We recommend
Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan
This summer I’ll be wandering around in the burning-hot Umbrian countryside and getting stuck into the new Ian McEwan novel. Out in August, it’s his take on le Carré, but with the twist of bringing together a female spy with a young McEwan-esque novelist. If it’s half as fun as William Boyd’s Restless, I’ll be happy. Plus, McEwan’s ever-compelling stories of life, love and art feel fitting for hot rural Italy.
(Ed Wood, editor)
The Submission by Amy Waldman
I’ll be in the Austrian Alps reading The Submission, Amy Waldman’s original take on the post-9/11 novel. When the winner of an architectural competition to design a memorial is found to be a Muslim, both the judges – including the design’s champion, widowed by the attack – and the architect are forced to examine their reactions and motives against a background of growing public unease.
(Susan Osborne, reviews editor)
The Daylight Gate by Jeanette Winterson
After witnessing Jeanette Winterson’s wonderful
event at this year’s Hay Festival, I am all the more keen to read her first foray into horror writing.
The Daylight Gate, out in August, is inspired by the notorious Pendle witchcraft trials, which took place 400 years ago. It follows a band of women who may or may not have dark powers; a spooky rural tale that I’ll be reading among the London high-rises.
(Katie Allen, website editor)
Booksellers recommend
Burning Bright by Ron Rash
This summer I will be working through
Burning Bright, a stunning collection of short stories by American poet and author Ron Rash (whose acclaimed novel
Serena came out in 2009). These raw, moving tales are set in Appalachia and portray American life through historical and contemporary stories. All are exceptional, but several stand out, such as ‘Lincolnites’, which tells the story of Lily, a Lincoln sympathiser in Confederate territory.
(Sheila O'Reilly, Dulwich Books, London)
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
The DNA of Herman Melville’s
Moby-Dick is threaded though the writing of so many of my favourite authors – most recently in
Chad Harbach’s wonderful
The Art of Fielding – that I feel a kinship with it, despite not having read it. I’ll be taking the stylish new Penguin English Library edition for a contemplative few days on the (presumably white whale-free) Suffolk coast.
The Devil I Know by Claire Kilroy
I’m going to a cottage in County Kerry which, given the Irish weather, should give me plenty of good reading time. The Devil I Know by Claire Kilroy will come with me, an intriguing novel about the boom and bust of the Celtic Tiger from one of Ireland’s best young novelists. It uses the debt crisis and housing boom as the backdrop for property developer Tristram’s fall. Bring on the rain!
(Bob Johnston, The Gutter Bookshop, Dublin)
Tomorrow we have recommendations from authors including Mark Billingham, Michael Morpurgo, Alexander McCall Smith and Fay Weldon.
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