What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in October
Mick Herron is our best and most topical spy writer but he takes a step back in time with The Secret Hours, which is partly set in Berlin in the aftermath of the Wall coming down. It’s vintage Herron though, with countless twists and turns, sharp writing and genius one-liners – plus it fills in some of the backstory for fans of his Slough House series. I loved it.
• Ian Rankin’s new novelThe Riseis out on1 November, published by Amazon Publishing as part of Amazon Original Stories. ***
Peter, Guardian reader
I have been reading Emily Wilson’s new translation of The Iliad. Having thoroughly enjoyed Wilson’s Odyssey, I was eager to read this. Reading it has been a revelation. Vigorous, with echoes of Milton and a stunning sense of pace, Wilson displays a genuine poetic sensibility combined with meticulous scholarship. The depictions of violence and compassion, loyalty and love in the context of war-weary veterans seeking to find meaning brings this fine translation into the heart of contemporary agonies.
***
Liberty Martin, writer
Last month I was in Unnameable Books, a wonderful cave of a used bookshop in Brooklyn, hunting for some June Jordan poetry. I didn’t expect to find her only YA novel, His Own Where. Any summary of the book will tell you that it’s written in African American vernacular, which is true, but I think Jordan spins Black colloquial language into a rhythm of her own. Words skip and skate into a dazzling hybrid somewhere between stream of consciousness, prose and poetry. Jordan’s jazz-tinged writing scores the streets of New York City from the perspective of 15-year-old Buddy and his first love, Angela.
The novel muses on how architecture can build belonging into a community and radically reimagines what a neighbourhood can look and feel like. Buddy convinces his Bed-Stuy neighbours to tear down their backyard fences to create a park where everyone
can gather together. He paints the curbs of the street in bright colours. Escaping the abyss of the social care system, he and Angela settle in a cemetery. Within the concrete matrix of Brooklyn, Jordan still finds the space to tenderly illustrate the devastating home lives of Buddy and Angela and the refuge that they find within each other. Tearing through the 112 pages of this spirited novel left me wondering how I could make the relentless bustle of a city breathe through a sentence.
• Liberty Martin won a special commendation at the 4thWrite prize for unpublished writers of colour for her story Bleach. ***
Cath, Guardian reader
I have been reading Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead. It’s a beautifully told tale about a missing female pilot from the 1950s and the present day actor who plays her on screen. It’s a long book that meanders mesmerisingly, flitting between the two characters. Its length adds to its beauty – I am halfway through and do not want it to end.