THE BOOKS OF JACOB - Olga Tokarczuk
This is a daunting one at 900+ pages, but I enjoyed this Polish author’s previous novel - ‘Drive your plow over the bones of the dead’, so I am diving on in. It sounds intriguingly epic, and the pages are numbered backwards! More thoughts to come if I make it through to the end.
EXPECT ME TOMORROW - Christopher Priest
This one has only just been released but I am already a few chapters in. As a longtime Priest fan I have become accustomed to buying his books as soon as they are released, and this one sounds particularly interesting, even for him. No one else quite does what Priest does in his novels, which is to masterfully and subtly create a sense of unreality and uncertainty. His ‘dream archipelago’ novels and stories are as original and compelling as it gets, in my opinion.
'LULL' from MAGIC FOR BEGINNERS - Kelly Link
I have found myself having to read these stories slowly, and with big gaps in between, as there tends to be a lot going on, but they certainly reward re-reading. ‘Lull’ is a particularly complex story, and I am very much enjoying it the second time around. The structure alone is very daring, featuring several nested stories.
THE UNINHABITABLE EARTH - David Wallace-Wells
The title says it all, and if that were not enough, here is the first line:
‘It is worse, much worse, than you think.’ A hard-hitting non-fiction book about global warming - this is a tough read. Th first chapter overwhelms with statistics that paint a grim picture for anyone concerned about the future and climate change. Having to take regular breaks from this one to read something a bit less heavy but it’s fascinating all the same. Probably an interesting partner read with the new novel from Christopher Priest (see above), which is also an exploration of the same theme (from what I’ve heard.)