The Singers Gun by Emily St John Mandel
Before Exit Party, there was The Singer’s Gun. Mandel’s quiet early crime novel is where Aria Waker first appears, and where the questions she keeps returning to begin to take shape.
The Tao of Fully Feeling: Harvesting Forgiveness Out of Blame by Pete Walker
Pete Walker’s earlier book argues that healing comes from grieving, not from rushing to forgive. A warm, practical read on anger, blame and feeling what was never safe to feel, and a useful antidote to spiritual bypassing for anyone coming from meditation or non-duality.
Land by Maggie O’Farrell
Maggie O'Farrell's tenth novel takes her back to Ireland and to her own family: a mapmaker and his son on a post-famine peninsula in 1865, a sacred well, and a land that remembers everything. Sweeping, mythic, and O'Farrell at her best.
The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
A missing cat, a vanished wife, and a dry well pull Toru Okada into Japan's buried wartime past in Murakami's sprawling, strange Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Twenty years ago it was my introduction to him, so I went back to see if it would hit the same way — and found even more in it this time.
Alone in Japan: A Journey to the Future by Tom Feiling
Japan is shrinking. On a visit last year I noticed older people everywhere still working — in the konbinis late at night, directing traffic in Kyoto. It sent me down a rabbit hole, and eventually to Alone in Japan by Tom Feiling, a compelling look at a country facing a demographic crisis unlike anything the world has seen before.
Walk the Blue Fields by Claire Keegan
I first read this seventeen years ago and still remembered being impressed. Now, with a Netflix adaptation filming in Co. Wicklow — and a chance encounter with the crew — it felt like exactly the right time to return to Claire Keegan's Walk the Blue Fields.
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
A father and his three children are the sole caretakers of Shearwater, a remote island north of Antarctica housing the world's largest seed depository. When a woman named Rowan washes ashore during a storm, the question is whether to trust her. Charlotte McConaghy's Wild Dark Shore is atmospheric, bleak, and quietly devastating.
Good People by Patmeena Sabit
A review of Good People, Patmeena Sabit's debut novel about an Afghan immigrant family whose American dream unravels in the court of public opinion. Gripping and thought-provoking.
Ironwood by Michael Connelly
A review of Ironwood by Michael Connelly — the second Catalina Island novel, with a welcome Bosch cameo and Stilwell cementing his place in the Connelly universe.
London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe
A review of London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe — a gripping true story of wealth, shadow and a family's search for truth in modern London.
The Eyes of Gaza by Plestia Alaqad
A review of Eyes of Gaza by Plestia Alaqad — a diary of survival, resilience and love for a homeland. Not just a harrowing account — a defiant act of witness.
Silence of the Heart by Robert Adams
Review of Silence of the Heart by Robert Adams — transcribed dialogues on Advaita Vedanta, self-inquiry and the teachings of Ramana Maharshi.
Hooked by Asako Yuzuki
A review of Hooked, Asako Yuzuki's follow-up to Butter — a slow-burning character study of obsession, female friendship and the desperate hunger for connection in modern Tokyo. Great cover as well.
Last One Out by Jane Harper
A review of Last One Out, Jane Harper's sixth novel — an atmospheric, slow-burning thriller set in a dying Australian mining town. Melancholic, tightly plotted and deeply felt.
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
It's nearly thirty years since I read Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood. Given my recently rediscovered interest in all things Japanese, I thought I'd do something I rarely do — give it a re-read. Would it have the same impact on me?
Few and Far Between by Jan Carson
‘Few and Far Between‘ is a novel about a society that tried to put its trauma on an island and forget about it. The water, as Carson shows, always finds a way back in.
I Deliver Parcels in Beijing by Hu Anyan
Hu Anyan spent twenty years drifting between nineteen jobs across six Chinese cities, always at the bottom of the ladder, never quite belonging to the world the economy was building around him. What he left behind is a quiet, clear-eyed account of what that feels like from the inside — and an unexpected meditation on what it means to stay human when the system would prefer you didn't.
Becoming Yourself - Teachings on the Zen Way of Life by Shunryū Suzuki
‘Becoming yourself’ is the first collection in two decades based around the talks of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, the Zen priest whose unhurried wisdom and clarity made ‘Zen Mind, Beginners Mind’ a bestseller and a huge influence on Zen Buddhism in the West.
Flesh by David Szalay
The 2025 Booker Prize Winner ‘Flesh’ by David Szalay is the story of István, a Hungarian who we follow over the course of his life both at home and abroad. It’s written in a sparse, unsentimental manner that can be unsettling but always compelling.
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Lonesome Dove is a raw, sprawling epic about Two texas Rangers who lead a cast of unforgettable characters on a cattle drive north to Montana, in a story about friendship, longing and loss and the violence the American frontier is built on.
