Each week our wonderful staff share the books that they've been enjoying.
Justin is reading Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel
Headshot is a gripping, powerfully written account of eight young women fighting in the Daughters of America Cup, a fictional boxing tournament held over two days in a gym in Reno, Nevada. Each chapter takes us into successive bouts between two of the fighters. We go inside the ring with them (feeling every blow, every missed shot), but also into their thoughts as they’re sizing up their opponent. We learn their dreams and the struggles that brought them to this moment, but also, profoundly, where their respective lives will lead in the years to come.
Headshot is a stunning, immensely inventive piece of fiction that is up there with the best novels I’ve read in 2024.
Chris is reading My Father's Suitcase by Mary Garden
A friend gifted me My Father's Suitcase by journalist, author and activist Mary Garden. What a pleasure to read her work – it flows as if you were right there next to her and she was telling you stories from her past, mixed in with delightful anecdotes about her life now. A proper natter in a sense, but also a telling portrait of how families alienate one another, how mental health issues dissolve relationships and how beginning again is sometimes the only choice you have.
Read it because your family is exhausting and this will give you a brand new perspective on what that can mean. And you'll just love Mary's voice – she writes as if she believes in you to believe in her.
Alex is reading The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell
This short story collection is set in Buenos Ares and shines a light on a violent city gripped by urban madness. I'm not sure if these stories are more magical realism or horror – but they certainly captivated me with the author's utterly original style and voice!
