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Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito

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Victorian Psycho

An outrageous unravelling

For those with a deliciously dark sense of humour and a taste for the macabre, Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito is an unmissable treat. Set in 19th-century England, this is the tale of Miss Winifred Notty, both demure governess and vengeful murderess. Arriving at her new placement with the well-to-do Pounds family, Winifred tells us that in three months time everyone in the house will be dead. Cue a journey into the mind of  a female psychopath in a cleverly parodic novel that borrows brilliantly from Victorian literature (with a nod to Charles Dickens, in particular). This sensationally cinematic book is already in the Hollywood movie pipeline.

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There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak

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There Are Rivers in the Sky

Sweeping multi-narrative

A raindrop falling on the head of King Ashurbanipal in the Mesopotamian city of Nineveh 2600 years ago kicks off the sweeping novel There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak. The drop of water resurfaces as a snowflake on the tongue on a newborn baby on the banks of the river Thames in 1840, in a water bottle in Iraq in 2014 and, finally, as a teardrop on a houseboat in London in 2018. Shafak interweaves three stories to make an epic, enjoyable journey through time and geographies.

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Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico

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Perfection

The Way We Live Now

It’s 2010, millennial couple Anna and Tom are living the dream in Berlin. From their home office – an apartment in the coolest part of the city furnished with Danish design armchairs and exotic plants – they create tasteful websites and clever brand strategies for hip hotels and microbreweries. They hang out with interesting, likeminded people from all over the world. Life seems perfect, but are they happy? Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico is a spot on portrayal of a generation for whom everything is possible, and nothing is permanent. One of my best reads this year.

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Birds as Individuals by Len Howard

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Birds as Individuals

Flights of joy

A delightful read for fans of nature writing, bird life, and old-school English eccentrics, the 1952 book, Birds as Individuals by Len Howard has been deservedly reprinted as a Vintage Classic. The author, Gwendolen (Len) Howard left her life as an orchestral musician in London in the late 1930’s, to pursue her calling as a naturalist in the Sussex countryside. Here, she built a small house, Bird Cottage, threw the doors and windows open to the birds of her garden, and lived the rest of her days in intimate observation of her avian housemates and (literal) bedfellows.

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North Woods by Daniel Mason

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North Woods

Fortunes and misfortunes in Massachusetts

What happens to a plot of land over time? How does it change? Who lives and dies there? How do they live and die there? In North Woods by Daniel Mason, we are brought to a forested corner of Northern Massachusetts and, over four centuries, follow the fortunes and misfortunes of the people who inhabit a little yellow house on a small piece of land. Now this might sound like a disjointed premise for a good novel, but trust me when I say that Mason magically turns this hard-to-nail down idea into an highly addictive read.

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The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke

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The Story of a Heart

The ultimate gift

A testament to love, altruism, and modern medicine, The Story of a Heart by Rachel Clarke is one of sixteen titles unveiled on the 2025 Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction Longlist. In this compelling account of one child’s gift of life to another, Clarke introduces us to Max, a nine-year-old with a failing heart, and Keira, a girl whose heart will sustain him after her death in a car crash. With unfailing warmth and sensitivity, Clarke relays the story of two families during the bleakest moments of their lives, and the aftermath of their decisions. Alongside this, we learn the medical and cultural history of the heart transplant and the philosophical significance of ‘the chief mansion of the soul’.

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The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl From Milan by Domenico Starnone

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The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl From Milan

A doting Nonna, a bewitchingly beautiful girl on the balcony across the street and the ‘pit of the dead’ below the courtyard. This is the world of Mimi, our 9-year-old hero in The Mortal and Immortal Life of the Girl From Milan by Domenico Starnone. First love, death, class and Neapolitan passion mix up beautifully in this coming-of-age story set in 1950s Italy.

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Money to Burn by Asta Olivia Nordenhof

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Money to Burn

The cost of capitalism

Garlanded with glorious reviews and European literary awards, Danish publishing sensation, Money to Burn by Asta Olivia Nordenhof, is a strikingly unique proposition. The first in a planned septology, this ambitious and courageous novel is essentially a denunciation of late capitalism, told through the prism of a real-life tragedy (The 1990 arson attack on the Scandinavian Star ferry, which killed 159 people but was never satisfactorily explained). In this inspired tale, Nordenhof imagines the lives and loves of a middle-aged Danish couple, interlaced with a journalistic dissection of the disaster. How the two may be connected makes for galvanising reading.

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Eurotrash by Christian Kracht

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Eurotrash

Filthy lucre and edelweiss

Originally published in German in 2021, it’s taken years for Eurotrash by Christian Kracht to make it into English translation, and mere weeks to bag a place on The Times Best Books of 2024 list. Witty, reflective, and frequently disturbing, Kracht’s semi-autobiographical tragicomedy stars the man himself, as a middle-aged Swiss writer embarking on a road trip around Switzerland with his elderly mother. Recently released from a mental institution, and potentially on her last legs, it could be both their final holiday together, and Kracht’s only chance to get her to confront the implications of their family’s Nazi past.

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Record of a Night Too Brief by Hiromi Kawakami

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Record of a Night Too Brief

A mind-bending treat for Kawakami completists

One for Japanese literature obsessives, the fabulously titled Record of a Night Too Brief by Hiromi Kawakami is a trio of increasingly trippy stories, centred on women undergoing transformative (to say the least) life experiences. Originally published in 1996, Kawakami’s rising stardom blessed us with an English translation in 2017. In this gem from the Pushkin Press Japanese Short Story Collection, Kawakami considers convention and tradition alongside the strangests of plots, her seemingly everyday women plunged into surreal tales involving unending night, shape-shifting, and a family whose members are prone to vanishing.

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