Heartburn, Nora Ephron

I'd heard a lot about Nora Ephron's writing in general and this novel in particular, so I was aware of expecting too much from it. As soon as I'd read the first pages though I was completely gratified. It is a novel based on the break-up of Ephron's second marriage (similar to The Enchanted April in some ways). Our narrator is Rachel, who is seven months pregnant with their second child when she finds out her husband is having an affair.

It is a heartbreaking and joyous novel, Rachel is witty and personable. The whole novel makes you feel as though Rachel is sat next to you, chatting about what's happened. She immediately pulls you into her world and is irreverent and aware of all the neuroses and shortcomings and idiosyncrasies of it. She is broken and conveys a messy confusion shot through with humour.

A Single Swallow, Horatio Clare

Here Clare follows the migration route of swallows, ones that nest in his mum's rafters in Wales in the summer and winter in South Africa. He sets off from South Africa in February and arrives in Wales in May, travelling off the cuff by car, bus or plane. Layers of anecdotes and meetings from the road with  chat about swallows in literature and cultures.

The lovely thing though is that the swallow idea enables and excuses the trip and it is certainly an obsession for Clare, but the trip and route is haphazard and loose. Clare seems like a lost 20 something, wandering in search of anything, and does return changed, broken down a little and re-formed.