It’s that time again. Books of the year lists are being wheeled out right, left and centre. I’d love to tell you I’d managed to trim mine to a single post of gems but I’m not the 
decisive type so I’m afraid it will be the usual four, falling roughly into quarters, all with links to reviews on this blog. For those of you who think I’ve jumped the gun, I’m still a bookseller at heart, hoping to help out anyone desperate for gift ideas for their book-loving friends.
My reading year got off to a flying start with Oyinkan Braithwaite’s My Sister, the Serial Killer whose premise is irresistible. A woman is about to sit down to supper when her sister calls. She’s killed another man and needs Korede’s peerless cleaning skills. Set in Lagos where Korede is a nurse and Ayoola charms men, My Sister, the Serial Killer is a short, darkly funny novel, an enjoyable caper with a sharp edge and a page-turning pace. I was delighted when it turned up on both the Booker Prize longlist and the Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlist.
Two books stood out for me in February, each very different from the other. Given my country’s preoccupation with Brexit, Robert Menasse’s The Capital was something of a bittersweet read. This sprawling novel takes a sharply satirical view of the European Commission, exploring its many accumulated weaknesses before returning to the founding values which make me want to remain part of the EU’s flawed club. Rather like the institution it’s satirising, Menasse’s novel is not without faults but there’s much to enjoy.
Entirely different, Joan Silber’s carefully constructed Improvement reads almost like a series of tightly linked short stories which explore the ripple effects
of a car accident through a range of sharply observed characters. Silber’s writing is subtly understated leaving her readers to draw their own conclusions. Sadly, Improvement is her only book published here in the UK: all I can say to her publishers is ‘more please’.
Leapfrogging March into April, Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans also explores the fallout from a hit and run accident which kills a Moroccan immigrant who had been running his restaurant in a small Californian desert town for decades. Lalami tells her story in short chapters through a diverse set of characters whose backstories are meticulously sketched in. It’s a quietly powerful novel which seemed to have had less coverage than it deserved here in the UK
The second of April’s treats is a bestseller which left me wondering why I hadn’t already read it. Paolo Cognetti’s beautifully expressed The Eight Mountains is about the friendship between two men who meet as boys when they’re eleven years old: one who has never set foot outside the mountains in which he was born, the other a city boy from Milan whose father yearns for a return to his own mountain roots. It’s a beautiful novel, a testament to friendship and a loving tribute to a challenging but gorgeous landscape.
Rounding off April’s favourites, Ayelet Gunder-Goshen’s lusciously jacketed Liar tells the story of a seventeen-year-old Tel Aviv girl who becomes caught up in a scandal after an exchange between her and a fading reality TV star is misinterpreted then seized upon by a media hungry for sensation leaving her trapped in an untruth she’s allowed to take root. A thoroughly enjoyable novel with a clear message: lies tend to lead to a deeper deception that can only end in tears. Politicians take note. Rare for a lesson in morality to be delivered with such acuity and style.
There, I seem to have ended 2019’s first quarter with politics, something which I’ve been trying (but failing) to avoid since mid-way through the year when I though I might be about to spontaneously combust with fury. Let’s see if I can stay away from it in the second instalment which will cover May and June.
This is great. I need to get reading … I haven’t read any of these 🙂
Glad you like it. Lots of treats, and many more to come.
I’ve only read My Sister, the Serial Killer and it will feature in my top books of the year too. Liar has caught my attention so will add that to my tbr list.
Serial Killer is superb, isn’t it. I think you’d like Liar, Helen.
This is a very good way of handling things – making a list by quarter. Not so reductionist as a Top 10 list, and quite enjoyable to remind oneself of favourites in chronological order, I would imagine I might steal that idea, Susan, if I may.
Thank you, Marina, and you’re more than welcome. Lets call it borrow! And you’re right – it’s a very enjoyable way to look back at the year.
Quite a few here that I’m still keen to read – Liar and The Other Americans in particular. I look forward to seeing what else pops up on your 2019 list!
Both excellent, Cathy. Three more posts to go…
I have three of your picks – Serial Killer, Improvement and Liar – in my TBR pile…even more reason to get on and read them.
I hope you enjoy them as much as I did, Cathy.
Who doesn’t love a good book list – this time of year is such a great excuse for total list immersion!
Indeed, it is, and a nice way of looking back over the year for me.
I have already started thinking about my books of the year list. Though I won’t post them till the end of the month. The only one of those I have read is Liar, which I really enjoyed. I have been attracted by My Sister the Serial Killer though. Look forward to the next installment.
Liar was excellent, wasn’t it. I’m now keen to read Waking Lions. I’ll look forward to seeing your list, Ali.
I suspected My Sister, the Serial Killer would make the cut in your end-of-year round-up. It does seem to have captured the imagination of quite a few readers over the course of the year, especially following its appearance on those prize lists…
I think it has quite a wide appeal, Jacqui. Hats off to Atlantic for its marketing on this one, too.
This is where I start to realise just how little 2019 fiction I’ve read this year – the penalty of trying to clear a backlog of previous years purchases….
The good stuff will still be waiting in a few years. My problem is I can’t resist the lure of the shiny and new.
And because you aren’t dealing with a print publication’s space issues, why give more than a moment’s thought to narrowing your list – this is the time and place to be verbose! 🙂
I’m looking forward to reading more about your favourites in the next few posts!
Ah, I’m always wary of boring my readers!