What We're Reading: Sahota, Lu & Tóibín
Each week our wonderful staff share the books and music that they've been enjoying.
Mark Rubbo is reading The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota
I've been reading the The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota. It's a political novel about race, class and identity but its also a novel about trauma and denial. Set in contemporary England, I found it absolutely riveting.
Nayan has risen through union ranks and with his emphasis on better conditions for the members he's immensely popular and looks set to win the upcoming leadership. His energy partly comes from his suppression of memories of the tragic death of his young son and his mother. When his bid is challenged by a young, privileged woman his world starts to unravel.
Lou Ryan is reading Ghost Cities by Siang Lu
I am reading and loving Ghost Cities; a very unusual, very funny, very cool, slightly surreal second novel from Australian author Siang Lu. The novel flips back and forth between Sydney, The Imperial City of the past and Port Man Tou, a ghost city in China.
Xiang Lu is dubbed #badchinese online after getting sacked for using Google Translate in his job as a translator at the Chinese Consulate in Sydney. BabyBao is a dictatorial film director who discovers the social media value of #badchinese and capitlises on it for his next big project. He takes over the Chinese ghost city Port Man Tou, creating a Truman Show-like set. People flock to the city for roles as actor-residents, they spend their time act-eating, act-wandering and harrassing celebrity #badchinese Xiang Lu.
This novel is fun, funny, clever and very unusual. An exciting new voice to recommend to our savvy customers.
Athina Clarke is reading Long Island by Colm Tóibín
I found Colm Tóibín’s follow up to Brooklyn absolutely compelling. I don’t think you need to have read the first book to pick this one up, but my memories of it certainly made Long Island a more enriching reading experience.
It was fascinating to spend time with Eilis again – no longer a young woman, she’s staring down the road of middle age. Tóibín is so skillful at subtly contrasting a progressive America with life in the small Irish town of Eilis’s youth – so vivid it's practically a character itself – with its gossip and insularity, a place that seems to resist change and resent those who seek it.
