Authors' hot holiday reads

 

Everyone is raving about The Book of Summers by debut novelist Emylia Hall, and I, for one, can’t wait to read it. I’ve been promised that the story captures summers drenched in innocence and evocative memories. I’m expecting to find a book with real heart, a fantastic twist and a wonderfully redemptive ending. I’ll be reading it in my back garden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed Mohammed Hanif’s first novel, A Case of Exploding Mangoes, and I’ve heard his new one, Our Lady of Alice Bhatti, is even better. He plays comedy and cruelty off against each other so that the story never descends into silliness or brutality but treads a strange, crooked line between the two. The reek of disinfectant in a Karachi hospital, sultry evenings, the cries of the street-vendors, the smell of fenugreek and the buzz of scooters – perfect reading for a holiday in the Cotswolds. 

 

 

 

 

We’ll be on the Isles of Scilly for holiday this summer, where we spend a few weeks every year. When the storms rage and roar outside, as they sometimes do, I will be lost deep in a wonderful novel written by Jane Feaver called An Inventory of Heaven. It is an exquisitely written, intimate portrait of life in a small rural community, and is full of insight and affection.