![]() ![]() ![]() Photograph: Yvette Monahan/The Guardianįollowing Barry’s Costa-winning Days Without End, this surprise sequel follows Winona – the adopted Native American daughter of cross-dressing soldiers Thomas McNulty and John Cole – as she seeks revenge for a sexual assault, donning men’s clothing to move undetected in their world. What we said: Exciting Times is a fun, snappy read – ordinarily, I’d say its short chapters could be torn through on your commute, but it’ll brighten lockdown too. This deadpan debut following an Irish twentysomething in Hong Kong is about so much more than millennial dating – it is a pithy, caustic take on how external forces such as homophobia, class and economic insecurity can damage individual lives. Girl doesn’t tell boy or girl about each other. 2020 has been a year of superb debuts and Rainbow Milk is among the best. What we said: A novel of huge power and emotional impact, written in language that is sharp, distinctive and often beautiful. This original, sharp debut novel explores what it means to be a young ambitious black man in Britain through two stories: ex-boxer Norman, who arrives in the Black Country from Jamaica in the 1950s, and former Jehovah’s Witness Jesse, who falls into sex work and loveless hook-ups in modern-day London. What we said: Hamnet is evidence that there are always new stories to tell, even about the most well-known historical figures. Underneath the historical detail of everyday life in the household of a very famous man, this is a book about grief and the means by which people find their way through it. Named after Shakespeare’s son, who died at the age of 11 in 1596, the beating heart of this novel is the boy’s mother, whom O’Farrell renames Agnes. What we said: The character of Kim Jiyoung can be seen as a sort of sacrifice: a protagonist who is broken in order to open up a channel for collective rage. Named for the Korean equivalent of Jane Doe, this novel about a woman who plays by patriarchal rules but can never win, was a huge bestseller in South Korea, where it has become a touchstone for conversation around feminism and gender and a lightning rod for anti-feminists who view the book as inciting misandry. Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo, translated by Jamie ChangĪ touchstone for feminism. ![]() Offill pulls us in close in order to make us worry about things outside us mirrors the self to show us what we are selfishly ignoring. What we said: Reading Weather made me grind my teeth at night, just like its narrator – but it is certainly a brilliant exemplar for the autofictional method. In this darkly funny and often terrifying fragmentary novella, a woman begins working as an assistant to an environmental podcaster, and starts to unravel as the psychological burden of the climate crisis and political anxiety takes its toll. On a personal level, its investigation into solitude and online experience becomes only more poignant in a global lockdown. What we said: Little Eyes has much to say about connection and empathy in a globalised world. In this ingenious novel, the Argentinian author conducts an unnerving thought experiment: if an individual could be virtually inserted into the life of a random stranger, anywhere in the world, what effects would it have on them both? And what hidden truths would be revealed? Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell What we said: Not since Bleak House has the present tense performed such magic … this is a masterpiece that will keep yielding its riches, changing as its readers change, going forward with us into the future. ![]() Fans waited eight years for the final instalment in her Thomas Cromwell trilogy and Mantel delivered, leading King Henry VIII’s chief minister from the heart of power in Tudor England to the executioner’s block in a propulsive, and at times dizzying, end. ![]()
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