Each week our wonderful staff share the books that they've been enjoying.

Kim is reading Recognising the Stranger by Isabella Hammad

Reading Recognising the Stranger, Isabella Hammad’s Edward Said lecture, and knowing that it was delivered on September 23rd 2023, gives this small 80 page transcript an indescribably horrific weight.

A brilliant and clear essay, this is essential reading for all of us interested in the function of literature.

Baz is reading Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor, translated by Sophie Hughes

Hurricane Season is an uncommonly bold novel written in a prose style that operates like a torrent. I love this kind of writing, when it’s good it’s addictive. The voices of the characters are alive in long breathless sentences that propelled me, even flung me, forward, making it impossible to stop reading. The passion and fury doesn’t let up for a single moment. Centering around a murder, it’s a story of the mess and darkness of life in a corrupt small town, a place where light struggles to penetrate and love struggles to bloom.

Hurricane Season concerns itself with the lives of horribly behaved, damaged people who commit monstrous acts. It’s not for the faint of heart, it’s kind of unremmitingly grim, but although it’s full of hate it’s not hateful – somehow Melchor’s humanity and generosity radiates. I thought it was fantastic.

Bella is reading The Bridegroom Was a Dog by Yoko Tawada, translated by Margaret Mitsutani

This is a strange and hypnotic novella. Following an unconventional teacher in a small village in Japan, it is both a dreamlike fable and a satire of modern manners. The result is sometimes usettling and sometimes sweet – it won't be for everyone, but I recommend it to anyone looking to be sucked into an unusual world, and who doesn't mind being left with unanswered questions.