My book of the year will come as no surprise to anyone: I’ve been banging on about Claire-Louise Bennett ever since I read Pond back in 2015, and Checkout 19, her second book, somehow lived up to all the totally unattainable expectations I’d built up over the intervening six years. It’s a book about how books shape us, but one that doesn’t have even a shadow of the tweeness that description implies; Bennett is one of the funniest, cleverest, most surprising writers you will ever have the pleasure to read.
Some other books from this year that I’ll be giving people this Christmas (and beyond): Keeping the House by Tice Cin, a London novel for people who think they’re bored of London novels; Isabel Waidner’s Goldsmith Prizewinning Sterling Karat Gold; two utterly joyful reissues, Margaret Kennedy’s The Feast and Laurie Colwin’s Happy All the Time; four books that, in very different ways, respond to the climate crisis – Isobel Wohl’s debut novel Cold New Climate, Alexandra Kleeman’s haunting vision of near-future California Something New Under the Sun, Jessie Greengrass’s quietly domestic (and quietly terrifying) The High House, and Andreas Malm’s furious but hopeful call to arms How to Blow Up a Pipeline; and a perfect gift of a book to bring sunshine, magic and joy to the darkest time of the year, Leone Ross’s This One Sky Day.
And to finish off the list, a Christmas classic I only discovered for the first time last year: Madeleine St. John’s The Women in Black is a sweet and tender novel set on the Ladies’ Cocktail Frocks floor of Sydney department store during the Christmas rush. Stick one in your stocking for a perfect Boxing Day read.
From the publisher:
*A 'BOOKS OF 2021' PICK IN THE GUARDIAN, DAILY MAIL, DAILY TELEGRAPH, IRISH TIMES CULTURE AND NEW STATESMAN*'We read in order to come to life.'With fierce imagination, a woman revisits the moments that shape…
Recommended by Gayle
‘If you need something to finally shake off the lockdown blues and get you in the mood for summer, This One Sky Day is it. One of the most joyful, playful novels I’ve read in ages. Magic, food, love, politics on a dream of a Caribbean island.’
Recommended by Gayle:
‘A sweet and tender Christmas novel, that’s not just for Christmas. The Women in Black by Madeleine St. John follows the employees of the Ladies’ Cocktail Frocks section of an upmarket department store as they prepare for the Christmas rush in the sweltering heat of a Sydney summer. To my northern hemisphere eyes at least, it’s a novel for all seasons.’
Recommended by Gayle
‘Isobel Wohl’s Cold New Climate approaches the coming climate apocalypse from a oblique angle: it’s a novel about facing an uncertain future and trying to work out how to live in it. Like the story itself, Wohl’s prose – slyly simple and deadpan – creeps up on you. Startling and totally compelling.’
Recommended by Gayle
‘A brilliant London novel, the kind we need more of: polyphonic, multilingual, thrillingly alive with all the people, food, music that make this city what it is.’
From the publisher:
‘SUFFUSED WITH JOY’ Guardian, ‘PROPHETIC’ Daily Mail, ‘BEAUTIFUL’ Scotsman, ‘IMMERSIVE’ IMAGEPerched on a hill above a village by the sea, the high house has a…
From the publisher:
Winner of the Goldsmiths Prize 2021Sterling is arrested one morning without having done anything wrong. Plunged into a terrifying and nonsensical world, Sterling – with the help of their three best friends – must defy…
From the publisher:
‘An urgent novel about our very near future, and a deeply addictive pleasure’ Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies‘Magnificent and stunning’ Jeff VanderMeer, author of Hummingbird Salamander‘An…
From the publisher:
This summer holiday vintage crime classic exploring the mystery of a buried Cornish hotel invites us to solve the puzzle as detectives: perfect for fans of Celia Fremlin’s Uncle Paul, Agatha Christie, or Richard Osman…
From the publisher:
The science on climate change has been clear for a very long time now. Yet despite decades of appeals, mass street protests, petition campaigns, and peaceful demonstrations, we are still facing a booming fossil fuel industry, rising …
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