I’ve recently spent two short spells in hospital where a lot of waiting happens. So I caught up with some wonderful books. In no particular order, they are:
KIN by Tayari Jones: an inspirational and dark novel about two motherless young women, set in the Jim Crow south of the USA. Jones’ prose is liquid gold: when she writes about racism it goes straight to my heart just as acutely as when she writes about love.
VIGIL by George Saunders: a novel about those who come to us when we’re dying, how they do and don’t like themselves, their work and those – us, their charges – whose deaths they must witness. (It’s also funny … .)
THE GOLDFINCH by Donna Tartt – which I began a hundred years ago, recommended by a friend and couldn’t manage its length as well as my life. But hospital is a perfect place – if you’re not very ill – for a long novel (almost 900 pages) that intrigues and twists and turns and whose protagonist you really really don’t want to end up in trouble (or worse) but fear he will.
THE SURGEON’S HOUSE by Jody Cooksley – a dark Gothic novel, set in 19th-century London: there are vulnerable women, mysterious murders and predatory patriarchy but – in the end – the women … well, I’ll leave you to discover for yourselves … .
GLORIA DON’T SPEAK by Lucy Apps – an astonishing first novel about a learning-disabled young woman – the voice is so authentic – and the ways she does and doesn’t understand her world, how her world treats her and how she finally … again you’ll have to find out for yourselves.
