April Reading
Before we get into my reading for the month, we’ve just announced our next Lush Book Club which is with the brilliant food writer Kate Young about her debut novel, Experienced. It’s at the Lush Studios in Carnaby and features book chat, bath bombs and cake. It’s also a week before Experienced is officially published so it’s a chance to get the book early. Would love to see you there if you’re London based, you can book tickets here.
This month was almost entirely dominated by the Women’s Prize. I managed to read twelve of the sixteen longlisted books by the time the shortlist was announced last week. I’ve read five of them (only Restless Dolly Maunder to go) and am on the whole very, very happy with it. It has four of the books I would’ve chosen and although the Enright didn’t really stay with me, she’s a wonderful writer and it’s a strong book even if I’d have swapped it out for the Binyam. Mainly I’mdelighted to see Brotherless Night and Enter Ghost there which are two exceptional novels - I’m definitely hoping to see one of them win.
Western Lane by Chetna Maroo
This would have been on my personal shortlist, but given that it was Booker shortlisted and so it has had a ~moment~ already and part of the joy of prizes is to give books a ~moment~ they might not otherwise have had, I’m not up in arms. It’s also in the “strong like” rather than “love” category for me, which was a pleasant surprise given my aversion to sports books. And while a good book about anything is a good book, I am happy to admit I do prefer a plot that is something I find interesting or intriguing - and so I rarely gravitate towards books about sports or animals (people rave about Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend and yet I simply cannot work up any desire to read a book about a dog). And honestly, the squash elements here were my least favourite part and I had to Google the rules at one point. But it is exquisitely written and a hugely moving and tender book about family, sisters and grief.
Should you buy it? Yes, I’d recommend this one, especially now it’s out in paperback.
River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure
The only debut on the shortlist, and a very impressive one. This was probably my favourite after the three standouts, or the top of my “strong like” list, so I’m very happy to see it there. A dual narrative story that alternates between 2007 Shanghai, where dual heritage Alva yearns to go to the American school, and her new stepfather Lu Fang in 1980s northern China dealing with the impact of the cultural revolution on the course of his life. While I’ve seen some comments about finding them both unlikeable, I found both voices empathetic, moving and nuanced. I found it thought-provoking and heartbreaking and very good on girlhood. Lescure is also excellent on summoning a real sense of time and place.
Should you buy it? Yes, this was another of my personal shortlist, and it’s just out in paperback.
A Trace of Sun by Pam Williams
The book that inspired me to read the list at random as this doesn’t have a great cover (and I’m not a particular fan of the title either). I’m pleased to report that while the book isn’t a favourite, it is much better than its cover. I found this a largely engaging and well written book, but I did think it was a little too long and started to rely too much on coincidences towards the end. There’s also a more spoilery issue that Eric and I talk about in our video, if you’ve read the book. It’s about the fortunes of a family who emigrate to London from Grenada and spans the 60s right through to the 90s and I didn’t resent the time I spent reading it, even if it had its flaws.
Should you buy it? If you enjoy stories of emigration and assimilation or family sagas, you could do worse than this one.
Nightbloom by Peace Adzo Medie
I didn’t get on so well with this one - I liked the premise but the execution didn’t quite come together for me. It’s about two cousins and best friends who grow up side by side in Ghana and we hear from one of them, then the other, before their stories converge again. Two things didn’t quite work for me - firstly that the alternate perspective was largely what I was expecting given what we were told in the first half and so the format felt a little anticlimactic and redundant. My favourite section was as their lives came together again, although I found this bit a little rushed. And then secondly, the writing style wasn’t my favourite, I found it quite formal and straightforward. Everyone’s feelings were very explicitly explained, often in dialogue which felt quite stilted to me. A real tell not show situation.
Should you buy it? It wouldn’t be high up my personal list of recommendations but Eric really enjoyed this one, so if you watch his channel and find his tastes overlap more with yours than mine do, then perhaps!
Hangman by Maya Binyam
I read this absolutely blissfully ignorant of the fact that it is apparently the most hated book on BookTube and thank goodness I was oblivious as I loved it. This is one of three standout novels on the longlist (alongside Brotherless Night and Enter Ghost) although when I realised how many people hated it, I had realistic expectations as to seeing it make the shortlist..! This is such a strange, clever, darkly funny book that’s a real treat if you enjoy experimental fiction. I’d really recommend not knowing much about it before you go in and just let Binyam take you on the road she’s setting out and revel in the journey. It’s a tricky one to talk about without spoiling the “fun” (the reading experience is a delight if you enjoy such things, but the themes are heavy) but I’d love to chat about it with anyone who has read it.
Should you buy it? Yes, yes, yes! Clearly it splits opinion but if you are fans of writers like Vendela Vida (it has a real The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty feel), Helen Oyeyemi, Rachel Cusk or Elif Batuman I’d highly recommend.
The Blue, Beautiful World by Karen Lord
This is honestly just such a wildcard selection for the longlist. While it’s technically a standalone, it’s the third linked book within the same world that Lord has written and you can really feel that when you’re reading it. Adding in that it’s sci-fi (which isn’t my jam) and set across two time periods and with a very large cast of characters… Truly, I barely knew what was happening a lot of the time. Reading it felt like accidentally ending up at the wrong person’s birthday party. I’m not really the right person to say if this is a good book or not. I personally didn’t get on with the writing style but it was hard to truly work out which issues were due to that and which due to it feeling like the third book in a series. I had almost zero emotional connection with any of the characters and although there were some interesting ideas, I wouldn’t have finished this one if it wasn’t on the longlist. A bizarre choice for this list and I actually think it does Lord a disservice as a writer to be included, as this cannot be the ideal introduction to her for most readers.
Should you buy it? If you’re a sci-fi fan, perhaps try The Best of All Possible Worlds, the first in the sequence, or I’ve heard her debut, Redemption in Indigo, is excellent.
For more thoughts on the longlist, and my predictions before I knew what was on it, I filmed a video with my lovely friend Eric which you can watch here.
Ultimately my ranking of the twelve books I read would be:
Brotherless Night by V. V. Ganeshananthan
Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad
Hangman by Maya Binyam
River East, River West by Aube Rey Lescure
Western Lane by Chetna Maroo
Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy
The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright
A Trace of Sun by Pam Williams
In Defence of the Act by Effie Black
Nightbloom by Peace Adzo Medie
The Maiden by Kate Foster
The Blue, Beautiful World by Karen Lord
And then after all that Women’s Prize reading, I wanted a palette cleanser before I finished off the shortlist with Restless Dolly Maunder.
The Family Fortuna by Lindsay Eager
I was after something accessible and fun but still good and I went for a new YA book I’d just been sent in the post. I don’t read much YA at all but I do enjoy it once in a while and this promised Moulin Rouge-vibes in the press release which of course piqued my interest. I have read two thirds of it and it’s largely hitting the spot for what I was after. It’s definitely at the upper end of YA - I would say that perhaps you can tell its a children’s author enjoying people able to play in a YA sandbox! It’s very foul-mouthed and has lots of sexual content often written about in a quite crass way - it’s grotesque and weird and dark and although the prose gets a little purple at times, I’m still engaged. It’s not super fast-paced, and crucially, I can’t speak to how well she lands the ending, but I’m having fun.
Should you buy it? If you like a vibes-forward YA story and don’t mind a florid writing style, then I think you’ll have a good time.
Update from a few days later - I actually found the ending somewhat disappointing unfortunately. The lack of plot meant it struggled to keep momentum and all felt a bit anticlimactic. I would have loved a version of this book with a book more emotional and plot heft.
Housekeeping!
The links go to my Bookshop.org page and are affiliate links which means I get a small amount of money if you buy these books or other books via one of my links. This helps me keep this Substack free so I appreciate you very much if you do!
As a journalist and author, I am often reading proof copies of books sent for free by publishers. These are not sent with any obligation to read or write about them (indeed most of them are sent unsolicited) and I am never paid to say nice things about them. I’ll always disclose any personal relationships or if I’m reading a book for an event I’m being paid for. This month all the books from the Women’s Prize longlist were sent to me by the prize and The Family Fortuna was sent to me by its publisher.