BOOKS OF THE WEEK
Until August by Gabriel García Márquez Viking, £16.99 (ebook, £9.99) Review by Kerri-Ann Roper
When Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez died in 2014, there were reports of an unpublished manuscript. And now, a decade later, that has materialised in the form of Until August. In it, we meet Ana Magdalena Bach, who is, for all purposes, a happily married mother and wife. Every year she visits her mother’s grave on a tropical island and we meet her on one such trip, where she has a one-night stand with a stranger. And so begins a journey for the reader and Ana that is filled with wondrous literary magic. It is a bitter sweet experience knowing that García Márquez previously asked for the book to be “destroyed”, but also savouring the words he left.
Family Politics by John O’Farrell
Doubleday, £20 (ebook, £9.99) Review by Alan Jones
When a group of activists trying to save a city farm from closure smuggle animals into a council meeting, they cause chaos – and widespread publicity. Labour Party member Emma Hughes is thrilled at the success of her stunt, only to come crashing to earth when her son confesses he’s become a Conservative while at university. In Family Politics, writer and political campaigner John O’Farrell draws on his wealth of experience to explain the challenges faced by Emma, her Labour councillor husband Eddie and their newly right-wing son Dylan. The arguments reach a new level when Eddie is selected as Labour’s candidate in the local byelection, and Dylan campaigns for the opposition.
Go Lightly by Brydie Lee-Kennedy
Bloomsbury Publishing, £16.99 (ebook, £10.49) Review by Hannah Colby
Ada Highfield treats life with a light touch, giving money, sex and relationships the same fleeting disregard; and when she meets Sadie and Stuart at the same time, she sees no harm in sharing her affections between them both. But when Sadie and Stuart evolve into more than merely passing fancies, Ada is forced to ask herself the questions she’s always avoided – and she realises that she if doesn’t start to make some serious decisions, she might find the choices won’t be hers to make. Blending humour with pathos and critical social observation, Go Lightly is sharp, witty and unexpectedly astute, establishing its author as a new and assured voice in modern LGBTQ+ literature.
Learning to Think by Tracy King Doubleday, £16.99 (ebook, £7.99) Review by Molly Powell
Learning to Think is a compelling memoir about Tracy King’s journey to taking charge of her belief system. It starts in 1980s Birmingham, after her father’s tragic death, when her family developed an extreme reliance on the Christian church, and King even stopped going to school. She tells stories of both poverty and grief, and how she navigated such situations through the lens of extreme religion, whether that be Christianity, the occult, or conspiracy theories. After reading a book that taught her to think critically, King was finally able to detach herself from others’ belief systems and make decisions about the world for herself. It’s a truly devastating yet hopeful read.