#18 October 2018 – The Alligator’s Mouth, Richmond

Her three ‘big books’

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ by Margaret Atwood: This was a hugely influential book for me. I first read it when I was about 19 and it made me a feminist. I re-read it recently and found it complex and fascinating in ways I hadn’t remembered. It’s strange to revisit the books you loved as a young person. I remembered it as a dystopian satire, but this time around it seemed to me to be a study of a woman who has lost everything – and I think that as you get older, you understand what that really means. She doesn’t even have reading any more. She doesn’t have her name.

‘I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings’ by Maya Angelou: Such an engaging and powerful account of growing up in America’s South in the 1930s. Angelou endures the kind of violence and hardship which would derail most people; despite this, it’s the opposite of a misery memoir (an un-misery memoir? A resilience memoir?) The people she writes about are vividly recognisable, and I love that she makes her unique experience so relatable – surely the point of reading is to understand other people’s lives? Angelou is so funny, robust and lacking in any bitterness; nothing can destroy her.

‘Tender Morsels’ by Margo Lanagan: This astounded me when I first read it, nearly 10 years ago. It’s often categorised as YA, but this extraordinary book is certainly a novel for adults too. I wouldn’t sell it to anyone younger than 15. It retells the story of Snow White and Rose Red, but with a brutal and bleak perspective which makes it impossible to forget. Persecuted and abused, Liga is given a magical refuge in which to rear her two daughters. But life in all its beauty and cruelty will not leave her alone. It’s about love, loss, power, consequences, and not getting what you want. An amazing novel.

Her two contemporary titles

‘Poems From a School’ (a collection of poems by pupils at Oxford Spires Academy): The poets are aged 11-18, and for many of them English is not their first language. It’s difficult to convey the impact of this book. I don’t remember the last time I was so moved by a collection of contemporary poems. It’s a timely reminder of the creative miracles which can happen when cultures meet. It’s vivid, evocative, personal, funny, sad, intimate and humane. Read it to understand your fellow humans better, and to remember what poetry is for.

‘I Am The Seed That Grew The Tree – A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year’ (selected by Fiona Waters): We love poetry in The Alligator’s Mouth and are convinced of its life-enhancing powers, so I was delighted by this book. I predict this beautiful collection will ignite the poetry fire in many children. The selection is unusually good, including many favourites and also introducing me to many I didn’t know. It’s very easy to open the book at one page and then find yourself still there much later, drifting happily from poem to poem. Illustrated beautifully by Frann Preston-Gannon, it’s an anthology to keep you company throughout your life.

The one on her ‘to read’ list

‘The Skylarks’ War’ by Hilary McKay: I’m really looking forward to this. One of McKay’s earlier novels, Saffy’s Angel, is one of my favourite books, and works as well for adults as it does for children. The Skylarks’ War tells the story of three friends whose lives are disrupted and defined by the first world war (I am a sucker for this kind of plot: see Elizabeth Jane Howard’s Cazalet books). McKay is a subtle writer with a light touch who creates complex, layered characters you really care about. Can’t wait.

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#17 September 2018 – Griffin Books, Penarth

Her three ‘big books’

‘Reasons to Stay Alive’ by Matt Haig: This book started me on the path to where I am now. When I read it, I was suffering from my own mental health problems and it was so comforting to hear that I wasn’t alone.

‘Peter Pan’ by J.M. Barrie: A book from my childhood which still holds such strong feelings for me. I just adore Barrie’s writing style and he’s definitely one of the biggest influences for my own writing of that genre. There’s nothing like dipping into such a magical world like Neverland.

‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley: I can’t believe it took me until my early twenties to read this classic. The fact that a 19-year-old could write such an incredible piece of gothic fiction is awe-inspiring. It’s the perfect book to get you thinking philosophically.

Her two contemporary titles

‘The Hate U Give’ by Angie Thomas: I enjoy the odd young adult novel because of the way they deal with complex themes, and this book was fantastic. Moving, brave and eye-opening for anyone who doesn’t have first-hand experience with the issues Starr and her family faces.

‘The Brilliant & Forever’ by Kevin MacNeil: I still can’t believe this book hasn’t been more popular. It’s got everything: humour, interesting characters, and a thought-provoking plot. One of those books that lingered in my mind for a while after I’d finished it.

The one on her ‘to read’ list

‘Killing Commendatore’ by Haruki Murakami: I’ve only recently got into Murakami and I love his work. He has this incredible ability to write the human condition, so his upcoming work, claimed to be a homage to The Great Gatsby (which I loved), has got me giddy with excitement.

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#17 September 2018 – Griffin Books, Penarth

#16 August 2018 – Pages of Hackney, East London

Her three ‘big books’

‘The Golden Notebook’ by Doris Lessing: An experimentation with form as well as an exploration of the female psyche… and an experience that is utterly prescient of much contemporary feminist thought. Those who take her infamous feminist diclaimer and some of her more perplexing and apparently reactionary statements to heart would do well to return to the original – to find a compelling, early insight into what it means to be a woman in the modern world.

‘Paradise’ by Toni Morrison: One of the most important and powerful novels in the English language – serving as both cultural memory and living American conscious, while drawing us deep into a fictional world that refuses to be unimagined.

‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’ by Jane Jacobs: Inaugurates a fundamental shift in our understanding not only of urban environments but also the people who inhabit them. This seminal work has inspired academics and novelists alike from David Harvey to China Mieville to reconsider our relationship to where and how we live.

Her two contemporary titles

‘The Cost of Living’ by Deborah Levy: The second instalment of her ‘living memoir’ in my view cements her as one of the clearest and most valuable voices of the moment. Ruminating on writing, mothering and being a woman after divorce and her mother’s death, Levy encounters her life anew and with this comes a renewed understanding of what the true cost of living entails and how not to be a minor character in your own story.

‘Sing, Unburied, Sing’ by Jesmyn Ward: A powerful novel by a writer who is only now, with her Women’s Prize shortlisting as well as the publication of her collection of essays on contemporary race-relations, Fire This Time, gaining the recognition she deserves in the UK. Set in the modern American South, this novels resides in the shadow of the terrible, and very real, Parchman prison. Documenting some harrowing atrocities, it’s an unflinching examination of race, poverty and love. My novel of the year.

The one on her ‘to read’ list

‘Normal People’ by Saly Rooney: Following her astonishing debut, Conversations with Friends, I can’t wait for confirmation that Rooney isn’t a one hit wonder (I’m sure she isn’t!) and get lost in her exquisitly observed characters.

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#16 August 2018 – Pages of Hackney, East London

#15 July 2018 – Sheen Bookshop, Richmond Upon Thames

Her three ‘big books’

‘Murder on the Orient Express’ by Agatha Christie: I only read Christie for the first time last year and it was such a wonderful reading experience for me. I read Murder on the Orient Express in a day and just couldn’t put it down! It is a classic tale of whodunit that kept me guessing right until the end. The character descriptions are fantastic and the language style is very accessible and readable. She truly is a master of mystery and I will continue to read a couple of her books every year.

‘South and West’ by Joan Didion: This is a collection of Joan’s diary entires, written during a journey she took across the Southern American states in the 1970s. It highlights the great divide in America at the time as she meets the locals. Joan’s style is complete honesty while looking at class and race divides. And she writes of a world that in many respects has dramatically changed and yet in others remains almost the same. Everyone should read Joan Didion at some point in their life!

‘Chess Story’ by Stefan Zweig: Zweig is probably my favourite author and this is my favourite of his books. He offers a fantastic style of writing that offers very real descriptions of raw human emotion. This book follows an ex-prisoner of war as he tries to battle his inner demons on a sailing across the Atlantic. In certain respects the book could be described as a psychological thriller but it is so much more. Zweig champions novellas that offer a perfect insight into early 20th Century Europe.

Her two contemporary titles

‘Conversations with Friends’ by Sally Rooney: Sally is certainly one of my favourite debut authors and this book for me was fantastic. A simple tale that follows two young female students through the conversations they have with friends and each other. But the book is so much more than this; it looks at what goes on behind closed doors, female issues, the difficulties with trying to fit in and the Celtic Tiger… A great language style means this book is a pacy read and her upcoming title Normal People (out in September and on the Man Booker long-list) is very much the same!

‘My Absolute Darling’ by Gabriel Talent: This book in many ways was not the easiest book for me to read and yet I enjoyed it throughout. We follow a vulnerable young female, Turtle (a nickname), who is a victim of abuse at home. But Turtle knows so much about the world and wants to explore it. The emotion in this book is raw but it offers a real insight into something that I do not think we talk about enough. Talent offers a true female heroine who we all grow to love and want to help escape.

The one on her ‘to read’ list

‘Lowborn’ by Kerry Hudson: This is an upcoming title with Vintage and I heard Kerry speak about it a few months ago. She travels back to her hometown and continues through the poorest towns in Britain. It is a very personal story that forces her to confront her past and the reality of what it is really like to be poor in Britain today.

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#15 July 2018 – Sheen Bookshop, Richmond Upon Thames

#14 June 2018 – The Grove Bookshop, West Yorkshire

Her three ‘big books’

‘The Lord of the Rings Trilogy’ by J.R.R. Tolkien: My dad read these to me at bedtime when I was a kid. It took him a year to get through them (though I now suspect he may have skipped some of the finer detail) and it had a massive impact on my love of books. The thrill of adventure in a world like ours but full of magic, dark and light was wholly immersive to me. I learnt so much about friendship and morality and we had early editions with the pull-out maps that we plotted our progress on each time.

‘The Heretics’ by Will Storr: I’m generally a big fiction-head, but this book blew my mind; it made me look at the world through new eyes and I loved being challenged. Basically, the premise is an investigation into why people think the way they do. So, for example, why do people believe things despite the evidence stacking up against those beliefs? Storr interviews many intelligent, baffling, eccentric, scary and charismatic people across the world with some incredible opinions but his own personality and experiences are what make the book so compelling.

‘The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay’ by Michael Chabon: A friend lent me this fairly recently but it’s rocketed to the top of my favourite fiction list. I can’t think of a more perfect novel. It tells the story of teenager Sam Clay in New York in 1939 and his cousin, Josef Kavalier, who has just escaped from dangerous Prague but left his family behind. They create a massively popular comic, The Escapist, about a superhero saving people from the Nazis. But behind the success, both boys face the trial of becoming men in a turbulent, changing world. Stunning.

Her two contemporary titles

‘The Silent Companions’ by Laura Purcell: I love gothic fiction and you don’t get much more gothic than this terrifying Victorian ghost story. A pregnant young wife’s new husband dies in his decaying country manor, and she is sent to live there alone with his dull cousin, resentful servants and suspicious locals. Bored and trapped, Elsie discovers a very old, creepy painted figure in the locked attic that looks just like her, and she swears she can feel its eyes following her. This novel is a lesson in suspense and supressing atmosphere – I couldn’t sleep for weeks after reading it.

‘Manhatten Beach’ by Jennifer Egan: The writing in this book is gorgeous – I often had to read sentences aloud to really wallow in them. The book is set in New York, when young Anna Kerrigan (a wonderful, determined and capable heroine) goes with her father to the seaside home of charismatic gangster Dexter Styles and falls in love with the water. Years later, her father vanishes and Anna becomes the first female diver, fixing ships to help with the war effort, since all the men are off fighting. Her path crosses with Styles once more and she resolves to find her father.

The one on her ‘to read’ list

‘Swan Song’ by Kelleigh Greenberg-Jephcott: This is a fictional account of Truman Capote’s life told through the eyes of the several glamorous women he kept close to him. In 1975 he famously published a barely disguised account of the secrets, gossip and heart-break that these wealthy, high society women, his friends, had disclosed – and tore his own social life and glittering career to shreds in the process. What was behind this destructive act? Capote is such an interesting figure and I’m fascinated by historical novels so I can’t wait to start on this one.

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#14 June 2018 – The Grove Bookshop, West Yorkshire

#13 March 2018 – The Book Club Review, Podcast

Her three ‘big hitters’ for bookclubs

‘Lincoln in the Bardo’ by George Saunders: Every year my book club reads whichever book wins the Man Booker Prize. That’s led to some hits and misses over the years (Howard Jacobson’s baffling Finkler Question being a real low point). In 2017, though, we loved reading and discussing George Saunders’ first novel that takes as its subject the death of Abraham Lincoln’s young son Willie. Saunders’ usual trademarks of humour, pathos and empathy are all here, as well as an original writing style that provides lots of brilliant fuel for discussion. A moving and enlightening read that will set your book club alight.

‘Days Without End’ by Sebastian Barry: What makes a good book club book? The best ones feature brilliant writing – the discussion then can move on from style and get into the ideas. Sebastian Barry writes with seemingly effortless grace and his narrator has a voice every bit as memorable as Holden Caulfield’s as you follow him through the events of the American Civil War. It’s also a touching love story, and Barry draws on unexpected themes of gender fluidity, ideas of family and community, while on a larger scale he explores the shaping of American national identity. A fascinating, highly enjoyable, page-turner of a novel that offers a very rich source for discussion.

‘The Snow Leopard’ by Peter Matthiessen: In 1978 Peter Matthiessen set off for the high Himalayas in search of spiritual enlightenment and blue sheep. It can be nice in a book club to mix things up occasionally, and this classic travel memoir made for some amusingly memorable discussion. We were much taken with Matthiessen’s elegant prose but not as persuaded by his qualities as an individual. A good discovery for anyone who hasn’t read him before, and lots of good elements for discussion – particularly given the current interest in mindfulness and meditation.

Her two contemporary titles to ensure your bookclub is cutting edge

‘Prophets of the Eternal Fjord’ by Kim Leine (trans. from the original Danish by Martin Aitken): Laura hated this one, but I loved it, always a good starting point. My book club chose it because it was shortlisted for my favourite book prize, the Dublin International Literary Prize (all the nominations come from libraries around the world). This is a historical novel of a decidedly visceral bent that follows a young Danish priest, Morten Falck, as he travels to Greenland to work as a missionary. There are some weighty themes here, from Denmark’s murky colonial past to horrible incidences of violence against women. Eighteenth-century Greenland is a pitiless environment in which nearly everyone suffers and often as not perishes. Yet I thought Leine did a brilliant job, sustaining the intensity and somehow having you root for his weak and unlikeable central character. It’s extreme and definitely not for everyone, but if your book club has read a few cozy things recently and feel you need to shake things up, I can’t recommend this book highly enough.

‘Border’ by Kapka Kassabova: Book clubs are great for getting you to read things you might not otherwise, and these days I read for Laura’s book club as well as my own so I get double the unexpected pleasure. Border by Kapka Kassabova was one of her book club picks and a great discovery for me. I loved Kassabova’s lyrical writing style and her fascinating subject matter, as she traverses the borderlands that for decades split the Eastern Bloc from Greece and Turkey. Kassabova has a gift for capturing people and places. For example, her description of a dingy roadside café with a sideline in people smuggling that read like Rick’s bar in Casablanca. An enjoyable, engrossing and enlightening read. (It recently won the Stanfords Travel Book of the Year award.)

The one on her ‘to read’ list

Loads!: One thing I love about our shows is that the books we discuss are chosen by our book clubs, not by us. So we’ve got an eclectic list coming up: East West Street, barrister Philippe Sands’ brilliantly absorbing memoir that focuses on the legal nuances of the Nuremberg War Crimes trials; Swing Time, Zadie Smith’s latest novel that traces the relationship between two girls growing up in a north-London housing estate; and Born To Run by Christopher McDougall, another non-fiction book by an ultra-runner (races of 100 miles or more) and his fascination with an obscure Mexican tribe reputed to be the best distance runners in the world. I can’t wait to discuss them with my book club, and then with Laura. And when the shows go out you’ll be able to listen in. Drop us a line, let us know what you think!

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#13 March 2018 – The Book Club Review, Podcast

#12 February 2018 – Mostly Books, Abingdon-on-Thames

Her three big books

‘The Kite Runner’ by Khaled Hosseini: A story of a complex friendship between two Afghan boys (Amir and Hassan) and the event that shatters both their lives. After the Russians invade and the family is forced to flee to America, Amir realises that one day he must return to Afghanistan under Taliban rule to find the one thing that his new world cannot grant him: redemption. The Kite runner is an intricate tale about friendship and power imbalance which gives a great insight into the workings of a country that is a foreign entity to most people.

‘The Book Thief’ by Markus Zusak: This is the story of a young girl called Liesel living in a small town outside Munich during the Second World War. The story is narrated by Death, who follows Liesel as she adapts to life with her foster parents. Liesel steals books, and this book follows her story as the war progresses and impacts her life. It’s a small tale, about: a girl, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist fighter and quite a lot of thievery.

‘The Lovely Bones’ by Alice Sebold: The story of a teenage girl called Susie who, after being raped and murdered, watches from her heaven as her family and friends struggle to move on with their lives while she comes to terms with her own death. You are introduced to Susie after she has died, and she quickly takes the reader through what has happened to her. An astonishing novel about life and death, memory and forgetting, and finding light in the darkest places.

Her two contemporary titles

‘Anatomy of a Scandal’ by Sarah Vaughan: A fabulous dual-time-frame thriller which follows the story of a high profile married man who is on trial for rape and the impact that this trial has on his family. The story switches between modern day and flashbacks to his time spent at Oxford University – rowing, socialising and building the network that is used as a stepping stone into adult life. A multi-character cast that builds the story to an epic climax. Not to be missed.

‘This Is Going To Hurt’ by Adam Kay: The true diaries of a junior doctor as he navigates his first few years in the world of medicine. Written in a sleep deprived haze, Adam Kay doesn’t hold back in his brilliant observations of life as a doctor. Brilliantly written with astute observations and enough stories to make you shudder as you walk into a hospital. Hilarious, honestly written, astute and, at times, gut-wrenchingly sad. This is going to hurt is not to be missed.

The one on her ‘to read’ list

‘Educated’ by Tara Westover: The true story of a girl who was raised by nay-sayers in mid-America. Tara grew up in the hills of an Idaho mountain, with a father who spent his time preparing for the end of the world, a mother who worked as an unqualified midwife to the women of the community, and a brace of brothers and sisters. Tara’s birth wasn’t registered until she was 9 years old, and she had no formal education until she was 17. Despite this, Tara has earned a PhD in Intellectual History from Cambridge University. This book tells the story of her self-invention and determination to access knowledge.

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#12 February 2018 – Mostly Books, Abingdon-on-Thames

#11 January 2018 – Mr. B’s Emporium of Reading Delights, Bath

Her three big books

‘The City and The City’ by China Mieville: I grew up reading and loving anything magical and fantastical, but I’d never really ventured into science fiction. Then a number of years ago, when I worked as a Waterstones bookseller at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, I met China Mieville and I felt intrigued to try his novel ‘The City and the City’. I must have read it at least three times since, and I now run a sci-fi book club at Mr B’s, so you can see the influence this book has had on my reading life! The premise is utterly mind-blowing, as I’ve since learnt any Mieville concept usually is. It’s the story of two cities that physically overlap, so you are able to see both cities at once but it is forbidden to do so, and if you are found even looking at someone else in the other city you are taken by the ‘Breach’. Then a murder happens which involves two investigation teams, one from each city, having to work together and work out which city is really involved. Written as a homage to Raymond Chandler, it is extraordinarily clever, as only Mieville can be, and although it may cause your head to ache with questions to begin with – trust me it’s entirely worth it!

‘The Orenda’ by Joseph Boyden: Set during the 1640s in the New World, a long-held rift between two warring tribes has been re-ignited after the kidnapping of a young Iroquois girl. The chapters alternate between the captured girl Snow Falls, her captor Bird, and a French missionary called Christophe, who is devoted to converting the Huron to Catholicism. I’ve never read anything so profoundly beautiful and yet viscerally brutal at the same time. As soon as I read the final page I wanted to go straight back to the beginning and devour every word again. I now own every book Boyden has written and it’s one where I can feel the hair on my arms stand up every time I recommend it to someone.

‘A Tale for the Time Being’ by Ruth Ozeki: This is a book that has pride of place on one of my many bookshelves at home (particularly the beautiful hardback edition with the exposed spine binding). I can remember the feeling of not having read anything like it before. When Ruth discovers a Hello Kitty lunchbox washed up on the shores of the beach containing a diary written by Nao, a young Japanese girl, she suspects it may have been delivered on the waves of the 2011 tsunami and she can think of nothing else. What I love about this book is the way you feel everything Ruth feels – you become obsessed with the words of Nao and the intimate insight into every aspect of her life, and you just don’t ever want to let her go. There’s always that question in the back of your mind – is she still out there somewhere? I also admire any author that manages to write herself into her own novel as a character!

Her two contemporary titles

‘Dog Run Moon’ by Callan Wink: It’s no secret amongst my colleagues and customers at Mr B’s that I have a great love of the American West – in fact I’ve just returned from an epic three month road trip! But I’ve always had a troubled relationship with short story collections; I can count on one hand the number I’ve actually finished from beginning to end. There’s always something that doesn’t quite pull me back to them like a full novel. Then I was handed a copy of Callan Wink’s ‘Dog Run Moon’ and suddenly this whole new form opened up to me and I fell in love with each and every story. Set in Montana and Wyoming, on the borders of Yellowstone National Park, they each capture this sense of the old west meeting the new. From a Custer’s Last Stand reenactor having an annual affair with the woman who plays the Crow woman who supposedly killed Custer, to a young boy who’s summer job is to dispose of the many kittens on his family’s farm, earning a dollar per tail. The writing is powerful, yet quiet, and Wink truly brings the landscape of the West to life with such vivid and memorable characters.

‘The Honours’ by Tim Clare: Sometimes you get the sense from a book cover alone that it was written just for you. I instinctively knew I would love this book before I even opened the first page. Set in 1930s Norfolk, we follow thirteen year old Delphine who is staying at a grand countryside estate with her parents. Her father is a famous artist, but suddenly he has been taken ill – and you know this is why the family are staying there but you have absolutely no idea what this place really is. Delphine has an incredibly inquisitive mind which leads her to find a network of hidden passages inside the house, where she is able to spy on the other elite guests staying there. She soon realises there is something much darker, and perhaps even otherworldly going on here… Delphine quickly became my new favourite heroine, and in fact I often liken her to Lyra from Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’.

The one on her ‘to read’ list

‘The Gloaming’ by Kirsty Logan: We’re only a few days into the year, and in true bookseller style I already have a teetering pile of books I’m excited for. But if I had to pick it would be Kirsty Logan’s ‘The Gloaming’ (released in April 2018), set on a remote otherworldly island that slowly turns its inhabitants to stone. I fell in love with Kirsty’s previous novel ‘The Gracekeepers’ back in 2015, and I’ve been eagerly anticipating this new novel ever since. If, like me, you’re drawn to anything magical inspired by folklore and fairytales then there’s no doubt you’ll want to add this to your to-read list too!

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#11 January 2018 – Mr. B’s Emporium of Reading Delights, Bath

#10 November 2017 – Golden Hare Books, Edinburgh

Her three big books

‘Perdido Street Station’ by China Mieville: The first book in an extraordinary trilogy… taking Victorian steampunk sensibility, capitalist politics and a cast of curious creatures – then spinning a dark, grubby, transcendent fiction.

‘The Still Point’ by Amy Sackville: An exceptional novel with prose stylistics so delicate and well-wrought that you feel utterly transported. About loss, midsummer, and arctic exploration…

‘Gormenghast’ by Mervyn Peake: The elegant post-war nightmare of grotesquery and bureaucracy. Dark, brooding, full of strange architecture, dust and death.

Her two contemporary titles

‘The Ivory Mirror: The Art of Mortality in Renaissance Europe’ by Stephen Perkinson: A beautiful, eerie, highly informative book from Yale. It covers all aspects of mortality in Renaissance Europe, from paintings to relics, skeletons to statues.

‘The Blast to Awaken Women Degenerate’ by Rachel McCrum: This is Rachel Mccrum’s first full-length poetry collection and it is powerful, feminist and absolutely entrancing. You can feel its power in every line!

The one on her ‘to read’ list

‘The Mermaid & Mrs. Hancock’ by Imogen Hermes Gower: This isn’t out until 2018, but I’m already hooked by the proof (a preview copy sent to booksellers by the publisher). Intrigue, strange creatures, prostitutes and high society – a true gem!

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#10 November 2017 – Golden Hare Books, Edinburgh

#09 October 2017 – Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham

His three big books

‘Anarchy in Action’ by Colin Ward: Leaving aside that I became a friend of Colin’s and one of his publishers, this book (still available from Freedom Press) shows the positive side of people doing stuff for themselves, rather than simply protesting against what is wrong with the world – though protest is important too. His examples are dated – the book came out decades ago – but everything he said is still valid. And it’s not what you call yourself, but what you do, that matters. His jointly written book ‘The Allotment: its landscape and culture’ was the first “proper” book I published, though there was a pre-flight under the name of Old Hammond Press. William Morris fans will know where that title came from.

‘Goodbye to All That’ by Robert Graves: I disliked secondary school, not least English. This was probably the first – perhaps the only – book I read as part of my school work that had any impact on me. I was shocked at the waste that is war, and it probably pushed me into politics, or helped me on that road, more than most things. It also turned me into a pacifist, though ironically I am no longer a pacifist… It was working in anti-fascist campaigns that took that out of me. Not that I go round bashing people…

‘Vida’ by Marge Piercy: I used to read this novel most years. I loved it – I read a lot of Marge Piercy. It’s set in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, and could be loosely based on the Weathermen – the group of Students for a Democratic Society that turned to violence and went underground. As a novel it is terrific, as the Vida of the title tries to keep her life together – her relationships and her politics – while being cut off from the normal world and constantly on the run. It was a reminder that what you do has to be relevant to people. Naomi Klein is good like that, in her new ‘No Is Not Enough’. Makes the links.

His two contemporary titles

‘Reservoir 13’ by Jon McGregor: This one is by a Nottingham writer – our very first customer in fact! A young teenage girl tourist goes missing from a small Derbyshire village. This book follows the lives of the people in the village over the next thirteen years as the seasons turn, as time passes, since the biggest event that has ever happened in that community. It should have been shortlisted for the Booker.

‘The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness’ by Graham Caveney: Another one by a Nottingham writer (a former employee of ours, in fact). It’s had rave reviews in the broadsheets. It’s his memoir of growing up in Accrington – a working class child who is introduced to a world of books, theatre, and culture in general by his headmaster, a priest. But that is not all he is introduced to… he is being groomed. And this affected Graham through to the present time. He is now in his 50s. But the abuser was no cut-out evil character – it’s much more complex.

The one on his ‘to read’ list

‘Gluck: Art and Identity’ by Amy de la Haye: Gluck was an artist who, famously, always wore “men’s clothes” and had her hair cut in “men’s styles”. She was independently wealthy and drew her female lovers from high society, including the Queen’s flower arranger. I’ve just watched a BBC documentary about Gluck, and one of the stars of the programme was de la Haye, an academic specialising in fashion. It’s hard to think the book (out in November) will be less than interesting. It also ties in with an exhibition on the artist and her life in Brighton next spring.

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#09 October 2017 – Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham

#08 August 2017 – The Bookshop Kibworth, Leiscestershire

Her three big books

‘Elizabeth and Her German Garden’ by Elizabeth von Arnim: I spent a total of three years living, studying and working in Germany – and I travelled there regularly for my previous job. I absolutely love the place. Later, when I moved to Leicestershire, my boyfriend took me to a second-hand bookshop in the city so I could choose a welcome present. Germany was clearly on my mind, as after perusing every single shelf in there, this was the book that stuck out for me: it’s a kind of diary written by an English woman who finds herself married to a German count (“The Man of Wrath”). It’s an hilarious and caustic ode to nature, marriage and identity.

‘The Fountainhead’ by Ayn Rand: I read this whilst studying music in Weimar, where the only other subject one can study at a higher level is architecture. Rand’s book centres on this subject, and introduces us to characters who strive to achieve their goals by giving their lives entirely over to work – having near total disregard for anyone but themselves and their craft. I had never read anything like it at the time, and it got me interested in philosophy and American literature.

‘The Magus’ by John Fowles: One of my fellow bookclubbers chose this recently, and I balked at the size of it when it arrived… But the 670 pages flew by as the story played out: a recent graduate, having just split up from his girlfriend, moves from London to a Greek island to teach at a school there. He befriends an enigmatic and very rich man, and goes on to meet gods, girls and even soldiers from WWII (it’s set long after that). He witnesses and gets involved in events which one struggles to believe can be true, and the book challenges our perception of, and reaction to, what we think is and is not real.

Her two contemporary titles

‘Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine’ by Gail Honeyman: Much of the humour in this book comes from how the narrator speaks: she is unusually eloquent, verbose, honest… and this is possibly because she is autistic. She is also very lonely, and has had to endure real cruelty in her life. So this book is funny, and it is sad, and it is wonderful.

‘How to Stop Time’ by Matt Haig: This is an account of the life of a history teacher working at a school in London in the present day… but he was born in the 16th century! It moves between now and then, and is brilliantly researched: it covers so much detail across so many centuries and it’s so deftly woven as to be quite unputdownable.

The one on her ‘to read’ list

‘Headlong’ by Michael Frayn: My ‘to be read’ pile is overwhelming, as ever. I’m looking forward to this one, our next bookclub book (not a new book), because I love how he writes: he’s so witty, and he draws you in to the subject matter so brilliantly that it becomes your new favourite interest. New book-wise, next up for me is ‘The Hearts of Men’ by Nickolas Butler, author of ‘Shotgun Lovesongs’, which I adored.

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#08 August 2017 – The Bookshop Kibworth, Leiscestershire

#07 July 2017 – Cogito Books, Northumberland

Her three big books

‘A Fine Balance’ by Rohinton Mistry: It is tempting to say that if you liked ‘Kite Runner’, you should enjoy this – in that it gives a compelling insight into a totally different culture, with characters in whose fate you must be interested. Intensely moving, funny, and tremendously entertaining, it is the sort of novel you keep giving to friends so that they will read it too – a work of genius.

‘The Priory’ by Dorothy Whipple: The novel ostensibly tells the story of the Marwoods – an ancient country family fallen on hard times and prey to delicious eccentricity – initially in a similar vein to Nancy Mitford’s ‘The Pursuit of Love’. However, Dorothy Whipple is able to take a much more dispassionate view of the behaviour of this and other social classes. She cleverly interweaves the lives of the family with an interesting array of characters from the ‘outside’ world, revealing the backdrop of social change as the characters motives for their actions are examined. Servants, lovers, self-made men and women all appear as brilliantly complex characters as their relationships with the Marwoods are described in the author’s beautifully clear, lucid prose. Dorothy Whipple is particularly good at describing life’s small disappointments, humiliations and frustrations which we all experience and must all overcome using whatever means are allowed to us. Above all, the gently subversive tone and dryly humorous style make this novel a complete joy to read.

‘Grief Is The Thing With Feathers’ by Max Porter: This is one of the most unusual and moving books I’ve ever read. It is difficult to classify whether it is a novel, a collection of observations, or an essay, but Max Porter’s writing is poetical and so engaging that, despite the obscurity of reality, you are gripped. It is a story about a family coming to terms with its grief and the complex writing structure represents their turmoil and mix of raw emotions – a unique piece of writing.

Her two contemporary titles

‘The Tidal Zone’ by Sarah Moss: The most recent novel by the brilliant Sarah Moss is centred on a family who have apparently avoided tragedy, yet have to learn to live in its apparently constant shadow. The incisive and wide ranging points the novel makes about modern life are punctuated by the research one of the characters undertakes into the rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral after the Second World War. This clever time shift informs the way we are persuaded to view contemporary life, and allows the author scope to discuss the various ways that we as human beings respond to, and recover from, trauma. This is a thought provoking, yet warm and humorous novel which would make a great introduction to the author’s work.

‘The Shepherd’s Life’ by James Rebanks: The simple tale of a shepherd’s life in the Lake District is in fact the story of three generations of a farming family. Yet James Rebanks’ life has been far from what you would expect from the outset of the book. He writes passionately about his values and respect for the land, farming methods, his community, and family. This is a powerful reflection about the choices we make in the life we live, our roles as ‘nobodies’, and an informative insight into the farming world which is becoming ever more alien to modern life. An impressive, inspiring and uplifting read – this was my read of the year!

The one on her ‘to read’ list

‘Marking Time’ by Elizabeth Jane Howard: This could be a very long list… but this is the one I’m going to try and squeeze in before I have to read my next book group book. I read the first title in the ‘Cazalet Chronicles’ a couple of months ago, and became engrossed in Elizabeth Jane Howard’s fiction. She is utterly readable and sets the social scene of upper middle class England in 1938 so brilliantly. Since then, too many other books have been on the top of the pile – but there is now chance to continue the lives of the Cazalet family as the outbreak of WWII takes hold.

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#07 July 2017 – Cogito Books, Northumberland

#06 June 2017 – Westbourne Bookshop, Bournemouth

His three big books

‘We’ by Yevgeny Zamyatin: My favourite copy is a paperback I rescued from the rain on a wet afternoon at Hay’s Castle Bookshop, in 1990. It’s tatty and smells delicious – printed in New York in 1959, and advertised as ‘a powerful challenge to all Socialist Utopias’. In fact, it’s a powerful challenge to all forms of despotism, and feels increasingly relevant today. Banned in Russia, the book was first published in translation in 1921. Orwell admired the novel’s “intuitive grasp of the irrational side of totalitarianism”, and it’s a clear inspiration for his own ‘1984’. The Well-Doer is watching you, D-503.

‘Three Men in a Boat’ by Jerome K Jerome: The first time I read this I laughed out loud so often that I couldn’t read it in public. Then I had a copy on tape, read by Martin Jarvis, and I tittered all the way from Bournemouth to Cambridge by bus, several times over. Then, years later, I read it to my sons and had to stop frequently as I’d start to laugh in anticipation of the funniest bits. For a book more than 110 years old, the humour is timeless – even as I type this I’m starting to titter…

‘The Chimes’ by Anna Smaill: This is quite a recent book but shot into my all-time favourites list as soon as I’d read it. Set in a future London, a catastrophe has removed the ability to form new memories, and all written words are meaningless. Music and harmony has become the method of remembering. I’m not a musician, and the use of musical terms is as alien to me as the Nadsat slang in ‘A Clockwork Orange’, but that made it all the more intriguing and engaging. It’s dystopian fiction, it’s a love story, it’s poetry. I love it.

His two contemporary titles

‘Reader on the 6.27’ by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent: A customer pointed me in the direction of this one, and I’m so glad she did. I’m afraid I’m a little suspicious of books about books, books about writers, books set in bookshops… but a book about a book-obsessive trapped in a job at a book pulping factory? Yes, please! This is the most romantic book I’ve ever read, just a delightful, tragi-comic, charming ride, with a pleasing smattering of (literally) toilet humour. I enjoyed this so much that I actually kissed the last page when I got to the end.

‘The End We Start From’ by Megan Hunter: Oh my goodness, how much do I love this book? It’s rare to read a story told in a way that feels totally new, but the pared-back poetry of the prose told more in the words unused than some books do in pages of over-descriptive filler. This is a short read which will linger in your mind, as you fill the gaps in conversation, picture the part-drawn images, imagine the vital scenes untold, all of which serves to put you at the heart of the narrator’s world, our all-too-possible future.

The one on his ‘to read’ list

‘Borne’ by Jeff Vandermeer: I read Vandermeer’s ‘Southern Reach Trilogy’ almost by accident, and I’m hooked on his peculiar, spaced-out storytelling. His new book, ‘Borne’, is next in my ‘to be read’ pile. The only reason I haven’t already read it is that I want to savour the anticipation just a little longer. I’m avoiding all reviews, but the blurb tells me there’s a ruined city and a gigantic flying bear with a shapeless form called Borne entangled in its fur, a form who may or may not be a person… a book with pretty broad appeal, I think!

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#06 June 2017 – Westbourne Bookshop, Bournemouth

#05 May 2017 – The Book Hive, Norwich

His three big books

‘Hamlet’ by William Shakespeare: I read this for my A levels when I knew I was either going to be a musician or an actor. It has remained as piercingly brilliant a look at male teenage angst and confusion as anything I’ve read. As a teenager reading it I was probably pretentious enough to think it was all about me, but as an adult I find it endlessly amazing that so much of what he wrote speaks so clearly to so many now.

‘Revolutionary Road’ by Richard Yates: I was given this book by someone who had been given it by Sam Mendes, who later made the film of it – which proves that sometimes, however well intentioned the motivation, it is a fruitless endeavour to try to replicate the brilliance of what has been written in words as images on screen. One of those books that stops you every page and makes you think, ‘how did he manage to capture that so well in so few words??’

‘A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing’ by Eimear McBride: Perhaps it’s a bit obvious to choose this, but it means a great deal to me. When I first read the manuscript for this on holiday in France, I was deeply troubled. Why had Eimear offered this to me to publish? Why had no one else taken it up? Could I trust my own instincts at all anymore, or was I getting this totally wrong – was it unpublishable, as many people had said before? Turned out I was right – it IS quite good!

His two contemporary titles

‘The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau’ by Graeme Macrae Burnet: I recently read this – his previous novel before the Booker listed ‘His Bloody Project’. It’s a wonderful, elegant book, reminiscent of the best of Georges Simenon – a quiet, heavy with atmosphere and hugely engaging crime story, set in small town France.

‘The Perfect Stranger’ by P J Kavanagh: This is a bit of a cheat, because it’s not strictly contemporary – it came out in 2015 – and it’s not broadly contemporary either – it’s a reissue of a 1966 book. But the reissue is what brought it to my attention, as well as many other current readers I hope… so I think it fits! This is a memoir which ticks all the boxes of what great books in that genre do; it allows you access not only into the mind and life of another person, but a whole other world, despite being one which is closely linked to today, in that it is set recently in a recognisable world. It is funny, enlightening, and beautifully, beautifully written. Because one knows from the outset that the end is sad, one is prepared for it, which adds a note of melancholy throughout the proceedings. However, this sadness does not mean that the author’s life ended in that vein, because – and here is the most startling fact – it is a memoir written by a man in his thirties who went on to live a long, full and productive life after the last heart-breaking chapter of this book. Utterly inspiring.

The one on his ‘to read’ list

‘Lincoln In The Bardo’ by George Sanders: He came to Norwich recently to do an event and I was invited to take part, acting out a character in the reading. I was standing on stage with him and the great comedy writer Graham Linehan, reading these wonderful words and thinking what a bizarre situation to find myself in… but how utterly brilliant. It was so fascinating, and he spoke so well, that it became the next book on my reading pile straight away.

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#04 April 2017 – The Big Comfy Bookshop, Coventry

His three big books

‘The Road’ by Cormac McCarthy: It was the first McCarthy book I read, and it blew me away. The writing style is so unique – and the worlds created so vivid. Throw in the emotional weight, and it’s one I tell everyone to read.

‘His Dark Materials Trilogy’ by Phillip Pullman: Yes, it’s three books… but really it’s one. The perfect fantasy writer takes you away and blocks the world out – but makes it seem so real, too. Every single character is memorable, even those that don’t feature much. I zoomed through them all, and have re-read them a lot.

‘Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’ by Haruki Murakami: I only recently read this, but I can’t get it out my head. The ideas and themes it creates are so out of this world. I don’t know how he comes up with them and still grounds it in a type of reality that hits home.

His two contemporary titles

‘Our Endless Numbered Days’ by Claire Fuller: There’s a theme here in what I’ve chosen, isn’t there? Bleak, chaotic, almost apocalyptic… A story featuring a young girl taken into the wilderness by her father. But why? What happened in the bleak cold? Can the narrator be trusted? I read it in one go.

‘Burial Rights’ by Hannah Kent: This is getting silly now… Bleak landscapes, a murderer, a disjointed community. The best book in recent times – paints the landscape perfectly, and creates a character out of it. Read it right now.

The one on his ‘to read’ list

‘His Bloody Project’ by Graeme Macrae Burnet: This was a Booker nominee. The book is told from different perspectives, including evidence files, about a murder in 1869. I can’t wait to read it. It sounds similar to the Booker-winning ‘The Luminaries’, which is a fave of mine.

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#04 April 2017 – The Big Comfy Bookshop, Coventry

#03 March 2017 – Bookseller Crow on the Hill, Crystal Palace

His three big books

‘The Great Gatsby’ by F. Scott Fitzgerald: I grew up in a home that had very few books in it, and any bookishness in my childhood was pretty much due to the local, very good, Carnegie Library. Aside from The Famous Five and The Secret Seven, the books of Malcolm Saville and Alan Garner, and later (passed on to me by a benign uncle) Desmond Bagley and Alistair Maclean, the first book that really connected with me was ‘The Great Gatsby’. Fitzgerald became the first author to be something more to me than a name on a book jacket, and reading his book was the first time I realised that a novel could be used for something more than the simple telling of a story – evidenced in his ambition to do something extraordinary and beautiful and simple and intricately patterned. In addition, it became my gateway drug into the world of modern American literature. Pretty soon I was mainlining Saul Bellow.

‘The Stories of John Cheever’ by John Cheever: I remember opening a box in one of the first bookshops I worked in and finding the newly published ‘Oh What a Paradise it Seems’ – not the author’s best book, but he was still (just) alive at the time and it lead me to recall an interview with him on a BBC 2 program with Robert Robinson. Cheever was wearing a bow tie as I remember it, and a white jacket, and he looked every inch the distinguished patrician American writer. Which by then, was what he was. ‘The Stories of John Cheever’ is the book I have opened and read more often in the last 30 years than any other, and perhaps imagining myself to be one day stuck in a lift, or a snowdrift or a flooded town, it is the only book that I have permanently filed on my phone. Of course Cheever lead to Updike, and later to Raymond Carver, with whom I once had the pleasure of a conversation regarding his sequel to Cheever’s ‘The-Five-Forty-Eight’, a story called ‘The Train’, published in the collection ‘Cathedral’.

‘The Magic Toyshop’ by Angela Carter: At art school I became interested in a group of British post-war writers that included John Berger, Alan Burns, B S Johnson, Ann Quinn and Angela Carter. At the time, most of Carter’s work was either out of print or, if you could find it, published with garish pseudo- science fiction covers. She was yet to be rediscovered and to settle back in south London to write her later major works ‘Wise Children’ and ‘Nights at the Circus’. Twenty years later, I opened a bookshop in Crystal Palace where ‘The Magic Toyshop’ is set. The actual toyshop as it existed is now my accountant’s offices and, in addition to selling a paperback and a hardback ‘gift’ edition of the book, we also offer an elegant mug based on the cover design of the hardback courtesy of her publisher Virago.

His two contemporary titles

‘Little Caesar’ by Tommy Wieringa: Of the twenty or so books I have so far read this year, I have been most impressed by ‘Little Caeser’ by the Dutch writer Tommy Wieringa. Adroitly and – considering the breadth of adventure, spanning Alexandria, the Netherlands, Morocco and Los Angeles and including high-class pornography and maniacal land art on a grand scale – subtly published by Scribe who, aside from a central motif of crumbling Suffolk cliff side, give away very little of the contents of the story on the back cover. Had it been published in the late 70s the cover art would have been very different indeed.

‘A Line Made By Walking’ by Sara Baume: I have also really enjoyed Sara Baume’s ‘A Line Made by Walking’ – a title taken from a work of art by the British landscape artist Richard Long, itself an extemporisation on a description of the act of drawing by Paul Klee, ‘Taking a Line for a Walk’. Baume’s book is the story of a solitary young artist who having become unmoored, attempts to re-anchor herself – partly through her recollected accounts of the art works of others, that may or may not explain her relationship to the world.

The one on his ‘to read’ list

‘Anything is Possible’ by Elizabeth Strout: The book I am most looking forward to next. I have carried a torch for Strout for the last ten years or more. All through the grim years of hand-selling her early books with their dreadful soft focus covers that hid her flinty brilliance and gave no indication of her inner Richard Yates. This book appears to be a companion piece to her last novel ‘I am Lucy Barton’, which was a small masterpiece.

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#03 March 2017 – Bookseller Crow on the Hill, Crystal Palace

#02 February 2017 – The Albion Beatnik, Oxford

https://www.albionbeatnik.co.uk/about/His three big books

‘Moby Dick’ by Herman Melville: Moby-Dick wrestles from the English language every nuance and meaning with such a rich repertoire of technique, and to an effect so grand and all embracing, that it makes its reader cry with overwhelming shouts of both joy and despair. It is the finest book written in the English language. After the First World War the avalanche of Modernist hybrid aesthetic ensured that Melville’s kaleidoscopic vision was recognized for what it was: sharp shards of genius. Previously his career was a study in decline: early success in the 1840s was followed by a precipitous career drop, and he was all but forgotten when he died in 1891.

‘Raise Up Off Me’ by Hampton Hawes: Hawes, who died aged 49 in 1977, was one of the greatest jazz bebop pianists. But at the summit of his career, celebrated as New Star of the Year by Down Beat magazine in 1956, he already had a drug addiction that would lead to arrest and imprisonment. A career that had blossomed early with the greatest players of his day was knocked off its rails and, even though President Kennedy was to grant an executive pardon in 1963, was never to recover. In an eloquent and humourous tone, Hawes tells of a life of suffering and redemption that reads like an improbably fast-paced and demotic novel. ‘Raise Up Off Me’, published in 1974, remains one of the most enduring, most embroidered (!) and best first-hand accounts of the jazz life ever written.

‘My Sixty Memorable Games’ by Bobby Fischer: This book is a lesson in objectivity, modesty and painstaking analysis, detailing not just wins, but losses and draws also. Poignantly, it doesn’t include the chess ‘Game of the Century’ from 1957 when, aged only 13 and playing black against International Master Donald Byrne, Bobby sacrificed a queen and knight to unleash the most devastating attack and victory. It was a stampede of brilliance that turned the game on a sixpence and Fischer into a global icon – a figure as likely to appear on the Bob Hope Show as on the cover of a chess magazine.

His two contemporary titles

‘Otmoor’ by David Attwooll & Andrew Walton: A sequence of ten poems that echo tales of the moor’s past and present, evoking its myths and buried memories. The poetry is a call and response to Andrew Walton’s mud-filled yet warm and playful paintings of this area of wetland, described forbiddingly as a “place apart.” The pamphlet is beautifully produced, its font, layout, brittle binding, all of a piece – each enrich the experience of its reading. The poetry and the cross-hatched landscape sketching dovetail to produce a remarkable collaborative achievement, and a lodestar of poetry publishing.

‘The Seasons of Cullen Church’ by Bernard O’Donoghue: This latest collection is lyrical, observant, elegiac, and so often beautiful. The redolent and concise language is riddled with memories of the poet’s childhood in Cork. He writes of ‘Connolly’s Bookshop’, noticing how the stock has shrunk until “bit by bit you’re marooned in the middle // on your high stool amongst the books that show // why books are out of date, why you must move // with the times and be careful what you stock, // defiant Crusoe at the centre of your island.”

The one on his ‘to read’ list

‘Being a Beast’ by Charles Foster: Charles takes tutorials in the shop, and takes tea here. He seems quite normal. Yet… He lived in a hole in the ground like a badger for weeks and ate earthworms; he swam rivers in Devon at night as an otter; he scavenged from the dustbins of the East End like an urban fox; and he was hunted like a red deer in the Scottish Highlands. A funky piece of nature writing and an intimate look at life in the wild. Cool.

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#02 February 2017 – The Albion Beatnik, Oxford

#01 December 2016 – Burley Fisher Books, Haggerston

His three big books

‘War and Peace’ by Leo Tolstoy: I’ll start off with an easy one. This book has everything: love, loss, drawing-room acerbity, imperial absurdity, pre-industrial farming techniques, Napoleon, the Masons, strapping policemen to bears… everything. Tolstoy remains one of our finest draughtsmen; he pays attention to every character, no matter how small a part they play. And when it comes to family (and all our other most fraught/freighted interpersonal relationships), his observations haven’t aged a day. I recommend the Louise and Aylmer Maude translation.

‘Silence’ by Shusako Endo: Set in the 17th Century, a young Portuguese Jesuit priest travels to Japan in search of his former mentor, who is rumoured to have renounced his faith. But the closer the priest gets in his search for his wayward master, the more his own certainties crumble away. This book is a brilliant meditation on the frailty and slippery-ness of truth, and how its greatest test is the moment of its exchange. It would be a prescient book whenever you read it, but its central message seems all the more urgent at the moment. Scorsese has made a film adaptation which comes out in the new year.

‘Orlando’ by Virgina Woolf: More historical fiction, of a kind. This book is a speculative biography of (or love letter to) Vita Sackville-West. The eponymous hero is born, as a man, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and dies some 300 years later a woman. Woolf’s quicksilver prose delights the whole way through; she’s a proper master of the sentence. If you’ve never read any Woolf this is one of her most accessible books, so it makes a good place to start!

His two contemporary titles

‘Eve out of Her Ruins’ by Ananda Devi (trans. Jeffrey Zuckerman): This slight novel packs a powerful punch that leaves you staggering long after you put it down. It follows a group of young people in Troumaron, a forsaken and garbage-filled neighbourhood of Port Louis, Mauritius, as they navigate their way through adolescence. The way it skips between the four characters means that the intense, closely-drawn psychodrama never becomes claustrophobic. Zuckerman’s translation is deft and graceful, capturing the febrile, lustful energy of the four central characters. This is a beautiful and moving book.

‘Nicotine’ by Nell Zink: This novel is a bloody riot. Those who, like me, were blown away by ‘The Wallcreeper’ and ‘Mislaid’ won’t be disappointed by Zink’s new effort. It follows a young woman who moves into her father’s family home after he passes away. The house has been taken over by a community of activists for smoker’s rights. Zink is the sharpest observer/satirist of identity politics around. This book isn’t perfect; in places it is so plotty as to be almost plotless. It proceeds at a breakneck pace. But goddamn it’s exciting. It’s NEW. And it’s belly achingly hilarious. Read it, there isn’t another writer who can keep up with her right now.

The one on his ‘to read’ list

‘The Complete Orsina’ by Ursula le Guin: Ursula le Guin is one of my all time favourites. She writes speculative fiction that has real characters rather than mere ciphers, and she was a pioneer in tackling gender and environmental issues. This volume has been released to celebrate her induction into the Library of America, and ‘gathers for the first time the entire body of work set in the imaginary central European nation of Orsinia’. For those who haven’t read her, ‘The Dispossessed’ and ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’ are great starting points.

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