Book Club #2: November
New bookshop in town and a Halloween round-up of horror reads
'It's the season I often mistake,' wrote US poet laureate Ada Limón,
birds for leaves, and leaves for birds.
As the days get chilly, it may warm the heart to know we have a new bookshop in the neighbourhood: Clerkenwell Coffee & Books, which opened just last week at 68 Compton Street.
What's up
Frankfurt Book Fair cancels award ceremony for Palestinian author Adania Shibli
750 writers sign the London Review of Books' open letter for a ceasefire in Gaza
Gabriel García Márquez's 'lost novel', Until August, to be published in March 2024
What's on
London Autumn Book Fair (Holiday Inn on Coram St, Nov 5) - secondhand and rare book fair by provincial sellers
The Booker Prize will be announced on Nov 26
What's out
The hottest literary release of November will be Day, Michael Cunningham's first novel in nearly a decade - set on the same day, April 5, over three years across the Covid-19 pandemic.
Women's Prize-winner Naomi Alderman, who dazzled with The Power, is back with heist thriller The Future, which I'm pretty thrilled for.
If you fancy a juicy period romp, Freya Marske wraps up her queer Edwardian magic trilogy with A Power Unbound. (If you like magical houses, this one's for you!)
Former US poet laureate Tracy K. Smith - whose poetry I adore - has turned to memoir in To Free The Captives, an exploration of race in America.
Paul Auster, despite suffering from cancer, has produced Baumgartner, about a philosophy professor in his 70s mourning his late wife.
In the Club
For our Halloween special, members discussed horror and the place it holds in literature and our lives - from the enduring power of creepy classics such as Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House and Stephen King's Pet Sematary, to the significance of the supernatural in different cultures.
Olivia from Singapore recommends Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell, a Gothic horror epic about a terrifying cult set during Argentina's Dirty War.
Renata from Brazil recommends The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis, a social satire of 19th-century Brazil narrated by the dead protagonist, who dedicates the book to the worm eating his flesh.
Burçak from Turkey is reading Cutting Edge, edited by Joyce Carol Oates, a chilling noir anthology by women writers including Margaret Atwood and Edwidge Danticat.
Varun from Canada continues to be haunted by Russell Lee's True Singapore Ghost Stories, especially the one about a ghostly train station.
Sophie from Luxembourg recommends I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid, in which a young woman contemplates breaking up with her boyfriend while visiting his parents - and then things get really, really weird.
Next up...
We'll be reading 'Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?' by Joyce Carol Oates for our meeting on Nov 8 (please note that this story was inspired by some real-life serial murders and, while not graphic, may be disturbing for some).
Do get in touch with Miriam, Sayeh or me if you would like to suggest a short story for the book club.
Happy reading,
Olivia
(I'm on Instagram with more book reviews - @ohomatopoeia)