From Essex serpents to chimpanzees,political satire to the best unique thrillers … leading writers reveal which books they will be taking to the beachI recently reread Anita Brookner’s first novel A Start in Life (Penguin), and it left me thinking that maybe all novelists should be forbidden from publishing until they are 53; that way they would already have a finished style and a mature, and cogent,individual view of the world. This nearly faultless novel also reflects on the competing truthfulness of Balzac versus Dickens. (Balzac died at 51, so the Brookner rule cant apply to him.) But for the moment I am engrossed in Svetlana Alexievich’s extraordinary moment-Hand Time (Fitzcarraldo), and an oral tapestry of post-Soviet Russia.
It looks like a top-notch summer for books approximately America by women,which I hope will serve as a distraction from reality Related: Summer reading with Mark Lawson and Lisa McInerney – books podcast I cherish novels that blend fact with fiction, so Jill Dawson’s The Crime Writer sounds apt up my streetProxies is a collection of essays on sex by Brian Blanchfield. I dipped into 'Frottage' and am already hot for moreHan Kang’s The Vegetarian was dreamy and nightmarish, and easily one of the best books I’ve read in yearsDaisy Johnson’s Fen is a collection of short stories set in an eerie fenland landscape: I’ve had my eye on it for weeksThe Mandibles is a gleeful nightmare,it made me snort with laughter even as I was shuddering Related: Read it and keep: is it time to reassess the 'beach read'? Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com