Books Apr 20.qxp_Layout 1 26/03/2021 10:09 Page 1
BOOKS
Fresh thinking Many of us have had much more time to think lately, and in honour of this Saskia Hayward and Matthew Leigh from Topping and Co. have some fabulous suggestions for books driven by reinvention and reflection Sometimes a new start can be found in a new person, such as in Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Open Water, an accomplished debut novel in which two artists meet, become best friends and fall in love, while also exploring themes of masculinity, repression and the experience of black men living in the UK today. This is a deceptively slight book, with hidden depths on every page. Exquisitely poetic, nuanced and rewardingly referential, it is the kind of novel you read with a highlighter in hand, marking passages that you will want to return to. Penguin, £12.99 The latest novel from the wonderful Edinburgh based indie publisher Charco Press, Havana Year Zero by Karla Suárez is long overdue for a translation into English. Warm and intimate, the reader is invited into the world of Julia, the narrator, in the year she considers to be Cuba’s ‘Year Zero’; the country at its lowest ebb. A lecturer who hates teaching, Julia becomes determined to take the reins of her own existence. Enlisting her colleague and former lover, Euclid, she embarks on a quest to find a document that proves the telephone was invented by Antonio Meucci in Havana, an achievement, she believes, that will secure their place in history. Charco Press, £9.99 High House by Jessie Greengrass is an incredibly rare beast; a low key post-apocalyptic novel. Caro grows up fearful of her stepmother Francesca’s slide into climate paranoia. A scientist, Francesca can see what is coming, but finds herself unable to shout loud enough to prevent the inevitable. Instead, she focuses on the High House, turning what was once a holiday home into an ark for when the time comes. Though a novel overtly informed by the climate crisis, High House also chillingly illustrates how we quickly accept change and eventualities that once seemed unthinkable and unstomachable. It is not, however, a pessimistic story. Instead, emotional resonance comes thick and fast from its exploration of family, and the bonds forged in collaborative community. It is a visionary tale of what life could be like, for better and for worse. 60 TheBATHMagazine
|
aPRiL 2021
|
issue 218
In this incisive book, Empireland, British journalist and author Sathnam Sanghera examines how contemporary British life and culture has – and remains – heavily influenced by our imperial past. With acerbic wit, and built upon a foundation of meticulous research, Sathnam exposes the bewildering contradictions at the heart of discussions on British identity. He explores how ignorant we remain of the historic role and realities of the British Empire – often erased from our school textbooks and overlooked in our museums – when considering how profoundly they have shaped our nation and our relationships on a global stage. Beautifully written and passionate, Sathnam argues that a true understanding of our cultural heritage must involve acknowledging our imperial past, counteracting the Viking, £18.99 Having and Being Had is the latest sharp and insightful collection from the award-winning American essayist and author Eula Biss. A writer who troubles the boundaries of genre, Eula blends reportage and memoir in an interrogation of the lived experience of 21st-century capitalism and American class structures. Writing from the perspective of upper-middle-class Chicago, and emerging in response to becoming a homeowner for the first time, Eula recasts the everyday within a collage of social and psychological theory, literary history, and popculture references. The result is a meditative reflection on our relationship with the material world, our drives as consumers, and the impact on our collective and individual identities. A stylish and eloquent portrait of our moment in time. Faber, £15.99 In Four Hundred Souls, Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to be an Antirascist, and Keisha N. Blain have orchestrated a remarkable and expansive piece of history writing. Created as a collaboration of leading black writers and thinkers, each writer was given a five-year period from 1619 to 2019 to explore whatever they felt most fitting. The result is a groundbreaking and redefining act of communal history spanning four centuries and crossing mediums: a constellation of perspectives through historical essays, short stories, polemics and personal vignettes. It begins in 1619 with the arrival of 20 Ndongo people on the shores of the first British colony in mainland America, the year before the Mayflower arrived, and takes us right up until the present, charting centuries of inhuman oppression and injustice alongside magnificent resistance. As a piece of collaborative writing, it refracts a multitude of pasts unlike any other piece of history writing. Bodley Head, £23 n While visiting the shop is not possible, books can be ordered from the website or at the shop door; toppingbooks.co.uk
