 | I’m always loath to share my year’s favourite reads before Christmas, in case a cracker comes along before New Year’s Eve. But, having selected a neat dozen (actually a baker’s dozen as I slipped in one more as you’ll see below), I’ve decided to take the plunge. With themes of the climate crisis, slavery, the impact of unprocessed trauma, kidnap, hearing voices, the pandemic of 1918, refugees, unexpected love, nonconformity, dysfunctional families and painful group processes, you’re sure to find something to ask Santa to put in your stocking. Or, if you follow the Icelandic tradition of Jolabokaflod, to gift to friends and family on Christmas Eve.  Most of these books are avaiable to purchase from bookshop.org by clicking this image (affiliate link) |
The Living Sea of Waking Dreams by Richard Flanagan, published by Chatto & Windus, is a perceptive study of sibling dynamics and a powerful fable about our collective failure to address the climate crisis while deluding ourselves we can defeat death.
The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr, published by riverrun, brings a new perspective to the story of the transatlantic slave trade by focusing on the threat the love between two adolescent boys brings to both slavers and enslaved people.
In Harvest by Georgina Harding, a young Japanese woman goes to stay at her boyfriend’s home in Norfolk, unaware that the seed of destruction planted in his deceased father is about to germinate. A powerfully poignant novel about the repercussions of a trauma too devastating for words.
The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr, published by riverrun, brings a new perspective to the story of the transatlantic slave trade by focusing on the threat the love between two adolescent boys brings to both slavers and enslaved people.
In Harvest by Georgina Harding, a young Japanese woman goes to stay at her boyfriend’s home in Norfolk, unaware that the seed of destruction planted in his deceased father is about to germinate. A powerfully poignant novel about the repercussions of a trauma too devastating for words.
Oxygen by Sacha Naspini, translated from the Italian by Clarissa Botsford and published by Europa editions, is an intelligent literary thriller about the impact of a disturbing anthropological experiment on both victim and the perpetrator’s family, beautifully related with a surprising and satisfying ending.
The Octopus Man by Jasper Gibson, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, is the most authentic depiction of someone who hears voices I’ve encountered in fiction. It’s an absorbing story narrated by an unusual character who is as endearing when communing with nature as he is in conversation with his personal god.
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue, published by Picador in 2020, is a page-turning story about colonisation – of countries by occupying powers and women’s bodies by church and male-dominated governments – set in a Dublin maternity ward during the pandemic of 1918.
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, published by Tinder Press, is a moving and tender story of a mother and son’s hazardous journey from Mexico to the USA, to escape the drug cartel that had murdered a dozen members of their family.
Suiza by Bénédicte Belpois, translated by from the French Alison Anderson and published by Europa Editions, is an unusual, poignant and surprisingly plausible story of the redemptive power of love.
As We Are Now by May Sarton, first published in 1973, is an intelligent and insightful novella about doesn’t fit in.
The Octopus Man by Jasper Gibson, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, is the most authentic depiction of someone who hears voices I’ve encountered in fiction. It’s an absorbing story narrated by an unusual character who is as endearing when communing with nature as he is in conversation with his personal god.
The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue, published by Picador in 2020, is a page-turning story about colonisation – of countries by occupying powers and women’s bodies by church and male-dominated governments – set in a Dublin maternity ward during the pandemic of 1918.
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, published by Tinder Press, is a moving and tender story of a mother and son’s hazardous journey from Mexico to the USA, to escape the drug cartel that had murdered a dozen members of their family.
Suiza by Bénédicte Belpois, translated by from the French Alison Anderson and published by Europa Editions, is an unusual, poignant and surprisingly plausible story of the redemptive power of love.
As We Are Now by May Sarton, first published in 1973, is an intelligent and insightful novella about doesn’t fit in.
In The Leftovers by Cassandra Parkin, published by Legend Press, a woman working as a live-in carer for a man with autism, is forced to re-evaluate her perception of herself and her family when forced to spend time with her estranged mother.
In Small Forgotten Moments by Annalisa Crawford, published by Vine Leaves Press, a painter with severe amnesia confronts the childhood trauma that haunts her artwork.
The Retreat by Alison Moore, published by Salt, is about group processes on an artists’ retreat on a small island which, although less violent, put me in mind of The Lord of the Flies.
In Small Forgotten Moments by Annalisa Crawford, published by Vine Leaves Press, a painter with severe amnesia confronts the childhood trauma that haunts her artwork.
The Retreat by Alison Moore, published by Salt, is about group processes on an artists’ retreat on a small island which, although less violent, put me in mind of The Lord of the Flies.
| Although it doesn’t officially belong here, as I read it at the end of 2020 but posted my review of this month, I’m squeezing in one of my all-time favourite novels, Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections. Featuring an elderly couple and their adult children, is the perfect corrective to the hurry-home-for-Christmas myth. |  |
Most of my chosen books are avaiable to purchase from bookshop.org by clicking this image (affiliate link)
What have you particularly enjoyed reading in 2021?
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