Fiction
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Beautifully written. Made me laugh. Made me feel like crying. Deeply moving but uplifting throughout.
Ann Woods, Liverpool
The beautiful prose grabs you while the story makes you sad, optimistic, moved and intrigued from beginning to end. And it has a great ending. My daughter in her twenties and my mum in her nineties have loved it too. Now that’s an achievement.
Jane, England
It tackled a serious subject with wit, mirth and intelligence. A real page turner without being too taxing and heavy. Easy to read and follow the story without the need for a dictionary by your side. A simple story with a solid message behind.
Katey, Ashfield
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Quietly beautiful. This is the kind of book I could carry on reading forever, following the existence of the two main characters as they roll in and out of each other’s lives like waves on a beach.
Lana Petrovic, Auckland
No book has ever told such a simple story in such a way that has made me reconsider everything about the way in which I think and reflect. And I don’t even think this was Rooney’s intention. I have never been so emotionally affected.
Anonymous, Melbourne
I liked Conversations With Friends, but in Ireland we tend to completely overhype Irish writers (in my opinion) so when Normal People came out I was worried that it would be a second book that had been overdone. I could not have been more wrong. I’m going to read it again over Christmas. I admire Sally Rooney so much but am also extremely jealous of her ability to build characters. Well done her!
Blathnaid Connolly, Dublin
Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor
I got so bored of the same old fantasy and sci-fi tropes (to the point that I went off reading for a while), and along came Nnedi Okorafor and Afrofuturism and blew me away. I’d already read her Binti series of novellas (small but perfectly formed) and thoroughly enjoyed them. Akata Warrior for me was another step up. I read the book like I used to read when I was a kid - couldn’t wait for the next page, the next chapter. |The story is about a Nigerian-American girl that discovers she has an aptitude for magic and gets drawn into the magical Leopard society that teaches (and keeps an eye on) her. Nnedi Okorafor draws on her own background and knowledge of Nigerian culture to create something amazing.
tinimaus, Germany
The House with Chicken Legs by Sophie Anderson
With echoes of Hans Christian Andersen and Arthur Ransome’s Old Peter’s Russian Tales, it has everything you would expect to find in a traditional tale - and more. It was magical, poignant and macabre. It is the children’s book I wish I’d written.
Mrs R
Melmoth by Sarah Perry
This story is very well told. Carefully crafted for maximum creepiness and suspense. I have had to put it down at some points because the tension is so great that I have to ensure I am in the best environment (not on the bus!) to fully absorb the next passage. Perry is a superb author.
Mark Budding, Tadley
Milkman by Anna Burns
Milkman was an impressive and challenging book … I read it in four days straight and was torn between wanting to get out of this fear about what would happen immediately after, and being unable to let go of the narrator and her story. The best book by far of the year, but certainly not a feel good novel.
Allie Pasieka, N’Djamena
Everything Under by Daisy Johnson
It’s a visceral, dreamy, and often sinister reworking of the Oedipus myth, which explores fate, gender, the liminal, and language. The structure is what really hooked me in, at first it feels a bit disorienting but it’s such an effective and lucid way to tell the story; the characters and threads all start to intertwine in a masterfully coherent way. I felt like this novel was so deserving of it’s Man Booker prize shortlisting.
Gaby, London
From a Low and Quiet Sea by Donal Ryan
Well crafted, compassionate portrayal of the pain of losing loved ones, the joyous mindlessness of youth before being confronted with responsibility (for a death, in this case), a crashing ending with justice inadvertently accomplished.
J. Trunzo, France
Powerful novel, timely and beautifully written. Captured the migration issue at the same time as a fully developed exploration of being Irish.
Keith, Dublin
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Comic novels rarely work for me so it was a surprise to find in Less a beautiful novel about love and ageing that was also very, very funny. Arthur Less is a novelist on the verge of turning 50 and struggling to get his new novel published. To avoid his ex-boyfriend’s wedding, he accepts a variety of literary invites from around the world. Without ever indulging in cruelty, Greer consistently generates laughs from the reader, particularly in his hero’s unduly confident attempts to speak German.
Gerard Scott, Newcastle
My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
This was a genuinely brilliant novel from cover to cover: right up to its devastatingly great punch of an ending, it haunts you in all the best ways, and carries on long after you’ve finished.
Paula Stones, London
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
Here is a book that definitively reveals the dark underbelly of the American experiment in maximum freedom with unfettered financial power, the dark cost of the puritan election, the two great highs with such indifference to the lows: world record incarceration rates. There is a calmly deployed but very significant hint of near Shakespearean power and range in the unique characters, across a near Dostoevskian American underground as backstory … It is a great book when you stand back and consider the near definitive statement of the cost of the wasp American Dream.
Steve C, Beijing
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
This book came up and smacked me on the face halfway through reading it. The novel manages to make such fantastically astute social commentary while under the guise of being a frivolous tale of a woman working in a convenience store, with no real plot. I found the references to Japanese culture, manners and etiquette charming and very accurate, and Murata’s protagonist was endearing and well-rounded. A joyful romp of a read, with sharp social critique hidden within the narrative. Very clever stuff.
Freya Parr, Bristol
Middle England by Jonathan Coe
Coe writes richly, humorously and simply: his books are easy to read but still manage to be complex and allusive. His writing is always human and humane and even in the maelstrom of hate, social-media abuse, overt and covert racism, his characters manage to be very real and there is (almost) always subtle empathy for even the most awful of people.
Dauvit Alexander, Birmingham
The Overstory by Richard Powers
This book is a vast, towering, moving panorama about our emotional and physical engagement with the natural world around us, specifically trees. It’s packed full of plot, and moves much quicker than you’d expect from a novel fitting this description - it’s one of the best books I’ve read in the past decade.
zendik32
The lives of the characters and their interaction with forests riveted me, and I recorded memorable passages and stories that I will use in my lectures to help me drive home points that are normally dry and clinical. How can one forget such an impactful passage as this: “The pen moves; the ideas form as if by spirit hand. Some thing shines out, a truth so self-evident that the words dictate themselves. We’re cashing in a billion years of planetary savings bonds and blowing it on assorted bling.” Bravo, Mr Powers.
Bruce S Post, Vermont
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
This book was brilliant. There was so much scope to be completely lost in a complex and unique (yet strikingly familiar) plot but the author’s attentive style of writing meant you were captivated and never adrift throughout the book. This was a truly enjoyable read - you’re cleverly led to believe the book’s twist only to realise there are more twists just around the corner. A book that makes you question what’s next rather than question reality. Truly excellent.
Matt North, Yorkshire
The Shepherd’s Hut by Tim Winton
Others books may have been more experimental, more daring or more challenging but something raw, visceral and alive like The Shepherd’s Hut doesn’t need such trickery. This simple tale of an unwanted teenage runaway who comes across an itinerant preacher living in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, wins by simply moving the reader. The rawness of the language, which utilises Aussie slang to great effect, is only matched by the rawness of wilderness it describes.
Nick Goodey, New York
Non-fiction
Slay in Your Lane by Yomi Adegoke and Elizabeth Uviebinené
Never would I have thought a modern take on the British black female experience would be covered so wonderfully and with such excitement by two British black females. The range of topics were discussion worthy, and filled me for weeks with talking points … BUY A COPY FOR THE NEW YEAR AND BE SURPRISED AND EXCITED.
Angie Leonie, West Midlands
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Revelatory portrait of America and fascinating insight into what it was like to be hurled from a regular, everyday existence to moving into the White House.
M. MacKenzie, Scotland
Returning to Reims by Didier Eribon
In this “memoir”, Eribon examines the failures of neo-liberalism to address the underclass or feed people’s aspirations, and its ongoing attempts to homogenise the bourgeoisie – all of which create the current malaise across the “liberal” West and continues to haunt and inform today’s headlines. It’s a tremendous, challenging and profoundly educational read
Craig Tapping, Vancouver
I’ll Be Gone In The Dark by Michelle McNamara
One woman’s obsessive search for the Golden State Killer … [McNamara’s] lucid analysis often pitted with personal anecdotes and painstaking details makes it the most unequivocally pivotal book of the year. A fitting tribute to one gone too soon, before she could witness the yield of her diligence.
Steve Campbell
Coal Black Mornings by Brett Anderson
A book stuffed with beautiful, heartbreaking detail and of the myriad of influences that formed the back-bone of Suede. A rare autobiography from a true English one-off artist who’s less concerned to offer the usual rags-to-riches story of fame and fortune but to show the life before - one of failure and sadness. And it’s all the better and richer for it. You don’t need to be a Suede fan either to enjoy this, but it helps.
Leighton Carter, Surrey
Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
Well researched and beautifully written. And Isaacson writes so descriptively about da Vinci’s paintings. It’s like having an art scholar whispering in your ear as you wander through the gallery. His insights and emotion as he interprets the paintings are exquisite. I felt I could continue reading for ever, carried away on waves of intellect and emotion.
Ian Widdop, Johannesburg
Dopesick by Beth Macy
This book suited my spirit this year. I have spent the whole year in a state of rage about so much in the world and in this book, I felt the righteous fury of reading how families were let down by big pharma and the health system in the US. It became clear in the book how some doctors and health professionals were seeing clearly the problem of opioid abuse, yet they were overridden by the business imperative of Purdue Pharma. May the Sackler family be known in infamy for the catastrophe which has come about from their business. So many times, I had to put the book down and vent to my partner. It made me mad as hell.
Chloe Williams, Spain
Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey
I cannot recall in my lifetime reading anything more urgent and essential. McGarvey’s dissection of working class life … is concise, compelling and deeply moving. It caused a great many changes in my attitude and sensibilities. Though the subject matter is difficult, there is no question that the rewards the reader stands to gain are legion.
Joe Taylor, Bristol
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
To be able to follow the wonderful journey made by Raynor and Moth was quite moving. These are real people making the best of a real life crisis. It was a privilege to share their journey.
Edward Crook, Penrith
Crashed by Adam Tooze
This is, by far, the best book I’ve read in 2018 … a fascinating and comprehensive work, even if you are prone to disagree with his conclusions – the data, analysis and the thrust of his argument are well worth hearing and compelling in the extreme. The narrative and research both incredibly strong - this is essential reading for understanding the most important event(s) of our time (and it’s not dry!).
David Hayter, South London
