We’re coming to the end of 2024. It’s been quite a year. But it’s good to know that people are still reading. And reading widely, judging by the lists you sent me. As always, we have a rich and varied collection.

The longest part of this list is the one on fiction. We have books from Afghanistan, Argentina, Bulgaria, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Gabon, India, Mauritius, Pakistan, Palestine, and Syria, to name a few, as well as several from Nigeria and Russia. They range from the contemporary to those published over a hundred years ago, with the oldest being Ivan Goncharov’s Oblomov, published in 1859, one of three books on the list that were written in that century. The section on crime fiction includes a post-Second World War whodunit from Japan, among others.

This year, there seems to be a focus on the compiling of the Oxford English Dictionary with three books—two under fiction and one under history. Compiling the OED was such a massive undertaking that I suspect there will be more books written about it.

Non-fiction includes a number of books on India: the life of an underprivileged woman, the diverse languages in the country, a look back at ancient India, observations on the natural world, and travels on an elephant.

Subjects of memoirs and biographies include an actress, writers and migrants. There is also nature and travel writing that takes you to Western Asia, Nigeria, the Mediterranean and Europe’s wild places.

So, there’s something for everyone.

There were overlaps in your lists: Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead and Nathacha Appanah’s The Last Brother features in two lists, as does The Book Binder of Jericho by Pip Williams, one of the books about the OED.

The books are arranged by category, year of publication (for works read in translation, I have used the year of publication in English unless the book was read in the original language), and author. When a series of books is mentioned, I’ve picked the publication date of the most recent book. Audiobooks have been included in the appropriate section. In the case of overlaps, both reviews have been included.

Links lead to reviews on this blog or to my reviews of travel books for the website Women on the Road.

A big thank you for your lists! The 2024 contributors are: Ayesha Ali Khan, Caroline Dommen, Chanis Fernando-Boisard, Joannah Caborn Wengler, Kamakshi Balasubramanian, Kat de Moor, Kristine Goulding, Leslie Jones, Mohan Raj, Naheed Bilgrami, Nandini Mehta, Rishad Patell, Sadhana Ramchander, Sally-Anne Sader, Sonia Francis, Suroor Alikhan, and Usha Raman.

To help you navigate this long list, I have added links that take you directly to various sections: Fiction  /  Crime fiction  /  Non-fiction  /  History  /  Memoirs, Auto/biography  /  Nature  /  Travel

Note: there are interviews on this blog with five of the authors listed here: Nilanjana Roy, Luis Sagasti, Noo Saro Wiwa, Shugri Said Salh, and Andrew Terrill.

Fiction

A Spell of Good Things: Ayobani Adebayo (2024)
Two Nigerian families, one poor, the other wealthy, both caught up in the violence of a political conflict that neither is central to. Ouarala is a medical resident with a promising future, engaged to the son of a prominent businessman-turned-politician. As the relationship turns abusive, she is caught between her pride and the expectations of a loving family. Eneola is a 16-year old whose desire to climb out of poverty draws him into the murky underworld that supports a powerful candidate. The two narratives criss-cross until they collide in a dramatic and tragic manner. Adebayo’s book, longlisted for the Booker Prize last year, is a gripping story of local politics that can go terribly wrong.

Not a River: Selva Almada (2024, translated from Spanish by Annie McDermott, original version published in 2021)
I always prefer to read the original language if I can, this was an exception. I believe Annie McDermott did an excellent job translating it, though I still would like to read the Spanish version. It’s an atmospheric and intense read. I could feel the heat and tension throughout it and enjoyed the magical realism surprise. The book was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize.

The Cemetery of Untold Stories: Julia Alvarez (2024)
A writer inherits a plot of land in her native Dominican Republic and decides to turn it into a cemetery for all her untold stories, the books that were never finished. But the characters in the stories refuse to die and their voices float over the cemetery. A book about the power of stories, and how sometimes writing them down can distort them.

The Extinction of Irena Rey: Jennifer Croft (2024)
A group of translators meet their author in a house near the Białowieża Forest. They always go through the same routine, but this time the author, Irena Rey, seems uncharacteristically lost. And then she disappears, setting into motion a series of events. The translators are at sea without their author to tell them what to do. Their adoration feels like a cult, but as they look for clues into Irena’s disappearance, they discover secrets that she had kept from them. A book about translation, our connection with the natural world, the process of writing, and celebrity. The book is written by one of the translators (Spanish) and translated into English by another, both unreliable narrators.

Choice: Neel Mukherjee (2024)
This is actually a triptych of stories—three thematically intertwined novellas—that together take on the question(s) of responsibility, agency, and ethics in the face of capitalism and the market. Ayush, the sole person of colour in a successful London publishing house, feels the need for urgent individual action in the face of environmental degradation and climate catastrophe. The second story fills out a reference to a manuscript that Ayush is handling. Emily, a mid-career academic in search of her grandmother’s colonial account, instead takes it on herself to tell the story of a refugee she meets on a traumatic cab ride. And the third story, also alluded to during a party conversation around neoliberal economics and poverty alleviation, has to do with a poor family in rural India that receives the gift of a cow, and the unexpected turn their fortunes take. Mukherjee uses fiction to explore the difficult—often agonizing—questions we must all deal with as we are confronted with multiple crises of conscience in contemporary times.

Wandering Stars: Tommy Orange (2024)
From a Native American writer. A companion book to Tommy Orange’s debut, There There, which tells the story of the lead-up to a powwow in contemporary USA. Wandering Stars focuses on one of the families, tracing it back to the Sand Creek Massacre and the indoctrination of Native American children, and then picking up the story in the aftermath of the powwow. Absolutely brilliant, heart-breaking and redemptive, the book tells the story of Native Americans in the US. One of the best books I read this year.

Hangman: Maya Binyam (2023)
Hangman follows a nameless narrator on a journey back to his home country after years abroad. Sparse and absurdist in style, the novel deals with themes of identity, displacement, memory, and the complexities of returning to a place that feels both familiar and foreign.

Tremor: Teju Cole (2023)
Cole is a dazzlingly erudite polymath—writer, art historian, photographer and essayist. Tremor is centred on Tunde, a Harvard academic of Nigerian descent. Switching between points of view, and criss-crossing geography and time, the book freely transgresses the boundaries of the traditional novel, incorporating narrative fiction, autofiction, memoir, academic lecture, as well as musings on history, art, music and the many violences of colonialism. His acknowledged influences are W.G. Sebald and, especially when describing Lagos, Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities.

⁠⁠Day: Michael Cunningham (2023)
The book felt distant and difficult to read. Dealing with a story set during the Covid pandemic, the book looks at the lives of a Brooklyn family on a particular day for three consecutive years, but the characters fail to connect with you at any level of real depth.

Lichtspiel: Daniel Kehlmann (2023, in German)
Many people fled Nazi Germany, so this is an unusual story of someone who returned: a visionary German film-maker who is not such a hit in Hollywood but is offered the chance to make films in Germany when he returns to look after his sick mother and is unable to leave. The political and moral compromises made in the name of art are a large part of this book which is ingeniously told and structured. 

No One Prayed Over Their Graves: Khalid Khalifa (2023, translated from Arabic by Leri Price; original version published in 2019)
A saga set in and around Aleppo from the end of the Ottoman empire (late 19th century) to the 1950s. The story revolves around two friends, Hanna, a Christian boy taken in by his father’s Muslim friend after his family is massacred, and the son of his father, Zakariya. The boys grow up together to become men devoted to the pursuit of pleasure. Then a flood devastates their village, killing almost everyone, which profoundly changes them both. This is a sprawling saga with a lot of characters, some of whom I had trouble keeping track of, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Roman Stories: Jhumpa Lahiri (2023; translated from Italian by Jhumpa Lahiri and Todd Portnowitz)
A set of minutely observed stories set in Roman and Southern Italy, translated by the author and Todd Portnowitz from the original Italian. The stories span themes of migration, alienation, belonging and loss, and are told in what has come to be Lahiri’s signature voice, at once compassionate and critical. My favourite was “The Steps” that traces the paths taken by different people in and around a stone staircase connecting two parts of the city—some traverse it to work, others see it as a place of meeting, and for some others it is where bargains are made and relationships built.

The History Teacher of Lahore: Tahira Naqvi (2023)
Arif Ali makes the journey from Sialkot to Lahore to realize his dream of being a history teacher. In Lahore, his life is upended by dramatic events unfolding when a general wields power after the ruthless assassination of a prime minister.

Fresh Dirt from the Grave: Giovanna Rivero (2023, translated from Spanish by Isabel Adey; original version published in 2020)
Short stories from a Bolivian writer, these are often dark, but also very humane. Vivid descriptions, beautifully translated by Isabel Adey.

Mansions of the Moon: Shyam Selvadurai (2023)
This is the story of Yashodhara, the wife of the prince Siddhartha before he became the Buddha. We meet her as a young girl in her father’s palace, when Siddhartha, her young cousin and prince of the neighbouring kingdom, visits and a friendship blooms. Selvadurai fills out the early years of their marriage, giving us an intimate look at how Yashodhara’s life transforms as her husband’s restlessness grows, leading to the point where he departs to seek Truth, but also in the years after, until she finds her own peace.

The Fraud: Zadie Smith (2023)
The Fraud is a historical novel set in 19th-century England, inspired by the real-life Tichborne trial. It follows Eliza Touchet, a sharp-witted widow and housekeeper (and one-time lover) to a struggling novelist, as she navigates questions of truth, identity, and justice amidst a sensational court case involving an imposter claiming a noble inheritance. Through Eliza’s perspective, Smith examines questions of class, colonialism, and the blurred lines between fact and fiction.

The House of Doors: Tan Twan Eng (2023)
The novel, set in the 1920s British colony of the Federated Malay States, tells the stories of the local residents and visitors, including a fictionalized version of William Somerset Maugham.

The Covenant of Water: Abraham Verghese (2023)
Set in the 1900s in Kerala, India. A sweeping inter-generational story of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction. In every generation at least one person dies by drowning: and in Kerala water is everywhere.

The Book Binder of Jericho: Pip Williams (2023)
Inspired by something she read in the archives of the Oxford University Press during her research for her much-celebrated earlier novel, The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams imagines a bright young bindery worker, who is denied access to a college education on account of both her class and gender. That feeling of denial is accentuated further by personal choices she has made. Into her world enter the suffrage movement and World War I, acting both as a distraction and an intrusion, in the midst of which she finds her first romance. Pip Williams creates an enthralling interplay of character and circumstance, using language so elegantly porous and transparent that it has to be read and experienced first-hand.

Another book related to The Dictionary of Lost Words (see below) and The Professor and the Madman (see under History). In 1914, when the war draws the young men of Britain away to fight, it is the women who must keep the nation running. Two of these women are Peggy and Maude, twin sisters who work in the bindery at Oxford University Press in Jericho. Peggy is intelligent, ambitious and dreams of going to Oxford University, but for most of her life she has been told her job is to bind the books, not read them.
When refugees arrive from the devastated cities of Belgium, it sends ripples through the community and through the sisters’ lives. Peggy begins to see the possibility of another future where she can use her intellect and not just her hands, but as war and illness reshape her world, it is love, and the responsibility that comes with it, that threaten to hold her back.
The Bookbinder of Jericho is a story about knowledge—who makes it, who can access it, and what is lost when it is withheld. In this beautiful companion to The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams explores another little-known slice of history seen through women’s eyes. Intelligent, thoughtful and rich with unforgettable characters.

The Lost Bookshop: Evie Woods (2023)
Three people over time and space linked by a vanishing bookshop. Complicated plot, but it made me happy.

Lessons in Chemistry: Bonnie Garmus (2022)
A chemist becomes a cooking show host and has to deal with sexism. This is about the strength of a woman when faced with idiotic men. It shows us women’s empowerment, their capabilities and self-possession.

Time Shelter: Georgi Gospodinov (2022, translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel; original version published in 2020)
This is an inventive novel that plays with themes of time and memory. It centres on a clinic that recreates past decades in faithful detail for patients with Alzheimer’s, offering them a comforting retreat into more familiar times. However, as the concept spreads, entire nations begin retreating into chosen historical periods. This book, which explores the darker implications of a fixation on nostalgia, feels particularly timely in the context of populism and nationalistic rhetoric, and societal unrest cynically stoked by political movements harking back to idealized pasts.

Demon Copperhead: Barbara Kingsolver (2022)
In my opinion, the best thing she’s written since The Poisonwood Bible. This is David Copperfield transposed to Appalachia during the opioid crisis. I thought it was going to be depressing—Demon goes through all that life can throw at him—but it’s saved by his voice. Demon narrates the book with a sarcastic, worldly-wise air and I couldn’t put it down. You root for him—he is intelligent, thoughtful and clear-eyed—a character worthy of redemption if I ever saw one. Brilliant.

Demon Copperhead is a modern retelling of David Copperfield, set in rural Appalachia, that follows the life of a boy named Demon born into poverty. Orphaned at a young age, Demon faces a series of hardships, including addiction, exploitation, and systemic neglect, yet his resilience and sharp wit shine through.

La Ritournelle: Aurélie Valognes (2022)
I enjoyed this book as a relaxing read during the weekend. I guess a lot of families will recognize themselves in it or at least recognize some of the characters. I found it highly entertaining and relatable, and it made me laugh as Valognes uses funny expressions and describes somewhat challenging situations with humour and lightness. This is a typical feel-good book, and I don’t think you have to look for more behind it. There is always a sort of happy ending and lessons to learn. Valognes writes about everyday heros and everyday situations. Just a fun read!

Remarkably Bright Creatures: Shelby Van Pelt (2022)
Three intertwined narratives, inhabited by three characters, come together in the small Pacific Coast town of Soul Bay. One is Marcelis, an octopus whose wisdom and courage force the meeting and the discovery of a connection between the other two—the feisty woman who cleans the aquarium, and a young man in search of his father, whom he believes is a millionaire. This quirky novel is both heart-warming and insightful.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow: Gabrielle Zevin (2022)
The story follows the lives of Sam and Sadie, who meet as children and develop an intense friendship formed over a shared love of videogames, that is cut short by a misunderstanding. They meet again as college students in Cambridge, and become collaborators on an intricate and painstakingly designed game that becomes a global hit, leading them to form a gaming start-up with Sam’s friend and college roommate Marx—who later becomes Sadie’s romantic partner. When Marx is killed in a shooting at their offices, the relationship between Sadie and Sam becomes strained again, and both retreat in different ways, into a game universe. The complexities arising from unspoken feelings, silences that turn into toxic resentments, and a channelling of these into the plot and design of games—these are the threads that form this touching and beautifully written story.

Small Things Like These: Claire Keegan (2021)
A spare book set in 1980s Ireland, it follows Bill Furlong over Christmas Eve as he makes deliveries of coal and wood. His work takes him to the convent, in reality a Magdalene laundry where young girls were kept and forced to work. There are rumours about the place but this was a time when the Catholic church was all-powerful, and no one really spoke about the abuses that were going on. But Bill starts to suspect that something is rotten behind the pious façade of the nuns. Keegan tells the story simply but powerfully, taking us inside the head of a man who wants to do the right thing.

No One Is Talking About This: Patricia Lockwood (2021)
No One Is Talking About This is a poignant exploration of our contemporary digital age, following a woman deeply immersed in an online world she calls “the portal”. Her life takes a dramatic turn when a family crisis forces her to confront the tangible, emotional reality beyond the virtual. Through its blend of humour, fragmented prose, and profound reflection, the novel examines the tension between hyperconnectivity and the enduring power of human connection.

The Dictionary of Lost Words: Pip Williams (2021)
This is one of the best books I have read. The subject is similar to The Professor and the Mad Man by Simon Winchester (see under History). Set in England during the time of World War I and the women’s suffrage movement, The Dictionary of Lost Words shows a different aspect of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Esme (the main character) is fictional, but her experiences and many of the people, places, and events featured in this book are real. She spends her childhood in the Scriptorium (or “Scrippy”), where the dictionary was compiled. One day, a slip of paper with the word “bondmaid” is lost beneath a table, and Esme finds it and keeps it. So begins her journey to discover words spoken by ordinary women, many of which were not written anywhere.
Over time, Esme realizes that some words are considered more important than others, and that words and meanings relating to women’s experiences often go unrecorded. While she dedicates her life to the Oxford English Dictionary, she secretly begins to collect words for another dictionary: The Dictionary of Lost Words.

Breasts and Eggs: Mieko Kawakami (2020, translated from Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd; original version published in 2019)
This is a feminist exploration of women’s bodies, desires, and societal pressures. Through the characters Natsuko, a struggling writer in her thirties pondering artificial insemination, her sister Makiko, who wants a breast enlargement, and Makiko’s daughter Midoriko, dealing with adolescence and alienation, Kawakami explores the complexities of gender expectations, body image and personal autonomy, and what it means to be a woman in contemporary Japan.

Minor Detail: Adania Shibli (2020, translated from Arabic by Elizabeth Jacquette; original version published in 2017)
A young woman is captured and raped by a group of settler-soldiers in the new Israeli nation. The story is first told from the perspective of the regiment’s commander, in a tone that is cold and impersonal. The second part of the story is told by a young Palestinian woman who was born exactly 25 years after the incident, to the day. She goes in search of the site of the incident, hoping to find an archive that would fill out the story, braving checkposts and an altered-occupied landscape. It’s a strange, moving story about the possession of a land, and the dispossession of a people.

The Eighth Life (for Brilka): Nino Haratischwili (2019, translated from German by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin; original version published in 2014)
A multi-generational saga about a Georgian family, spanning from pre-Soviet times to the present. Complex and absorbing, with memorable characters. It takes you through the lives of not only the family but also of the country.

An Orchestra of Minorities: Chigozie Obiama (2019)
This book stayed with me for a long time, not just because the fate of the main character is—it has to be said—utterly harrowing. All the more poignant because he’s such a nice, modest chap. The story casts a particular light on reasons why people migrate, how they end up doing it, and how things can go horribly wrong through no fault of their own. The interesting insight for me was how much class in Nigerian society influences different migration experiences: how for a rich high-status family it’s a perfectly normal thing to study abroad, but an entirely perilous business for someone without those means. I enjoyed the way the writer brought Igbo cosmology into the story, the humour and his fantastic way with language.

Darius the Great is Not Okay: Adib Khoram (2018)
I loved reading this book. A truly sweet and poignant look into the life of a young Zoroastrian American who travels to his family hometown in Iran. Dealing with depression, feelings of not belonging and not understanding one’s place in one’s own culture, this young adult novel was a light yet emotional read.

Ammamma Kathalu: Nandagiri Indira Devi (2018, in Telegu)
A children’s book written by a friend’s grandmother. Very cute and delightful moral stories in very simple Telugu.  

Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree: Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani (2018)
This is a novel based on the true stories of the 276 Nigerian school girls abducted from Chibok by Boko Haram in 2014. It unfolds in brief, spare chapters that follow the journey of a young girl whose dreams of education and a bright future are shattered when she is kidnapped by terrorists and forced to endure unimaginable hardships. The book was written in collaboration with Viviana Mazza, an Italian journalist who documented the real stories of the young women kidnapped by Boko Haram, some of whom managed to escape and make their way back.

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: Taylor Jenkins Reid (2017)
Not typically my genre, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo surprised me in the best way possible. By the end, I was in tears—a testament to how deeply this story touched me. Evelyn Hugo feels so real, both as a larger-than-life icon and as a deeply flawed, vulnerable human being. While the world views her as a Hollywood legend, Jenkins Reid peels back the layers, revealing her joys, fears, mistakes, losses, and truths.
This is a story about more than glitz and glamour. It’s a story of a woman who lives life on her own terms; it’s a poignant exploration of loss, friendship, identity, sacrifices and the complexity of human relationships. Evelyn’s journey unfolds in a society that imposes expectations about who you should be, making her determination and authenticity all the more inspiring. The book also touches on themes of sexual identity, loyalty, betrayal, and the profound importance of surrounding yourself with love and family.
Written in a light, accessible style, each chapter offers a lesson, a piece of advice, or a moment of reflection. Evelyn’s story teaches us that nothing is ever as it seems and that even the most dazzling lives carry shadows. Three cheers for Evelyn Hugo—a character who will stay with you long after the final page.

L’Arminuta: Donatella Di Pietrantonio (2017; translated from Italian as The Girl Returned by Ann Goldstein, 2019)
The book follows a young girl who is suddenly sent back to her biological family after being raised by an uncle and aunt. Uprooted from a comfortable and loving family home into an economically and emotionally impoverished environment, she learns to survive and adapt to her new circumstances, thanks to a growing bond with a younger sister she never knew she had.

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats: Jan-Philipp Sendker (2017)
A New York lawyer disappears and neither his wife nor daughter know where he has gone. Until they find a love letter he wrote to a Burmese woman many years ago. This is about love, resilience and fortitude. To have this kind of love, one has to be blessed.

The Queue: Basma Abdel Aziz (2016, translated from Arabic by Elizabeth Jaquette; original version published in 2013)
This satirical, absurdist novel is set in an unnamed Arab country in the months following a popular uprising—“the Disgraceful Events”—that recalls the hopes and disappointments of the Arab Spring. Yehya, who has been injured in a riot that never happened, needs to have a bullet removed but the authorities have stated that no bullets were ever fired—thus making it impossible for an X-ray to reveal something whose existence is illegal. He joins an ever-lengthening queue where people wait for the Gate to open and legitimize their claims, alternating between dull resignation and futile hope.

A House Without Windows: Nadia Hashimi (2016)
Set in Afghanistan, this book is about women, friendship, strength, and how they support one another. What caught me was the power women have to protect and take care of one another. I was gripped by the inner beauty and strength of women, love and Afghanistan with every turn of the page.

The Tea Planter’s Wife: Dinah Jefferies (2016)
The story revolves around a young British woman who joins her husband in exotic Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon. She hardly knows him, marries him after a few brief encounters. She finds herself on a tea plantation, with her husband frequently absent. While roaming around the house, she discovers an old trunk with clothes and objects belonging to another woman. This is part of her husband’s past and his deeply embedded secret. As the young wife finds herself pregnant, the plot deepens, and she finds herself keeping a secret too, one she doesn’t wish to share with her husband.
I liked this book with its inbuilt suspense, I just found there was sometimes a little too much description of scenery and nature which sometimes slowed down the pace. It reminded me of Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca.

Heartstopper (Boy meets boy), volumes 1-5: Alice Oseman (2016)
Comic—young adult. A wonderful series that deals with same sex teen love and mental health issues in a school situation. Very sensitively handled. Good story telling using amazing drawings. At the end of each volume, you wait eagerly to read the next. Volume 6 is yet to be released. Waiting for it!  This has been made into a television series by Netflix.

The Sellout: Paul Beatty (2015)
The Sellout is a biting satire that tackles race, identity, and systemic racism in America through the story of a Black man who attempts to reinstate segregation in his Los Angeles neighbourhood.

Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes: Guzel Yakhina (2015; translation from Russian by Lisa C. Hayden published in 2019)
Yakhina’s masterpiece captivated me from the very first word to the final page. This compelling narrative follows the journey of a Tartar woman in the former Soviet Union, who is illiterate, abused in her marriage, and ultimately becomes a victim of Stalin’s brutal policies aimed at re-educating landowners known as kulaks. Zuleikha’s transformation from a downtrodden peasant woman to a self-respecting individual is truly inspiring, tracing her realization of her inherent worth and right to a fulfilling life.
The simplicity of the premise belies the profound impact of Zuleikha’s story, particularly given the grim setting of Stalinist Russia. While not an endorsement of the Soviet regime’s atrocities, the novel highlights the empowerment many Soviet women experienced through education and socialist ideals.
Central to the narrative is the motif of journey, vividly depicted in Zuleikha’s arduous train ride from her home to a remote re-education camp populated by individuals deemed enemies of the state. Among them are artists, scientists, intellectuals, and forgotten souls like Zuleikha, all striving to rebuild their lives amidst the harsh Siberian landscape.
Zuleikha’s evolution from a subjugated victim to a resilient survivor who rediscovers her capacity for love and life is deeply engaging. This novel, set against the backdrop of Soviet oppression, offers a poignant exploration of self-discovery and resilience in the face of adversity.
I stumbled upon this novel by chance, but I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone seeking a compelling tale featuring an unlikely survivor who defies tyranny.

The Fury and Cries of Women: Angèle Rawiri (2014, translated from French by Sara Hanaburgh; original version published in 1989)
Rawiri is considered the first novelist from Gabon. In this book—her third—she writes about the position of women who want something more than the traditional roles assigned to them. Although it was written in 1989, it is a very modern novel, raising questions about subjects that were not much written about at the time, especially by African writers: infertility and the pressure society places on women to have children; same sex relationships; and the way healing—both modern and traditional—can fail women. A seminal book.

Heft: Liz Moore (2012)
A poignant novel that delves into the lives of two unlikely individuals, an obese former academic and a troubled teenager, whose paths intertwine in a heart-warming and redemptive tale of human connection.

Custody: Manju Kapur (2011)
As the title suggests, this 396-page book is about the battle for custody of a girl child after the wife Shagun leaves her husband Raman for an attractive and successful businessman who is Raman’s boss. Even though I am often distraught at the world of human beings and their relationships, I read this with interest because of Manju Kapur’s gripping style and attention to detail. As the blurb on the back cover says, “Custody is a captivating story of love and loss. Gently satirical, it is told with quiet restraint, honesty, and clear-sightedness, once again confirming Manju Kapur’s reputation as the greatest chronicler of the modern Indian family.” 
I met Manju Kapur at HLF 2024, and liked her immensely, which is why I read this book. Definitely unputdownable, and worth reading. Manju Kapur is known as the Jane Austen of modern Anglo-Indian literature.

The Last Brother: Nathacha Appanah (2010, translated from French by Geoffrey Strachan; original version published in 2007)
Raj, a nine-year-old boy in a village in Mauritius loses his two brothers on a single day. He moves with his parents to a town where his father gets a job at a prison housing Jewish refugees, refugees who tried to get to Israel but were turned away. The Second World War is raging but because it barely affects the community, Raj has never heard of it. But that changes when he meets David, a 10-year-old refugee boy and the two develop a bond. But can their friendship survive? Heart-breaking.

Set In Mauritius, a remote island in the Indian Ocean. It is 1944 and nine-year-old Raj is unaware of the war devastating the rest of the world. When a beating lands him in the hospital of a prison camp where his father is a guard, he meets David, a boy his age. David is a refugee, one of the Jewish exiles whose harrowing journey took them from Nazi-occupied Europe to Palestine where they were refused entry and sent to indefinite detainment in Mauritius. A storm on the island leads to a breach in security and David escapes with Raj’s help.

Witch Light: Susan Fletcher (2010)
The story of a young wild woman imprisoned in 1692 for witchcraft and condemned to be burnt at the stake. There are two voices in the book, Corrag in her prison cell, and Charles Leslie, an Irish vicar who visits her to find out about the Glencoe massacre. Corrag’s description of her life in England and, mostly in the Scottish Highlands is filled with such beauty and poetic observations it brought me to tears. Leslie’s personal journey, shared in the letters to his wife, show how he changes his view of the “savage, dark-hearted and covered with lice” witch while listening to her story. It’s based on historical figures and events, bringing a new perspective. A gorgeous read.

Trois Femmes Puissantes: Marie Ndiaye (2009; translated from French as Three Strong Women by John Fletcher, 2013)
The story of three women caught between Africa and Europe—Norah, Fanta, Khady Demba—who stand up and say no, women with incredible resources of strength who fight to keep their dignity in spite of the constant humiliations inflicted on them. Winner of the Prix Goncourt.

Bitter Grounds: Sandra Benitez (1997)
A story about three generations of women in two El Salvadorean families, from the 1930s to the 1970s. It starts with Mercedes, whose husband died during La Matanza, the government’s violent suppression of a peasant rebellion, and Elena, the wife of a plantation owner. Mercedes works for Elena, and their daughters and grand-daughters grow up together. Following these women over three generations, you can see the changes in the social mores, as well as the country’s wars and rebellions.

L’hygiene de l’assassin: Amélie Nothomb (1992, audiobook; translated from French as Hygiene and the Assassin by Alison Anderson, 2010)
Not the newest book, but a good one! The author has a truly wicked sense of humour and an expert mastery of language and human manipulation. On the one hand, it’s a story of an old reclusive writer who finally agrees to be interviewed by a journalist and reveals a nasty secret. On the other hand, you find yourself reading a masterpiece of moral corruption, but the author leads you there so subtly. A very clever book that at the end has you cheerfully rooting for quite the wrong thing.

A Home at the End of the World: Michael Cunningham (1990)
One of Cunningham’s early novels, and not as celebrated as The Hours (which won the Pulitzer in 1999), this is a coming-of-age story set in the 1970s, moving between small-town Ohio and New York City. The young Jonathan is shy and introverted, in thrall to the hip and daring Bobby, but when Jonathan moves to New York for college and meets the city-smart, artistic Clare, everything changes. Bobby finds them in New York, falls in love with Clare, and the three set up home in the country, forming a different kind of family, together raising Bobby and Clare’s daughter. But the love between Bobby and Jonathan deepens and refuses to be denied. Cunningham’s beautiful writing draws out insights from the most ordinary of moments.

The Children of the Arbat: Anatoly Rybakov (1987; translation from Russian by Harold Shukman published in 1988)
In 2024, I found myself drawn back to my “roots” as I retreated into the world of Russian novels. I found the opportunity to immerse myself in Anatoly Rybakov’s masterpiece, The Children of the Arbat. This sprawling trilogy is like an impeccably crafted Soviet film that brings modern history to life. The central character, Sasha Pankratov, a devoted communist youth, is tragically arrested and exiled to Siberia for 10 years, a sentence that could easily be extended to 20 under Stalin’s rule.
Throughout the trilogy, we witness Sasha’s journey through a landscape filled with gross injustices, corruption, Stalinist atrocities, bureaucratic absurdities, and an urban hedonism that contradicts the values loudly proclaimed by the Soviet regime. The novel intricately weaves together the lives of the young characters we meet at the beginning, as their paths intersect, revealing the consequences of their mistakes, impulsive decisions, loves, and losses.
Children of the Arbat transcends being just a story about Pankratov; it is a powerful exploration of Stalin as a character within the narrative. The moments where Stalin’s menacing presence looms are nothing short of bone-chilling. Rybakov skillfully captures the demonic influence of Stalin on individuals who were crushed by his paranoia and iron grip on power.

The Bell Jar: Sylvia Plath (1963)
A semi-autobiographical novel details the life of Esther Greenwood, a college student who dreams of becoming a poet. She is selected for a month-long summer internship as an editor in New York. Her time is unfulfilling as she struggles with issues of identity and social norms. She descends into clinical depression or bipolar disorder. A sombre appeal to mental health.

The Palm-Wine Drinkard: Amos Tutuola (1952)
This is an early classic of Nigerian fiction, and a forerunner of magical realism. It is a surreal, folkloric tale about a man who embarks on an epic journey to the land of the dead to bring back his beloved palm-wine tapster. Along the way, he encounters a series of bizarre and supernatural beings, navigating a richly imagined world filled with allegory and traditional Yoruba mythology.

Gormenghast: Mervyn Peake (1950)
I was tempted to put the entire Gormenghast trilogy here, but I read the first, Titus Groan, in 2023 (it’s in last year’s list). The third one, Titus Alone, is the weakest of the three. So I’ve opted for the middle book by itself.
The events take place in Gormenghast—a vast castle that is a world unto itself, ruled by pointless, unceasing ritual. Titus Groan, a boy, is the new Earl. But the ambitious, ruthless kitchen boy Steerpike is determined to take over Gormenghast and will let nothing stop him as he manoeuvres, manipulates, schemes, and sometimes kills his way to the top. The main character, however, is Gormenghast itself—a place so beautifully and vividly created that it stayed in my head even when I wasn’t reading the book. Atmospheric, and a classic. I first read these books in the 1980s/90s and rediscovering them has been a delight.

They Came Like Swallows: William Maxwell (1937)
An ordinary American family is overtaken by the Spanish influenza of 1918. It begins in a small Midwest town; events are seen from the perspective of eight-year-old Pete Morison nicknamed Bunny, his older brother and their father. They are witnesses to a domestic tragedy and the tale is reflected from a child’s point-of-view.

My Ántonia: Willa Cather (1918)
Set in 1880 Nebraska. Ántonia is a young woman immigrant who comes to the western prairies of the US. Her story is told by Jim Burden, an orphan, sent to live with his grandparents. It begins on a train trip where the narrator and his friend share stories about the past, and hope to find the American dream on the frontier.

The Golovlyov Family: Mikhael Saltykov-Schedrin (1880; translation from Russian by Athelstan Ridgway published in 1910; there have been several translations into English since)
The book stands out as one of the most gothic of 19th century Russian novels. The Golovloys are a wealthy landowning family whose sole focus is money. This obsession with wealth is reminiscent of Nikolai Gogol’s character Chichikov, whose father instilled in him the importance of “saving every kopek”.
The Golovlyovs take this greed to horrifying levels, particularly through the monstrous matriarch, Arina Golovlyova and her son, Porfiry, whose moniker is “little Judas”. Upon revisiting this novel, it was not just the plot or characters that captivated me, but the intricate symbolism woven into every aspect of the interior. The furniture, the food, everything contributes to creating a suffocating and gloomy atmosphere that mirrors the dark psyche of the characters.
The oppressive setting only serves to amplify the characters’ twisted motives and the destructive events that unfold around the Golovlyov family. This timeless classic shatters any romanticized notions of rural life, exposing the vast divide between the landowners and peasants as unfathomably deep and wide. The Golovlyov Family is a haunting masterpiece that leaves no room for illusions.

Oblomov: Ivan Goncharov (1859; translation from Russian by Natalia Duddington published in 1929)
It is easy to immerse oneself in Goncharov’s masterpiece. The titular character is truly unforgettable, as he essentially does nothing in this exquisitely detailed Russian novel from the 19th century, which vividly portrays the gradual decline of the landowning gentry.
The initial part of the novel is both entertaining and perplexing to readers, as Oblomov teeters on the brink of rising from his bed, only to ultimately settle for donning his silk robe and remaining in a state of perpetual lounging. His manservant Zakhar serves him with unchallenged insolence, while his loyal friend Stolz endeavours to rescue him from financial ruin and inject some vitality into his life by introducing him to a charming and intelligent young lady. Despite the numerous opportunities and diversions presented to him, Oblomov persists as the embodiment of sloth.
Goncharov’s prose, infused with wit and cutting irony, masterfully captures Oblomov and, by extension, the decline of a privileged class in 19th century Russia.

Crime fiction

Un Animal sauvage / l’Affaire Alaska Sanders: Joël Dicker (2024 / 2022, translated from French as The Alaska Sanders Affair by Robert Bononno, 2024)
I have come to appreciate Joël Dicker a lot. He is an amazing storyteller, his novels have perfect rhythm and pacing, the suspense is tangible, his characters are well developed and I like his style, with a perfect balance between dialogues and descriptive writing. You feel almost part of the plot. I found L’Affaire Alaska Sanders better than Un Animal sauvage.

Small Mercies: Dennis Lehane (2023)
I read this in French (Le silence, 2024, translated by François Happe). This is a thriller about a girl gone missing and her mother’s relentless search to discover the truth with the racial tensions of 1970s Boston as background. So much more than a good thriller, a portrait of how hatred and racism are passed on from generation to generation.

Cahokia Jazz: Francis Spufford (2023)
Francis Spufford’s Cahokia Jazz is a captivating alternate history set in a reimagined 1920s America, where Cahokia—a thriving city built around the real-life Cahokia Mounds with a powerful Indigenous leadership–has become the continent’s cultural and economic hub. The story centres  on Joe Barrow, a mixed-race war veteran and detective navigating racial divides as he investigates the ritualistic murder of a white bureaucrat tied to the Ku Klux Klan. As Barrow uncovers a conspiracy threatening Cahokia’s Indigenous leadership, the case forces him to confront his own precarious place in a society rife with tension. With masterful world-building and a deeply human protagonist, Cahokia Jazz is both a thrilling mystery and a poignant exploration of identity and power. 

Black River: Nilanjana Roy (2022)
A moving story about the murder of Munia, a little girl in a village in northern India and the effect it has on the people around her, especially her father, Chand. He is the centre of this book: the story goes back to before the child was born, to a time when Chand left the village to work in Delhi, where his best friends are Muslims. Roy captures the lives of the poor in Delhi, the unseen people—the workmen, construction workers, maids—who make sure the city runs. The book is more than just a crime novel: it is also about rising religious intolerance, communal tension, trafficking of children and the struggles of ordinary people.

The Hatter’s Ghosts: Georges Simenon (2022, translated from French by Howard Curtis. First translated into English in 1960. Original version published in 1949.)
M. Labbé is a hatter with an invalid wife, who never seems to deviate from his routine. One evening, when he is at the local bar with his friends—as he is every evening—the tailor who lives opposite him realizes that M. Labbé is the man behind the murders of several women. Once M. Labbé realizes that the tailor knows, a cat-and-mouse game begins. But then, slowly, Labbé’s certainties start to flounder. Simenon takes you inside the head of a murderer and a man on edge. Typical Simenon—brilliant.

El hombre que mató a Antia Morgade / La vida secreta de Ursula Bas: Arantza Portabales (2023 / 2021, in Spanish)
I love the Spanish writer Arantza Portabales, but I believe her books have not been translated into English. Her writing is beautiful and she uses a lot of symbolism in her plots. Both these books are amazing thrillers with Abad and Barroso as main characters and detectives in charge of solving the crimes. Abad’s and Barroso’s characters, their inner conflicts, and their dynamic when working together is also highlighted, and there are important developments.

The Dentist: Tim Sullivan (2021)
Tim Sullivan is an acclaimed screenwriter and television director embarking on a series of crime novels featuring the eccentric and socially awkward but brilliant detective DS Cross. The Dentist is a great read packed with red herrings, twists and turns that just keep you going. I could sense great writing already in the first pages where he describes the strange habits of DS Cross. You immediately understand that Cross is autistic. His persistence and original take on situations are great assets.

An Ode to a Banker / Venus in Copper: Lindsay Davies (2000 / 1991)
Flagging this series of whodunnits set in ancient Rome (which, in many ways, is much like our modern cities, with the constant hustle and people on the make). The main character is Marcus Didius Falco, a private investigator. The books are a delight—enjoyable murder mysteries with a strong sense of place and plenty of humour. I read all the books a few decades ago and am now rereading them. In An Ode to a Banker, a Greek publisher is murdered: it turns out that he also ran a bank. It is an interesting look at publishing and banking in ancient Rome.
In Venus in Copper, two freedwomen hire Falco to investigate a woman, Severina Zotica, who is about to marry their friend. Severina’s last three husbands have died in dubious circumstances, so they think she may be after their friend’s money. But there is much more to this story. Throw in a foul-mouthed parrot who can’t stand men and a contortionist with a snake, and you’re off to a great ride!

Tokyo Express: Seichō Matsumoto (1971, translated from Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood; original version published in 1958)
I really enjoyed this classic post-war Japanese whodunit/police procedural. The bodies of a man and a woman are found by the beach in Kyuchu, dead by cyanide poisoning. The police rule that it was a lovers’ suicide pact. But Fukuoka detective Jutaro Torigai isn’t convinced. But because the dead man, Sayama, worked for a ministry that is embroiled in scandal and was the sole witness in the Tokyo Police investigation, detective Kiichi is sent to look into the deaths. Kiichi is not convinced by the lovers’ suicide theory either. The solution hinges almost entirely on train timings. The original title in Japanese is Points and Lines, which makes more sense than Tokyo Express.

Non-fiction

Lenguas Vivas / A Musical Offering: Luis Sagasti (2024 / 2020, translated from Spanish by Fionn Petch; original version published in 2017)
Sagasti’s style is piecing together bits of information and stories, weaving them into a coherent narrative.
Lenguas Vivas is Sagasti’s latest book in which he pulls together dying languages, lighthouses, photographs and scientists. Essentially, this is a book about loss: not only the loss of language but the loss of loved ones. As always, a pleasure to read and the only one (so far) that I read in the original. I don’t believe it’s been translated yet.
A Musical Offering is written like a piece of music, with movements and repeating themes. He writes about music—especially Bach’s Goldberg Variations—music in Auschwitz and Leningrad, Scheherazade and stories, and silence. Beautifully written.

The Many Lives of Syeda X—The Story of an Unknown Indian: Neha Dixit (2024)
If William Dalrymple’s The Golden Road (see under History) is a paean to the wonder that was ancient India, this book is a searing account of the trials and tragedies of the underprivileged in contemporary India. Neha Dixit’s brilliant reportage on the life of one woman and her family, whom she followed for over 10 years, takes place against the backdrop of key moments in modern India’s history, such as the demolition of the Babri Masjid by right-wing religious fanatics; the economic liberalization of 1991 which brought multinational companies to India for the first time; and the rise to power of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with its Hindutva agenda.
Through the lives of Syeda and her family, this book shows how globalization exploits poor women working in the unorganized sector, who are paid a pittance for backbreaking jobs, such as shelling California almonds  or sewing buttons and sequins on garments for export, for 14 hours a day; and how religious intolerance and communal riots destroy livelihoods, break apart families and force people to migrate. But this book also portrays the dignity and resilience with which women like Syeda X pick up the pieces and carry on, and the camaraderie, solidarity and zest for life and laughter that binds together Syeda and her fellow workers.
If there’s one book on contemporary India you read this year, read The Many Lives of Syeda X.

Black Ghosts—A Journey into the Lives of Africans in China: Noo Saro-Wiwa (2023)
Noo Saro-Wiwa spends time in China, mostly in Guangzhou, meeting up with Africans who have settled there. We know a fair amount about the Chinese in Africa but almost nothing about the Africans in China. She meets Biafrans who have rejected Nigeria, African men who have married Chinese women and have families, and those living on the edge, afraid of being thrown out of the country. In Hong Kong, the Africans she meets seem to be more settled. A fascinating look at a little-known community.

Taatung Taatung and Other Amazing Stories of India’s Diverse Languages: Vaishali Shroff (2023)
This book covers the birth and evolution, death and rebirth of languages in an immersive and interesting way. There are many fascinating facts that make the reader rejoice about the incredible language diversity of India, and feel dismayed at their slow disappearance.
Elder Boa Sr, who was the only one who spoke Aka-Bo, one of the indigenous languages of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, would be the only one who would dance when she heard the words, Taatung Taatung. She spoke to birds and trees since she had no one to talk to. 
If I hadn’t read this book, I would never have known about the Bultoo Radio Service that translates Gondi language so that it can be understood by people in the government, helping them to resolve the problems that the adivasis (indigenous tribal people) are facing. This book is a must-read for children and adults alike.

A Book of Days: Patti Smith (2022)
A book to keep going back to. This is a collection of photographs, taken, for the most part, by the musician Patti Smith, although she does use other people’s pictures from time to time. There is a photograph with an accompanying blurb for every day of the year. The photos, mostly black and white, include those of writers, artists and other notable people; personal photographs; and still lives. Her texts, like her pictures, are evocative and thoughtful. A panoply of images, each worth contemplating.

In Other Words: Jhumpa Lahiri (2016)
An amazing task by Lahiri to switch from writing in English after her first three books and start afresh in a newly learnt language. But I’m not sure it warranted a full book. I felt the book fell flat and after a while felt repetitive and exhausting. But I’m a huge fan of her work and I can’t wait for new work from her, in any language.

History

The Golden Road—How Ancient India Transformed the World: William Dalrymple (2024)
This is a riveting, eye-opening book on the influence of India on the culture, economy, trade, art, literature, science and religion of vast swathes of the globe, from Egypt to Rome, from China to Iraq, and throughout Southeast Asia. While the narrative style is gripping, Dalrymple’s research is solid and deep, much of it based on recent archaeological discoveries. And he makes a convincing case for his thesis that the influence of Indian civilization in the ancient world was as pervasive and even more widespread than the influence of Greece and Rome.

Blood at the Root—A Racial Cleansing in America: Patrick Phillip (2016)
Blood at the Root is a true story investigating the 1912 racial conflict in Forsyth county, Georgia. A harrowing testament to the deep roots of racial violence in America.

The Professor and the Madman—A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary: Simon Winchester (1999)
The making of the OED was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, was stunned to discover that one man, Dr. W.C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand definitions. But their surprise would pale in comparison to what they were about to discover when the committee insisted on honouring him. For Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.
An incredible book! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, exclaiming in disbelief, at both the making of early dictionaries and at the unbelievable true story of Prof James Murray and Dr WC Minor. I will never look at the OED without thinking of this book.

Memoirs, Auto/biography

Finding Me: Viola Davis (2022)
A harrowing memoir by the Black actress. She grew up dirt poor—her family had nothing, no heating, hot water, or food—and there was violence in the home. The fact that she is now become a successful actress is testimony to her determination. This memoir focuses mostly on her childhood and her struggle to come to terms with her past.

Knife: Salman Rushdie (2024)
Even as one might think of this as an exercise in navel-gazing, it’s hard to not be drawn into Rushdie’s painful—and ultimately remarkable—tale of recovery after a brutal attack that caused him to lose an eye and required many months of gruelling physiotherapy.

Winnie and Nelson—Portrait of a Marriage: Jonny Steinberg (2023)
A superb biography that is as much a portrait of a marriage as a social history of South Africa and a political history of the movement against apartheid. Nelson and Winnie Mandela emerge from this warts-and-all biography as warmly human, their flaws and weaknesses as compellingly described as their strengths and triumphs. A model for how a biography should be written.

Master Slave Husband Wife—An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom: Ilyon Woo (2023)
Set in 1848 before the US Civil War, this is a true story that relates the daring escape from slavery in Georgia, to freedom in the north by a couple disguised as a wealthy planter and his slave. Ellen is light skinned, passes for white and disguises herself as a man.

Without Warning and Only Sometimes: Kit de Waal (2022)
A childhood memoir of growing up in 1960s Birmingham with a haphazard mother and a splurging father, both waiting for paradise. The author, an award-winning writer, shares her story of escaping hunger and hellfire and discovering a love of reading.

Solito: Javier Zamora (2022)
A memoir that follows nine-year-old Zamora as he embarks on a 3,000-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador through Guatemala and Mexico and across the USA. There he reunites with his parents who immigrated to California years earlier.

The Last Nomad—Coming of Age in the Somali Desert: Shugri Said Salh (2021)
This a memoir of a woman who grew up in the desert as a nomad. When Said Salh is five, her mother sends her to live with her grandmother in the desert, so she would learn the ways of her nomadic family. By six, she is responsible for tending a herd of goats. She undergoes female genital mutilation, which was then seen as completely normal. Her father eventually takes her back to the city to study. Then when civil war breaks out in the country, she flees and eventually moves to the US. A story of resilience.

The Mayor of Castro Street: Randy Shilts (1982)
A truly inspiring book about the life and death of Harvey Milk. The book is not so much about the writing as it is about the remarkable reporting on the LGBTQ history of city and state-wide politics in the US in the 1970s.

Aké—The Years of Childhood: Wole Soyinka (1981)
Aké is a lively autobiographical account of the Nobel laureate’s early years in colonial Nigeria. Set in the Yoruba town of Aké, it captures the vibrant life of Soyinka’s community and his early encounters with education, tradition, and colonial authority. It is an engagingly evocative and humorous account peopled with the remarkable members of his family, the Ransome Kutis, who contributed much to education, women’s rights, and music (Fela Kuti was a cousin) in Nigeria.

Nature

Intertidal—A Coast and Marsh Diary: Yuvan Aves (2023)
This is a diary written over two years during the pandemic by Yuvan Aves—a Chennai-based naturalist, writer, educator and activist. Aves’s observations of the natural world—coast and wetland, climate and self—is magical and microscopic, and his writing is alive and deeply meditative. Intertidal asks us to reimagine values to live by in the here and now, heeding the living world and attending to the climate’s calling, moving away from the old political, religious and cultural values that have proved to be ecologically disastrous.   

Around the World in 80 Plants: Jonathan Drori, illustrated by Lucille Clerc (2021)
An inspirational and beautifully illustrated book that tells the stories of 80 plants from around the globe.

Travel

Enchanted Islands: A Mediterranean Odyssey—A Memoir of Travels through Love, Grief and Mythology: Laura Coffey (2024)
There are several theories about the exact location of the islands that Odysseus went to in Homer’s Odyssey. Laura Coffey embarks on an Odyssey of her own, travelling in his footsteps. But instead of going to the Greek islands, she chooses to go to the Balearic islands, Croatia and the islands around Sicily—which, according to some of the lesser known theories, are the ones that Odysseus visited. She is getting over a break-up, her beloved father has cancer, and it’s the year of the pandemic, so locked down in her small apartment in London is not where she wants to be. This is a moving, beautifully written book that combines travel with her attempt to deal with her grief about her father.

The Flow—Rivers, Water and Wildness: Amy-Jane Beer (2022)
Everything about rivers you need to know. Amy-Jane Beer is a paddler and a kayaker with a strong connection to rivers. After losing a close friend in a kayaking accident, she stays away from her boat for several years. This book is about her going back to the rivers, navigating not only the waters, but also her grief. It is a time of healing and of discovery. The book is full of information, not just about rivers in general, but also about the state of the rivers in the UK. An informative and enjoyable read.

The Slow Road to Tehran—A Revelatory Bike Ride through Europe and the Middle East: Rebecca Lowe (2022)
Rebecca Lowe, a journalist, cycles from London to Tehran, crossing Europe, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, and the Gulf. This was in 2015, during the civil war in Syria, the migrant crisis, and jihadists in the region. As a woman cycling alone, she has a unique perspective. And as a journalist, she has plenty to say about the region’s history and the way Western powers—especially the British—used the countries here to bolster their own influence.

On Sacred Ground / The Earth Beneath My Feet: Andrew Terrill (2022 / 2021)
Andrew Terrill set out to walk 7,000 miles from the bottom of Calabria to the top of Norway. The Earth Beneath My Feet charts his walk from Calabria to Austria. The first week is hard: the maps are of no help, the sottobusco hinders his progress, and it starts to feel a little too much. But he settles into a rhythm and begins to enjoy Italy.
On Sacred Ground is about the second half of his trek, from Austria upwards. He battles snowstorms, depression, high winds, impossible conditions but emerges full of joy and triumph. He puts so much of himself into these books that I felt I knew him. Wonderfully inspiring, an ode to the wild part of Europe, places where he feels at home.

Looking for Transwonderland: Noo Saro Wiwa (2012)
An account of Noo Saro Wiwa’s trip to Nigeria, where she was born and swore she was never returning to after her father was assassinated there. She did go back, several years later, and travelled throughout the country. A warts-and-all, but intensely personal, portrait of a country.

Travels on my Elephant—An Indian Journey: Mark Shand (1991)
Mark Shand, an aristocratic playboy from London, comes to India with an idea that grips him—to become a mahout and travel on an elephant in India. He decides to start his journey from Orissa and proceed to Sonepur elephant mela (fair) near Patna, where he plans to sell the elephant. But as time goes by, he gets emotionally attached to Tara, his elephant, and is reluctant to sell her. A heart-warming story written beautifully. It is entertaining as well as touching.

Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes: R.L. Stevenson (1879)
What a delight. I have not read the author since I read Kidnapped as a young boy, and tend to stay away from classics, but the idea of a travel book from the late 1800s was very tempting. Stevenson travels through rural France with a donkey bought for the occasion, and basic equipment, going through a barren and difficult environment, but he manages to make his story light and memorable. It’s sometimes funny, sometimes informative, but this short travelogue is worth a read.