Colony by Annika Norlin

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Colony

Disillusioned by her job and city life, and suffering from a serious case of burnout, Emelie decides to ‘check out’ for a while. She packs her tent and sleeping bag, turns off her phone, and seeks refuge in a little clearing deep in the Swedish forest. Once there, Emelie stumbles upon an unusual group of people who have taken ‘escaping it all’ to a whole new level. Curious, she befriends one of them and is drawn into a bizarre, cult-like existence. Colony by Annika Norlin, a bestseller in Sweden, is both a charming and disturbing portrait of misfits; both funny and creepy, and really enjoyable.

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After Leaving Mr Mackenzie by Jean Rhys

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After Leaving Mr Mackenzie

Down and out in Paris and London

A curiously sad autobiographical novel, After Leaving Mr Mackenzie by Jean Rhys is an episode in the itinerant life of Julia Martin, a thirty-something woman leading a precarious existence in Paris and London between the wars. Hers is a life of cheap hotels, booze, and financial dependence on unsuitable men, who invariably let her down. When her ex-lover in Paris cuts off her weekly allowance, the penniless Julia decides to muster her fading magic and head back to London, in hopes of finding love, solvency, and reconnection with her estranged family.

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Skin Lane by Neil Bartlett

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Skin Lane

Repression and desire in bygone London

Legend has it that 1967 was a marvellous year for London’s most swinging residents, whether it be getting stoned in Hyde Park or parking their Minis in the city’s first multi-storey car park. Boho glamour for some, but a decidedly post-war landscape for everyone else, exuding a greyness and reserve left over from the austerity years. In Skin Lane by Neil Bartlett, we’re transported to a furrier’s workshop just off Garlick Hill, EC4. Here we meet the outwardly dull and fastidious Mr F, the man the 1960’s forgot, whose hidden desires are set to ignite a nightmare of rage and shame.

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The Place of Tides by James Rebanks

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The Place of Tides

The perfect antidote

Both memoir and bibliotherapy for troubled minds, The Place of Tides by James Rebanks takes a step out of time and place, transporting us to a remote Norwegian island just south of the Arctic Circle. Here, burnt out and disillusioned with life, Rebanks spends a restorative ‘eiderdown season’ with a marvellous woman named Anna. Upholding an ancient island tradition, Anna nurtures wild eider ducks as they nest and lay eggs, collecting the precious down they leave behind to make duvets. The days are still, the work simple and repetitive, a balm for Rebanks’ spirits as he uncovers the story of Anna’s long island life and learns some valuable lessons.

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Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

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Revolutionary Road

The crumbling of an American Dream

Frank and April Wheeler seemingly have it all: good looks, cute kids, a respectable job, a white picket fence house in Connecticut. Cracks are starting to emerge, though. Is this really the life they wanted? Whatever happened to their youthful dreams? A drastic plan emerges, but what exactly are they fleeing from? Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates is an enduring American classic dealing with marriage, expectations and dreams. As relevant today, as it was in 1961 and a very good read.

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The Expansion Project by Ben Pester

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The Expansion Project

Thinking outside the box

Tom Crowley probably wouldn’t describe himself as a careerist but he certainly puts in the hours. His workplace is the (literally) rapidly expanding Capmeadow Business Park, where his job description somewhat vaguely encompasses office briefs and content strategy. He’s also a husband and father, and suspects he’s inadequate at both. In The Expansion Project by Ben Pester, we enter a Kafkaesque horror story, beginning the day that Tom takes his 8-year-old daughter, Hen, into Capmeadow and loses her (or believes he does) in its labyrinthine interiors. In a surreal 21st century corporate dystopia, Tom’s work-life balance goes seriously and sinisterly awry.

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Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samanta Schweblin

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Good and Evil and Other Stories

A punch in the stomach

Wow! What an incredible collection of short stories. I gobbled them up in one sitting, moved, shocked and spellbound. Parental love, grief, guilt and rejection echoes through the tales of Good and Evil and Other Stories by Samanta Schweblin, each with a surprising, original twist. Highly recommended.

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The Wizard of the Kremlin by Giuliano da Empoli

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The Wizard of the Kremlin

Inside the mind of Vladimir Putin

Ever wondered what goes through Vladimir Putin’s mind? How he and his cronies see the world? We’ll never know for sure, of course, but in The Wizard of the Kremlin by Giuliano da Empoli we get a what appears to be a pretty good guess. Da Empoli worked as Italian ex-Prime Minister Renzi’s advisor and spent some time in Russia. This best-selling, Prix Goncourt nominated novel is his fictionalised account of Putin’s rise up the ranks. A must read for anyone interested in Russia and geo-politics and soon to appear as a in a cinema near you with Jude Law as Vladimir Putin.

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Death and the Gardener by Georgi Gospodinov

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Death and the Gardener

A father’s legacy

A tender and contemplative work of autofiction, Death and the Gardener by Georgi Gospodinov charts the final days of an eminent writer’s beloved father. Seated by the dying man’s bedside, the writer bears witness to both his life and death, recalling his father’s marvellous storytelling, his old-school Bulgarian fathering style, and most of all, the garden he began cultivating after a long-ago cancer diagnosis. A glorious riot of fruit, vegetables and flowers, he’s given it the final years of his life and now the gardener is set to become the garden. In Gospodinov’s first offering since his International Booker Prize winning novel, Time Shelter, we find a poetic and philosophical gift.

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The Sense of an Ending

Finely chiseled masterpiece

As I’ve just discovered, it’s never too late to read the brilliant The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, Booker Prize Winner from 2011. This is a marvel of a novel about interpreting the past, suppressing memories and coming of age, which deserves to join the rank of classics. It’s a book that will make you question your own past and wonder how differently others might perceive it.

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