BOOK OF THE WEEK
The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan, published in hardback by Borough Press,
JENNIFER Ryan dedicates her wonderfully warm debut novel to her grandmother, Eileen Beckley, and the women of the Home Front, whose incredible stories she has woven together into a beautifully life-affirming tale of the power of community spirit in the constant fear of war. She harnesses the epistolary form to great effect, allowing each of her female protagonists to have their own voice, through their letters and diary entries. It begins with a funeral and a notice pinned to Chilbury village hall noticeboard stating the village choir will close as 'all our male voices have gone to war'. And it ends with an unexpected wedding and a choir of ladies who have banded together to support each other through love and loss, childbirth and a bombing in the village. Mrs Tilling's diary entries stand out as the voice of the everywoman, who gradually realises her own power to stand up to the village tyrant, while also smoothing the paths of those around her like Mary Poppins. An extremely impressively researched and tender debut.
Kate Whiting
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai, published in hardback by Michael Joseph
TOM Barren faces the ultimate dilemma. The eternal failure, the mess-up his time travel machine inventor father chides and everyone fails to notice because he is so inconsequential, gets the chance to travel through time. Not only that. He gets the chance to change what is wrong about his world. But that's where the dilemma kicks in. Does he prefer the version of the world he travelled from or the one in which he has found himself? Everything appears back to front, but maybe he likes it that way. And everything he does changes, not just his reality, but those of everyone else. People don't die. Others aren't born. The ultimate paradox. And the impossible question: What should he do? All Our Wrong Todays is screenwriter Elan Mastai's debut novel and has already been optioned for a film version. The short chapters betray Mastai's origins as a scriptwriter, but also make this sci-fi time travel adventure easy to read and become engrossed in.
Roddy Brooks
From The Heart by Susan Hill, published in hardback by Chatto & Windus
OLIVE was born to a mother who had wanted three sons. Despite loving her daughter, Evelyn Piper found little in Olive to be proud of and expressed this often. Yet Olive is quietly resilient and believes in the possibilities that life has to offer. After her mother's sudden death, she is forced to navigate life independently and soon comes to understand the consequences of the decisions she makes, and the choicelessness of the time in which she lives. Susan Hill's stylistic approach to writing is one of the stand-out features of this novel – fast-paced and punchy, with an attention to detail that powerfully reflects Olive's inner turmoil. Despite everything she experiences, Olive remains resolutely true to herself and grows into an admirable and unknowingly feminist character. However she can be a little wooden at times, with little said about her desires or her interest 'in things' that we are told about in the beginning. Nonetheless, her naivete, combined with her struggle to find contentment, is both poignant and hugely endearing.
Erin Bateman
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, published in hardback by Hamish Hamilton
MOHSIN Hamid's fourth novel – he is the author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize – opens promisingly with the meeting of Nadia and Saeed, two slightly oddball 20-somethings, in a nameless city that is sliding toward civil war. At first, I was wholly convinced by Mohsin's delicate depiction of their passion, acted out in a bizarre Millennial world which encompasses both emotional reliance on social media and sectarian throat-slitting. The country's descent into barbarism is all the more horrifying for being glimpsed through the narrow prism of two self-absorbed lovers. Would that he had left the story there. But the lovers' escape from the conflict is achieved via a lurch into magical realism that robs the novel of a key detail of the migrant experience – the physical brutalities of the passage to Europe. Thereafter, the characters lack agency, and their travails cease to be interesting.
Liz Ryan
NON-FICTION
Utopia For Realists: And How We Can Get There by Rutger Bregman, published in HARDBACK BY BLOOMSBURY PUBLISHING
MUCH of the world's population has seen dramatic positive change over the past few centuries; our diseases get treated and many of us have enough to live comfortable lives. We are living in the 'Land of Plenty'; a place people before us could only imagine in their utopian dreams. But where do we go from here? Rutger Bregman, the 28-year-old Dutch historian, wants universal basic income, a 15-hour working week, and open borders. These are the goal-posts for his new utopia, set forth in this book. Bregman has many tightly spun arguments, case studies, and statistics to support giving people free money. In 2009, 13 homeless men in London were each given £3,000 as part of an experiment. After a year and a half, all of them had used the money in positive ways, ultimately saving social services money. The arguments for shorter work weeks and open borders are less developed, but Bregman's account of global economic history is impressive; and while often convincing, his writing is always engaging.
Kate Wilkinson
CHILDREN'S BOOK OF THE WEEK
The Jungle by Pooja Puri, published by Ink Road
IT'S frustrating that, in tackling the Calais jungle, a world that, until October last year, teemed with all the pain, despair, hope and opportunity a captivating story would need, Pooja Puri's The Jungle fails to wallop you. Because a story like this should. It should shock, upset and mobilise readers; at the very least it should trigger some kind of emotional reaction. But it doesn't, even though our fairly well-drawn lead, Kenyan teenager and refugee Mico, is without his family, trying to scrape together a life amid the tarpaulin, aggression and rubbish-strewn migrant camp. We travel the settlement with him as he fixes up stolen bikes, plays peacekeeper between his disparate, desperate friends, and dodges the belligerent Ghost Men (people traffickers), but there's little nuance – and even less depth – to his back story, or that of the characters he rattles between. The Jungle doesn't captivate or convince, and despite its potential, it's just not powerful enough to get a real grip on you.
Ella Walker
