Paul Lynch – Prophet Song (2023)
Relentless and unforgiving; a whirlwind of a novel about a country on the brink of totalitarianism.
Nan Shepherd – The Living Mountain (1977)
Spellbinding descriptions of walking the hills of the Cairngorms
Jo Ann Beard – Cheri (2023)
An elegant yet devastating novella in which Beard, somehow, makes the weight of it all feel bearable.
Deborah Levy – August Blue (2023)
A beautiful and atmospheric novel about a contemplative concert pianist.
Joan Didion – The Year of Magical Thinking (2005)
Didion's powerful book on grief, injected with remarkable brevity, in which she guides readers through her experience with a striking sense of calm.
Anne Lamott – Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life (1994)
“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul.”
Olga Tokarczuk – Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead (2018)
An eerie murder mystery, dark feminist comedy, and a refreshing take on vegetarianism, all packed into one
John Hersey – Hiroshima (1946)
An incredibly raw retelling of the destruction and death visited upon a population almost eighty years ago
Nick Cave & Seán O'Hagan – Faith, Hope and Carnage (2022)
A generous and incredibly articulate conversation.
Natalia Ginzburg – The Dry Heart (1947)
A compact book, brilliantly subdued in its anger.
Mieko Kawakami – All The Lovers In The Night (2022)
A calm and gentle treasure.
Ed Yong – An Immense World (2022)
A monumental book, bound to leave its readers flabbergasted by nature.