Agent Running in the Field - John LeCarré

Another great book by this author.  The contemporary issues underlying this current book are both very topical and demonstrate more perception than current media or public awareness.
1 - how the English elite, and particularly the London financial system, has turned into an enabler for, and profits hugely from, vast sums of money coming out of criminal regimes and being parked for security in London banks and property.  Particularly from Eastern Europe.  Le Carré's point is that this lucrative relationship has started to colour and control England's diplomatic and international agenda.

2 - the possibility of a U.S. England alliance designed to destabilize and ultimately destroy the E.U. as an institution through fake news, provocations, support for far right groups.  This idea is highly plausible.  Brexiteers see the E.U. as a threat to their agenda.  Trump and the American Right see the E.U. as an economic and political threat in an arena where for the past fifty years they have controlled the playing field.  The Anglo socio-political world view - every man for themselves, wealth as a legitimizer of power - stands in opposition to the E.U.'s more socialist leanings.  Just as the West once stood as a stark contrast to the ugliness of the Soviet regime, Europe's more humane and inclusive politics stand in stark contrast to the growing social ugliness of the Anglo political world.  In a sense, the U.S. and England are now on the same side as Putin in relation to the E.U.   Another interesting little aside in the novel is the author's comment that Trump says the things about the E.U. that Putin can't say as he attempts to weasel his way deeper into the economics and politics of the region.

This is LeCarré's most disturbing book so far, from the point of view of issues he examines.  I suppose because the central conflict is entirely located within what would have formerly been seen as the Free World.  It suggests that, rather than having disappeared with the fall of the Soviet Union, the rot has in fact spread into Europe and the U.S..

The African Shore - Rodrigo Rey Rosa

Guatemalan writer influenced by Paul Bowles.
A strange story set in Morocco. A strange narrative that intertwines many unusual local characters with a stranded Columbian tourist (stranded, but kind of willingly).  There is also an injured owl.  Not quite sure what it all adds up to, but it is a good read.  An undercurrent of violence, perversions, desperation and walking on the wild side.  Gives a feel for the life of the community and the streets.

The Lazarus Project - Alexander Hemon

A layering of two stories.  Lazarus is a Jewish immigrant killed without cause by the police in Chicago in the very early 1900s.  It is based on a true story.  This part explores the racism of the dominant society, the exaggerated stories they tell themselves, and also the economic exploitation of immigrants, especially at that time of rapid economic expansion and the founding of great fortunes.  You also get a sense of the social unrest and social conflicts of the time.  Same racist tropes you see today in the U.S,
The other story is about the author working on the Lazarus project, and the trip he takes to Ukraine, Moldova and Sarajevo as part of this ostensible research.  This part looks at difficult cultural / worldview differences between Bosnia, Ukraine, etc, and the more prosperous Western countries but at a very personal, interactive level.  Some of the immigrant author's comments about American culture and world view are very biting, but quite accurate.  There are also many stories about the siege of Sarajevo - one of the side characters.

The Book of My Lives - Aleksander Hemon

A collection of what read like short stories, but are actually short autobiographical pieces.  Somehow he sees how his life resembles fiction.  Some wonderful pieces on his early times as a newly arrived accidental immigrant in the U.S., stranded by the start of the war in Bosnia, that examine what it feels like to be a new immigrant, living with the "us" and "them".  A very sharp observer of people, their peculiarities and foibles.  You also get some sense of Slavic culture through the pieces about his family and his relationship with his father.

The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms - Ernest Hemingway

While Hemingway's revolutionary narrative style is still evident today, I find his stories tedious and predictable.  There is a similar maudlin quality to the ones I read (before I couldn't take any more....)  Always the damaged hero disappointed in love in some way.  Weird combination of 20th c style with 19th c dramatic heroine plot structures.

Berji Kristin: Tales from the Garbage Hills - Latife Tekin

A fascinating social portrait of a time and place - the period of mass migration from Anatolian villages to Istanbul and Ankara, and the creation of massive overnight slum neighbourhoods.  A portrait of the village mind in confrontation with capitalism and the effects of untrammelled industrialization.  Also a portrait of capital at work in the neoliberal post 60s military coup in Turkey.  Dovetails nicely with another book I read recently - Why Turkey is Authoritarian:  From Atatürk to Erdoğan, by Halil Karaveli.  The novel puts some flesh and bones onto the political situation of the time - government unquestioning support of capital, ignored corruption, links between politics and organized crime, suppression of worker rights.

The Cockroach - Ian McEwan

Great impromptu spoof of the whole Brexit deal and the individuals and forces behind it.  Bit of a take-off on Franz Kafka.  Basically, cockroaches take over the bodies and minds of leading political figures behind Brexit.  Their goal is to create a world in chaos and disorder to promote living conditions more suitable to their continued reproduction and success - another way of looking at Brexit, Trump and Putin (amongst others) who strive to create legal, political and social conditions favourable to their own greed and desire for power