Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Booker Big Three (David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, Sceptre £16.99; The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, Picador £16.99; The Master by Colm Tóibín, Picador £15.99) are all essential. Read Mitchell to be dazzled, Hollinghurst to be entertained and Tóibín to be moved.
The Booker Big Three (David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas, Sceptre £16.99; The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst, Picador £16.99; The Master by Colm Tóibín, Picador £15.99) are all essential. Read Mitchell to be dazzled, Hollinghurst to be entertained and Tóibín to be moved.
I took a while to get into Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (Bloomsbury £17.99). But slowly, inexorably, this peerless tale of magic pulled me in. I admired her brilliant set-pieces, like Strange's magical meddling at the battle of Waterloo, and the moving scene at Windsor where he attends the mad King George III. The mock-learned footnotes alone are filled with fascinating tales and fairy lore. This was a stunning achievement.
No heroine this year was more beguiling than Alice in Scarlett Thomas's PopCo (Fourth Estate £12.99), a character so wayward that she went to bed with her homoeopathic remedies for much of the book until she felt like joining in the plot again. A mix of maths, cryptography and vegan politics, this book might just change your life.
I found it a bit harder to take Justin Cartwright's adored Ju-Ju, the lovely girl who falls from grace in The Promise of Happiness (Bloomsbury £16.99). In fact I rather enjoyed her mortification, which I suspect was against the author's intentions. But the point is, I totally believed in her and in the rest of her family as they swirled into meltdown. A compelling, complex, layered novel, this was a sophisticated literary treat.
Nicola Barker's Clear (Fourth Estate £14.99) took as its time-line the 44 days that US magician David Blaine spent dangling in a box by the Thames. The spectacle brings together an authentically Barkerian selection of misfits, and the novel even features a sex scene aboard HMS Belfast.
I was a great fan of Hari Kunzru's debut, The Impressionist, so was overjoyed to find that his follow-up Transmission (Hamish Hamilton £12.99) was just as brilliant. A global soup of themes and influences, it mixed Bollywood and Silicon Valley with that most crazy-making computer virus of them all - love.
Finally, Ronan Bennett's Havoc in its Third Year (Bloomsbury £16.99) was a gripping and hallucinatory tale of Northern recusants in the 1630s. Unflinching, compassionate and wise, it took historical fiction to new heights.
| Buy any book reviewed on this site at www.independentbooksdirect.co.uk - postage and packing are free in the UK |
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments