january and february reads
My 2024 started off with many amazing novels - and many richly crafted insights into different minds, histories and places. They each felt like a honey pot - worlds flecked with literary gold that I got stuck into and devoured. Time to talk about all my favourites…
Second Place, Rachel Cusk
A whirlpool of existential thought about a woman hosting an enigmatic yet remarkably unpleasant artist in her rural guesthouse and feeling inexplicably drawn to him. I love Cusk’s writing style and the way she weaves incredibly complex human emotions and thoughts into astonishingly beautiful prose.
I feel like you have to ensure you’ve awakened your mind before delving in, to fully focus on the deep stream of consciousness of the protagonist as she grapples with her sense of identity and her conflicting emotions. It’s a novel that stimulates reflection rather than page-turning plot uncovering- but I’ll certainly be returning for more, particularly when her new novel Parade is released in the summer.
A Death in the Family, Karl Ove Knausgaard
Recommended animatedly to me by my dad as an unforgettably written memoir, I decided to dive in on those cold yet cosy January days, anticipating the melancholic introspection parading the pages of the first novel of Knausgaard’s family saga.
This is the most detailed storytelling I have ever encountered, where a story of two boys [Knausgaard and a childhood friend) secretly smuggling alcohol to a friend’s party through the frosty undulating Norwegian hills of his provincial homeland takes up a significant chunk of the first part. His capacity for remembering every stark detail, trial and tribulation from a boyhood of conflict and scarcity is quite frankly, magnificent.
Refreshingly real, harsh and honest, his intimate reflections on art and life are beautifully captured and it is fascinating to access the deep recesses of his mind and memories. You truly get absorbed into the masterful text and storytelling.
The Sea Cloak & Other Stories, Nayrouz Qarmout
A collection of eleven short stories offering a poignant, and often incredibly heartbreaking, image of the struggle, fear and aggression experienced by Palestinians living under the Israeli occupation, and the displacement, bombings and terror inflicted on the Palestinian people.
Through powerfully poetic writing and historical education, this collection deserves a prominent place on your reading list if you wish to learn more deeply about this global issue.
In My Mother’s Footsteps, Mona Hajjar Halaby
Another novel that I heartily recommend to gain a more intimate understanding of Palestinian history that fights against the hegemony pervading mainstream Western media. It is an incredible memoir of Palestinian homecoming and identity that will stay with me for a long time. An empowering, incredibly emotive read, emanating a deep love for a people, both by blood and by soil.
It follows the author’s journey back to her mother’s homeland to teach conflict resolution to young Palestinian schoolchildren, carefully contextualised to provide a wide comprehension of oppression, loss and struggle experienced by Palestinians for over a century. We follow her inspiring and fascinating journey both reconnecting with and discovering her family history, leading back to her mother’s displacement during the 1948 Nakba.
Now more than ever, a wider audience needs to read this book, and be transported to a past, identity and truth tenderly told and captivatingly shared.
My Friends, Hisham Matar
A recounting of the lives and struggles of three Libyan refugees in London each escaping dictatorship and exploring their relationship to their homeland and the family they left behind.
It was a unique insight into the inner turmoil created between crafting a new life of freedom and opportunity, leaving the dangers of truth-telling behind, and trying to keep familial ties strong without endangering the people you love the most while continuing to fight against your people’s persecution on new soil. A multilayered and fascinating story I’ll remember for a long time.
Temper, Phoebe Walker
This deeply introspective novella follows the inner workings of a young woman who has moved countries from the UK to the Netherlands due to her partner’s new job, and has since been struggling with feelings of profound displacement and loneliness while she grapples with negotiating a completely new life. Refreshingly honest and beautifully written musings on life, relationships, purpose and isolation.
Learning to Talk To Plants, Marta Orriols
A carefully crafted story of a Catalan woman coming to terms with the death of her partner, and the hidden affair he had revealed to her only hours before his untimely demise. We follow her processing of heartbreak, confusion and grief while she tries to rebuild her life and explore the relationships she’s weaved around her.
All The Lovers In The Night, Mieko Kawakami
A beautifully and masterfully written novel about the thoughts, struggles and inner life of a deeply introverted copyeditor lacking yet seeking real human connection. It paints a picture of Tokyo as both a bustling metropole bursting with opportunity and a space of isolation as protagonist Fuyuko remains in the shadows and struggles to bring herself out of her tightly wound shell.
What I found fascinating was the subtle yet powerfully pervasive notes to a person suffering from social anxiety: feeling incapable to get her words out, and lacking the confidence to see herself as someone capable and deserving of having close relationships and friendships. Fuyuko has created a personal status quo of being an observer of what could be, all while living a life wrapped in a bubble of introverted mediocrity.
Kawakami is an incredibly gifted writer, and I found so much to reflect on as she explores Fuyuko’s interesting relationships to the few colourful characters around her.
The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafón
This novel took me by complete surprise with the exquisite storytelling - a true page-turner that over the course of one weekend, I simply couldn’t put down. It follows a boy who discovers a book in a secret library and alongside it, an author shrouded in mystery and intrigue that he decides to discover - and who ultimately pulls him into a multilayered web of danger and deception.
We follow young Daniel’s journey through the streets of Barcelona to understand the story of the enigmatic Julian Carax, and back in time to find out why there is an obscure figure prowling the city in search of his books to burn, why he eventually lived a life in exile in Paris, and why he finally returned to Barcelona, only for his body to be reported murdered in a backstreet, without a culprit or motive uncovered.
Told against the backdrop of a country in the early years of dictatorship after the Spanish Civil War, Zafón weaves an incredible story whose words I often found myself lost in.
I leave you with the line I most loved from this novel: “books are like mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you”.
It draws attention to every reader’s journey of self-discovery as they lose themselves in individual worlds of wisdom and self-expression. In every new book, we take a little piece of wisdom with us, depending on how open our mind is to learn and relearn about the world. And with every new book, we may learn a little more about our own personal reality. Literature is extremely powerful in that way.
I recommend you delve into each and every one of these incredible novels. Catch me next time for the next roundup!
