The June Shortlist
‘My memory has its limits, of course, it may occur in the blanks without admitting to it, dramatize or revise. I guess there is no photographic memory for emotions. But this is my truth right now, for better or worse’ Tomasz Jedrowski, Swimming in the Dark
This month's stack came about thanks to some much-welcomed review copies of new fiction from Fleet and from Gallic Books which made up for the agony of my local high street bookstore and library remaining closed. Thank you for bringing great literary fiction and books in translation through my letterbox!
Being unable to browse the physical stacks of late I’ve resorted to Instagram with serendipitous results having discovered Nordisk Books, an independent publisher specialising in contemporary Scandinavian literature. Let’s just say that they’ve helped me get over no longer travelling to Norway for work. I now have a handsome stack of new reads for next month.
So, on with the shortlist for June. Here’s the best of the month’s reads with no spoilers.
⏩Swimming in the Dark by Tomasz Jedrowski (2020) – bought online
‘This is my truth right now, for better or worse’, Tomasz Jedrowski’s debut is honest, raw, and brave. In protagonist, 22-year-old Ludwik, the LGBTQ literary canon has a new icon. The 2nd person narrative perfectly captures the tenderness of the relationship between Ludwik and Janusz who first meet at a summer working camp in 1980. Beneath their intense chemistry is an ideological tension that charts Poland’s tumultuous political transformation. Available in bookstores now.
⏩The Sea Wife by Amity Gaige (2020)– Review copy received from the publisher.
‘Tears or sweat – so many stories end in saltwater’. A family are out of their depth aboard their boat, 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐽𝑢𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑡, off the coast of Panama. Through alternate 1st person narratives Gaige presents a couple at odds trying to chart a safe course. A tense psychological thriller about marriage, ambition and family. You’ll need a life-vest as the voyage is far from plain sailing. The plot is well-paced and little by little we learn more about exactly what rests on the success of this family adventure. Stylish literary fiction for the summer. Available in bookstores now.
⏩A Hundred Million Years and a Day by Jean-Baptiste Andrea (2020) – Review copy from Publisher
‘Two hours later, we reach the peak…my vertigo is no longer vertical, it is horizontal. I am like the prisoner who is suddenly set free, panicked by the absence of corridors and walls’I was unexpectedly moved by this sublime story of a man on a mission in the frozen Alps. Standing on the ‘cliff edge of insanity’ he sees his past and his present through a lens of hunger, doubt and sheer grit. Concise yet epic. Tender but unbreakable. Available for pre-order here now.
‘My room is as empty as the rest of my life’. Rejection, isolation and self-doubt fuel this letter to an ex-girlfriend. Pithy observations committed to paper reveal a raw truth ‘A book is an attempt to become a better person - or else it is nothing’
'What if literature is both symptom and cure? What if it shifts so imperceptibly between the two that when you believe it to be the one thing, it's actually the other? Kenneth Moe Restless
