Speaker 3: Grim, very very cold. And I mean that you think 73 00:04:03,533 --> 00:04:05,973 Speaker 3: now when we sort of head off and people you know, 74 00:04:06,013 --> 00:04:08,053 Speaker 3: head to be ice and stuff, you know, the kinds 75 00:04:08,093 --> 00:04:10,013 Speaker 3: of equipment, of the kind of gear that we have 76 00:04:10,293 --> 00:04:14,333 Speaker 3: is just so different. You know, in nineteen forty it 77 00:04:14,413 --> 00:04:16,973 Speaker 3: must have been horrific, and these guys often had no 78 00:04:17,093 --> 00:04:19,253 Speaker 3: experience of these conditions, just didn't know what. 79 00:04:19,253 --> 00:04:21,533 Speaker 2: Tex Yeah, of course, yeah, it's not like it's not 80 00:04:21,533 --> 00:04:23,733 Speaker 2: like today. So my question for you is who has 81 00:04:23,933 --> 00:04:26,293 Speaker 2: the better name do we think because we've had we've 82 00:04:26,293 --> 00:04:30,053 Speaker 2: had Hugh sebag montefiure on before with with a couple 83 00:04:30,093 --> 00:04:33,213 Speaker 2: of his other works. But then you've got Randolph Fines 84 00:04:33,253 --> 00:04:36,533 Speaker 2: as well, who I think is what saran Saranoff twistled 85 00:04:36,573 --> 00:04:41,613 Speaker 2: and Wickenham finds third baronyt Obe, which is not bad either. 86 00:04:42,493 --> 00:04:45,013 Speaker 2: Just when you know Jack Tame, when you name's Jack Chane, 87 00:04:45,013 --> 00:04:46,973 Speaker 2: when you name it's two syllables and that's it, and 88 00:04:47,013 --> 00:04:49,093 Speaker 2: one of them is half of your name, is the 89 00:04:49,093 --> 00:04:51,293 Speaker 2: word tame, It's hard not to look at the name 90 00:04:51,333 --> 00:04:53,573 Speaker 2: like that and feel just a little sliver of envy. 91 00:04:53,613 --> 00:04:57,093 Speaker 3: You know. I think I'd have to go with Randolph Fines. Yeah, 92 00:04:57,853 --> 00:04:58,533 Speaker 3: that's pretty good. 93 00:04:58,613 --> 00:05:00,973 Speaker 2: It's not bad. A Hugh sebag Montefiorre is not a 94 00:05:00,973 --> 00:05:03,093 Speaker 2: bad second though. So his latest book is Battle of 95 00:05:03,093 --> 00:05:05,813 Speaker 2: the Arctic. Catherine's first pick for us this week the 96 00:05:05,813 --> 00:05:09,213 Speaker 2: Truth about Ruby Cooper by Lis Nugent. Both of those 97 00:05:09,253 --> 00:05:11,213 Speaker 2: will be up on the news Talk ZB website. 98 00:05:11,693 --> 00:05:14,813 Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live 99 00:05:14,893 --> 00:05:18,053 Speaker 1: to news Talk ZEDB from nine am Saturday, or follow 100 00:05:18,093 --> 00:05:19,693 Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio.