Our top picks of the month for book clubs

For a book club filled with thespians…

House of Names by Colm Tóibín

Colm Tóibín has thrillingly reimagined Aeschylus’s Oresteia linked trilogy of Greek tragedies for a new audience. Spectacularly audacious, violent, vengeful, lustful, and instantly compelling, House of Names tells the story of murderess Clytemnestra – and her children. Our reviewer writes that this novel, ‘reads like a thriller: driven by female rage, inherited violence, and toxic politics’. Read the full review here.


For a passionate, feminist meeting…

Fighting Hislam by Susan Carland

Muslim feminist Susan Carland rejects simplistic portrayals of her religion as ‘a misogynist’s playground’. In Fighting Hislam, she unearths a creative, varied and committed new type of feminism, one that embraces passionate religious conviction while challenging sexism. She discovered that it is work that is often supported by Muslim men and the Muslim community, but still faces condescension from non-Muslims and a backlash from people who believe that to be a feminist Muslim is necessarily to be a Bad Muslim.


For discussing over wine and cheese…

Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout

Years ago, Lucy Barton, a successful New York writer, spent time in hospital, with her mother at the foot of her bed to keep her company. Avoiding the distance between them, they spoke at length about people from their home town, the rural, dusty town of Amgash, Illinois. Writing these stories, Lucy imagines the lives of the people that she especially remembers. And the people she has imagined that, in small ways, have remembered her too.

For isn’t it true that we all hope to be remembered? Or to think in some way - even fleetingly - that we have been important to someone?


For pairing with an Iraqi feast…

The President’s Gardens by Muhsin Al-Ramli (translated by Luke Leafgren)

Muhsin Al-Ramli is an acclaimed Iraqi writer, poet, academic and translator. His new novel, The President’s Gardens, is described as One Hundred Years of Solitude meets The Kite-Runner in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and would be a thought-provoking accompaniment to an feast of curry, rice, kebabs and other Iraqi staples. On the third day of Ramadan, the village wakes to find nine severed heads stacked by the bus stop. One belonged to one of the most wanted men in Iraq. How did this good and humble man earn the enmity of so many?


For a chatty, thoughtful gathering…

The Good Girl of Chinatown by Jenevieve Chang

From Sydney suburbia to the grey clouds of London, Jenevieve Chang has been running away for as long as she can remember. But in Shanghai, a city from her family’s past, she searches for a place to call home. As her marriage collapses and she struggles to fit in with this over-the-top new world, she remakes herself as one of the Chinatown Dolls, the most sought-after showgirls in town. Struggling with her identity amid the hedonism and history of Shanghai, she realises she’s following in the footsteps of her family in unexpected ways.


For a cosy get-together by the fire…

The Romance Reader’s Guide to Life by Sharon Pywell

Lilly is addicted to romance, while her little sister Neave is addicted to reading about it. When World War II ends, the sisters are expected to settle down. Instead, they decide to build a cosmetics empire together. Then, just as the business is taking off, Lilly disappears. The Romance Reader’s Guide to Life is a haunting, darkly funny and compelling tale of sisterhood that deftly weaves together shades of The Lovely Bones with a pirate romance.


For an in-depth conversation about working lives…

The Pleasures of Leisure by Robert Dessaix

In today’s crazily busy world the importance of making time for leisure is more vital than ever. Yet so many of us lack a talent for it. While technology continues to erode the work-life balance, we are working longer hours, consuming more. In this thoughtful and witty book, literary racounteur Robert Dessaix demonstrates how taking leisure seriously gives us back our freedom, and explains why we should reclaim our right to ‘rest well’. The result is a terrifically lively and engaging conversation that will easily be extended into your own book club meeting.


For transporting your book club to another land…

In the Land of Giants by Gabi Martínez (translated by Daniel Hahn)

High up in the Hindu Kush, between the ancient pagan Kalash people and the new medievalists of the Taliban, a charismatic young Spaniard, Jordi Magraner, made his home, mastering the local languages and customs before meeting his death there in the most mysterious way. In this non-fiction novel, Gabi Martínez sets off in Jordi’s footsteps to the land of the giants in order to try to solve the riddle of this murder, and of Jordi’s life.


For investigating sticky ethics…

The Last Garden by Eva Hornung

Eva Hornung won the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Fiction for Dog Boy. Her much-anticipated follow-up, again explores the solace of animals in the aftermath of human tragedy. In a self-exiled religious community, a man shoots his wife and himself on the day their son returns from boarding school. Our reviewer writes: ‘Like all great literary fiction, The Last Garden provokes thought and empathy in equal measure.’ Read the full review here.


For serious discussion over dinner…

I’d Die for You by F. Scott Fitzgerald (edited by Anne Margaret Daniel)

Editor Anne Margaret Daniel has collected together the last remaining unpublished short stories written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. All 18 short fictions collected here were lost in one sense or another: physically lost; lost in the turbulence of Fitzgerald’s later life; lost to readers because his editors sometimes did not understand what he was trying to write. I’d Die for You offers new insight into the arc of Fitzgerald’s career, and demonstrates his stylistic agility and imaginative power as a writer at the forefront of Modern literature.

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Cover image for Anything is Possible

Anything is Possible

Elizabeth Strout

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