Books Read April 2026
Endurance by Alfred Lansing. Classic account of Shackleton's 1914-17 Antarctic expedition, which turned into a desperate fight for survival as practically everything that could go wrong did. I simply wouldn't have gone in the first place.
Don't Burn Anyone at the Stake Today by Naomi Alderman. A brief look at our ongoing "information crisis". Not much to chew on, sadly.
Badenheim, 1939 by Aharon Appelfeld, translated by Dalya Bilu [reread]. Encroaching calamity in a Jewish resort town. Conjures an oblique, dream-like unreality that works to heighten the sense of oncoming horror, and the piteous denial of its victims.
The Lover by Margueritte Duras, translated by Barbara Bray [reread]. I wonder how many people have picked this up expecting a sex romp only to find it's a kind of morose tale of family dysfunction and being a youthful idiot. I had hoped I would enjoy it more this time - my earlier encounter may have been when I was a youthful idiot expecting a sex romp - but it all felt a bit dry and distant, which is not generally how I like my novels, or sex romps for that matter. Maybe that's the point. A novel I find interesting rather than absorbing.
The Mirror and the Light by Hilary Mantel. A huge book, and at times I did find myself thinking "Mantel's going on a bit, isn't she?" But then I thought: no, let her cook. And in truth it's pretty great all the way through, with the ground slowly and then all at once shifting beneath Cromwell's formerly steady feet. All the qualities of the earlier books are here in abundance, and I closed it feeling satisfied and somewhat bereft.
Talkative Man by R. K. Narayan. My first Narayan and I enjoyed it thoroughly, which is just as well as I own eight or nine of his books. Wry and good humoured.