I've read over 60 books so far this year and since we're at the midpoint of 2021 I'm picking out ten titles which have really stood out for me. This is exquisitely-written fiction that has surprised and delighted me as well as made me contemplate a number of issues from new angles. After over a year spent almost entirely at home I've been cautiously emerging back into the world again, but I'm so grateful for the inspiration and respite I've found in these books. I'd love to hear what you think about any of these titles and please let me know the best books you've read so far this year.
Being such a book prize groupie, I've found some of the best new fiction through book awards. I was thrilled when David Diop's “At Night All Blood is Black” won this year's International Booker Prize because it's one of the most striking, moving and profound stories about war that I've ever read. Both “Unsettled Ground” by Claire Fuller and “Transcendent Kingdom” by Yaa Gyasi are currently shortlisted for this year's Women's Prize for Fiction. With the winner announcement being pushed back to September, I'm looking forward to even more discussion around these very different but gripping stories of family life. Two standout novels that were longlisted for this year's Women's Prize were “Luster” by Raven Leilani and “Detransition, Baby” which are stories about individuals and their sympathetically messy lives like none other I've read before. Both give such a comic and moving new perspective.
Like many of us, I can often get lost musing about what my life would have been like if I'd made different choices and in Joyce Carol Oates' collection of stories “The (Other) You” she dramatises this state of being to tremendous effect. “The High House” is a distinctly new kind of post-apocalyptic novel that looks at the issue of environmental disaster from the perspective of individuals stranded in a house as they struggle to sustain themselves and contemplate the true meaning of life. Ishiguro proves in his new novel “Klara and the Sun” why he's such a lauded and much beloved author. This story told from the perspective of an artificial friend is so moving and finds surprising new angles to ponder the eternal questions of what makes us human and where our society is going. Leone Ross' “This One Sky Day” (also known as “Popisho”) is a tremendously inventive new tale of magical realism and mischievous wonder. It's so detailed and glorious I can't wait to reread it. Finally, Australian author Claire Thomas’ “The Performance” brilliantly dramatises an impending crisis as three women watch a Beckett play while a bush fire rages outside the theatre. It's a story of our time.
