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Jun 14, 20223 min read
Swing Time by Zadie Smith
Our narrator first met Tracey when they were young girls nervously waiting for their first dance class to start. Their friendship did not...
Apr 19, 20223 min read
The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante
“Two years before leaving home my father said to my mother that I was very ugly,” is the brutal opening line of Elena Ferrante’s most...
Feb 2, 20222 min read
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
Frances and Bobbi are students at Trinity College, Dublin. They used to be lovers, now they are best friends who perform poetry together....
Jan 18, 20222 min read
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Archie Jones and Samad Iqbal have been best friends since their adventures during World War II, though none of their friends and family...
Jan 4, 20222 min read
Milkman by Anna Burns
In an unnamed city, where two communities live in conflict with each other, where there is a right and a wrong kind of butter, just as...
Nov 2, 20215 min read
The Booker Prize 2021
Tomorrow, the winner of the 2021 Booker Prize will be announced. Over the past few weeks I read my way through the shortlist, and it was...
Oct 12, 20212 min read
The Good Immigrant by Nikesh Shukla
What does it mean to have to change your name for your classmates to be able to pronounce and remember it? How does it feel to be...
Oct 5, 20212 min read
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
The family Gifty remembers from early childhood is a family of four, that quickly became a family of three and way too soon was cut into...
Sep 21, 20212 min read
Strange Flowers by Donal Ryan
Moll Gladney is a quiet girl, not known to cause troubles to her devout and hardworking parents. But one night she disappears from her...
Aug 24, 20212 min read
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Desiree and Stella Vignes are identical and inseparable. Only those who know them well will be able to tell them apart: Desiree, the...
Aug 17, 20212 min read
Normal People by Sally Rooney
The social laws of high school dynamics govern Connell and Marianne’s behaviour. He is the popular star of the school’s football team,...
Aug 10, 20212 min read
Hood Feminism by Mikki Kendall
The term intersectional feminism was coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw to highlight how different dimensions of oppression – for example sexism...
Aug 3, 20212 min read
Grand Union by Zadie Smith
Grand Union is Zadie Smith’s collection of short stories, comprising eleven completely new works as well as eight stories previously...
Jun 29, 20212 min read
Voices of the Lost by Hoda Barakat
Five letters that will never reach their destination, written by five unnamed people who come from an unnamed, war-torn country form the...
Jun 1, 20213 min read
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Yaa Gyasi’s stunning debut novel Homegoing traces the story of a Ghanaian family as it plays out both in the Asante region and in...
May 25, 20212 min read
Fathers and Sons by Howard Cunnell
Fathers and Sons is Howard Cunnell’s beautiful memoir about growing up, about love and masculinity, about fathers and sons. This short...
May 18, 20212 min read
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
The Sellout is a work of biting satire, and you best be ready for it when you open this book. Our protagonist is a young man who grew up...
Apr 27, 20213 min read
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
In the 1970s everyone knows The Six. Their songs are played on every radio station, their records and world tours sell out in the blink...
Apr 13, 20212 min read
Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman
What would the world look like, if we didn’t assume the worst of our fellow human beings? If collectively we had a positive, an...
Apr 6, 20212 min read
Revolting Prostitutes by Molly Smith and Juno Mac
In their powerful and eye-opening manifesto Revolting Prostitutes, Juno Mac and Molly Smith make the point for sex workers’ rights loud...
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