Elmet by Fiona Mozley (JM Originals)
This brilliant, Man Booker-shortlisted first novel has been described as a noir, and it has echoes of southern gothic. A violent act precipitates the final conflict. Love Carson McCullers? Look the other way when you read Cormac McCarthy? You’ll love this!
John Allison
The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell (Profile)
A romp of a read to the extent that I could go to Wigtown and be confident that I could identify the weird and wonderful characters that inhabit it. It is with written with affection and fun and offers an alternative take on the whole bookselling business.
Kate Anderson
Estuary by Rachel Lichtenstein (Hamish Hamilton)
I enjoyed this book and Fiona Stafford’s The Long, Long, Life of Trees (Yale), which both presented intriguing insights into familiar landscapes. Lichtenstein explores the history, geography and communities associated with the Thames estuary. Stafford’s book describes our relationships with familiar and not so familiar trees, providing new awareness of our faithful, valued and often overlooked companions.
Jane Ayres
The Boy with the Perpetual Nervousness by Graham Caveney (Picador)
This memoir brilliantly describes a young man’s adolescence and made me nostalgic about my own. What is so powerful is that it exposes abuse in the context of normal adolescence and not as investigative hindsight. It’s the story of a clever, ambitious man that is both brutally honest and very funny.
Jonathan Bishop
Idaho by Emily Ruskovich (Chatto & Windus)
High on a mountainside in Idaho live Wade and his family. An act of violence drives the plot, but this is not a thriller with eventual resolution. Instead we hear the stories of richly rendered characters, with a well-delineated supporting cast and a strong sense of place. A debut of astonishing maturity.
Tim Blackburn
Things Can Only Get Worse? by John O’Farrell (Doubleday)
There are laughs on virtually every page, and you don’t have to be a Labour supporter to find the book hugely amusing. Anybody who is looking for a lift from the misery of Brexit and Trump should read this book.
Stephen Booth
The Seabird’s Cry by Adam Nicolson (William Collins)
The magnificent drama of Nicolson’s writing about oceanic birds and the woods around Concord, Massachusetts and Thoreau and the Language of Trees by Richard Higgins (University of California) have fed into my own walking and thinking and opened my eyes as never before.
Sue Brooks
A Line Made by Walking by Sara Baume (Heinemann)
Baume’s novel closes with a list of 75 artworks that have been pondered over by its artist narrator, the author urging her readers to follow suit and investigate these pieces for themselves. Nicola Barker’s H(a)ppy (Heinemann), meanwhile, opens with the author’s suggestion that her novel might be enjoyed best in conjunction with the guitar music of Agustín Barrios. As a physical object this book itself is a work of art; a mind-bending adventure in typography and consciousness to be looked at as much as read.
Cornelius Browne
Berlin Rules: Europe and the German Way by Paul Lever (IB Tauris)
As an anti-Brexit obsessive I learned a lot from this account, by former British ambassador Paul Lever, of how Germany’s past influences its present day approach to European issues. His hard-headed realism about Germany’s pursuit of its own self-interest is all the more convincing from a professed admirer of that country.
Pat Carvill
A Sweet, Wild Note by Richard Smyth (Elliott and Thompson)
Imagine, a whole book devoted to birdsong! This one is and it is a beautiful thing too, where the author’s enthusiasm and knowledge are always evident. He also sounds a warning note about the possibility of a silent world where, in the words of John Keats, “no birds sing”. Read this and you will share the horror of such a prospect.
John Clarke
The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris (Hamish Hamilton)
An illuminated manuscript of a book, containing a message for all of us, not just children. The natural world, our greatest treasure, must not be dismissed, forgotten or deleted from our vocabulary.
Christine Foster
Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities by Bettany Hughes (Weidenfeld& Nicolson)
By dividing her 800-page book into 78 chapters themed on key events, Hughes unravels the complex history of this unique gateway between east and west. Her meticulous research is transformed into an eloquent, easily accessible text describing cultures, characters and religions.
David Fothergill
Attrib. by Eley Williams (Influx)
A stimulating collection of short stories focusing on language and the meanings of words. This year for me has been one of discovering the world of UK and Irish small presses – bravely publishing books at the frontier of literature. Support them, even better subscribe to them – your cultural life and the cultural life of the country will be enriched.
Graham Fulcher
The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich (Penguin)
Immensely moving. Alexievich allows these Soviet women to speak for themselves but inserts her own thoughts into the text with great insight and tenderness.
Bronwen Griffiths
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne (Black Swan)
A really great story about a man trying (and mostly failing) to fit in, it is infuriating, sometimes depressing and horrifying, but also laugh-out-loud funny, tenderhearted and compassionate. Likely a homage to John Irving, the novel is filled with flawed but lovable characters and has an ending that, while not joyous, feels real and true.
Cynthia Haiken
Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd (Elliott and Thompson)
Julia Boyd uses diaries and other archive material to create a tapestry of first impressions of ordinary visitors to Nazi Germany in the 1930s. At the book’s heart, there is a nagging question: stripped of the benefit of hindsight, how certain can any of us be that we would have done the right thing?
Ian Hamilton
I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell (Tinder)
I absolutely fell in love with this book in which her 17 close encounters with death invite us to the very edge of our own mortality. O’Farrell writes with the heart of a poet immersing herself (and us) within the beauty of her language. Beautiful and totally engaging.
Angela Huskisson
The Essential Paradise Lost by John Carey (Faber)
Paradise Lost had always been uncharted territory and I never understood why it had remained a bastion of the canon. Carey tells us that it needs to be read aloud and after a week or so of muttering in my reading corner I GET IT and am converted to its brilliance of concept and word power. Kate Johnson
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor (4th Estate)
A girl goes missing. The whole village turns out to help the search. Police helicopters scour the landscape. The story hits the national press. Gradually we learn about what else is going on in the life of the village ... Reservoir 13 is not about the girl. It’s about everything but the girl. Sad yet wonderful.
Martin Jones
Doctor Socrates by Andrew Downie (Simon & Schuster)
Downie brilliantly tells the amazing story of football star Doctor Socrates and at the same time you learn so much about Brazilian history. This is a must-read for those interested in football and those who are not.
Mari K
A Life of My Own by Claire Tomalin (Viking)
Tomalin is well known and respected as a writer and biographer. Now, at the age of 84, she turns her sharp eye on her own life, full of triumph and tragedy in more or less equal parts. Penelope Lively (incidentally also 84) has given us a part autobiography, part garden manual in Life in the Garden (Fig Tree). She writes with passion and fervour about her favourite – and indeed least favourite – plants and styles of gardening, interlaced with past writers on the subject. This is a true gem of a book, with the most beautiful cover and endpapers that I have ever seen.
Sue Keable
Autumn by Karl Ove Knausgaard (Harvill Secker)
If you’re looking for Nordic angst, forget it. This is a celebration of what “makes my life worth living”. Words such as joyous and happy appear frequently. In these anxious times, who wouldn’t want the advice that “there’s no reason to be cautious or anxious about anything, life is so robust”?
Stephen Keeler
Victorious Century by David Cannadine (Allen Lane)
This history, mainly about men, includes Florence Nightingale and the Pankhursts; but not Caroline Norton, whose persistent campaigning created groundbreaking legislation for wives and mothers. Diane Atkinson’s The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton (Random House) tells the whole story. Without Caroline there’d be no Harriet Harman MP. Her A Woman’s Work (Allen Lane) is better than run-of-the-mill political memoirs, because her causes matter more than her career.
Philip Kerridge
The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World by Maya Jasanoff (William Collins)
The book takes the life and works of Conrad and shows that they are strongly relevant to the world in 2017. I have always admired and loved Conrad and this book illuminates his life and work in a compelling way. Also, the final novel by the wonderful Helen Dunmore, Birdcage Walk (Windmill), is a firecracker of a historical murder mystery story with which to leave her many admirers.
Terry Lempriere
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (Bloomsbury Circus)
This story imagines a Muslim becoming home secretary and explores some of the dilemmas this could pose, as well as showing the complexity of the British-born Muslim community. I didn’t realise it was a retelling of Antigone until after its shocking conclusion. I took it at face value, carried along by the masterly storytelling.
Norma Lumb
Tin Man by Sarah Winman (Tinder)
A delight: full of feelings and tragedy amid missed chances. A woman writing about the inner lives of men.
Frank Madar
The Book of Forgotten Authors by Christopher Fowler (Quercus)
Fowler examines more than 100 authors, once hugely popular, who have now all but disappeared from our lives. It is pithy, revelatory and often hilarious.
Bill Millar
The Invisible Crowd by Ellen Wiles (HQ)
This powerful debut tells the story of Yonas, an Eritrean refugee, from his own perspective and those of the people he meets in the UK. It brings the asylum seeker experience to life and explores the impact that one person can have on the lives of others. Entertaining, uplifting.
Sydney Nash
London’s Triumph by Stephen Alford (Bloomsbury)
A quite extraordinary account of the rise of London from a second-rate city to global hot spot. A tale of inequality as huge wealth rubs shoulders with unimaginable poverty; there are risk takers and change makers, immigrants fleeing civil war and religious persecution, welcomed by some but vilified by many; and we learn how to forge and keep effective alliances to ensure trade deals. A cautionary tale for London today, not just a fascinating history of its past.
John Nicholson
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge (Bloomsbury Circus)
I read and re-read this book and Living a Feminist Life by Sara Ahmed (Duke University) and have rarely come across such clear arguments and strong personal voices dealing with patriarchy, racism, privilege and oppression.
Vilma Nikolaidou
Wake Me When I’m Gone by Odafe Atogun (Canongate)
During 2017 I have read both books by Odafe Atogun, this one and Taduno’s Song (Canongate). Both deal with the enormous problems facing modern-day Africa (specifically Nigeria) but told from the bottom up. Both draw the reader gently into a mystery and quietly offer ways of moving forward. I am sure the great Chinua Achebe would be smiling broadly.
Peter Nyman
Stay With Me by Ayòbámi Adébáyò (Canongate)
In a rich and resonant voice, Adébáyò confidently tackles infertility, the premature passing of children and sickle cell disease.
Idowu Omoyele
Affluence without Abundance by James Suzman (Bloomsbury)
Can you imagine a society where the working week seldom exceeds 19 hours and where people are comfortable, peaceable, happy and secure? Well, for the last 100,000 years or more this has been true for the Bushmen of the Kalahari in southern Africa; a society now on the brink of irreversible change but nevertheless able in its dying days to pose all sorts of profound questions about what we think really matters.
Graham Parker
Ancient Wonderings by James Canton (William Collins)
Canton takes us on a gentle journey in search of ancient Britain. He makes a charming, reflective companion with whom to ponder on the past, always with a Thermos of tea to hand.
Craig Perry
The Lie of the Land by Amanda Craig (Little, Brown)
A timely and ironic portrait of a high-flying London couple and their family’s decampment to rural Devon after they lose their jobs and income. This is not a tale of city dwellers meet rural bliss but a blistering picture of everyday life for the majority of the population.
Lyn Roberts
My Shitty Twenties by Emily Morris (Salt)
It’s a rare feat for a book to make me publicly laugh aloud or cry but this memoir of young single motherhood prompted me to snorts and tears many times over. Save it for a bleak, late-winter weekend and it will leave you feeling restored to human form.
Amy Rushton
Jo Cox: More in Common by Brendan Cox (Two Roads)
This feels like an important book, and it shows that a beautiful book can be written in clear, plain style – there is beauty enough in its subject. Jo Cox was a humane, intelligent woman who seems hard to replace, but we have to elect and promote more of her kind if this troubled world is to turn out well.
Tim Sanders
Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout (Viking)
A short, beautifully crafted exploration of the undercurrents and connections of everyday lives in a small-town community that made me want to read everything she’s ever written.
Alison Starling
Fall Down 7 Times Get up 8 by Naoki Higashida (Sceptre)
A mature and moving follow-up to his extraordinary The Reason I Jump and more than just an insider’s view of autism, this wise and beautiful book offers profound insights into what truly constitutes our humanity.
Michael Walling
Smile by Roddy Doyle (Jonathan Cape)
His best book yet (I have never read a Doyle I haven’t loved), Smile is a profound examination of the stories we tell other people – and ourselves.
Daniel Webb
The Party by Elizabeth Day (4th Estate)
A triangle of unrequited love that unfolds over a police interview, a party and a lifetime, to reveal the impact of personal power and class entitlement.
Dave Weller
Long Road from Jarrow by Stuart Maconie (Ebury)
In this moving book, Maconie traces the route that the Jarrow hunger marchers took in 1936. Along the way, he tells the story of their political struggle and gives a reflection on England post-Brexit, helping us to regain some bearings in a confusing time.
Cavan and Sarah Wood
- What were your favourite books of the year? Leave your recommendations in the comments below.
