10 Books to Look Forward to in 2022
Given the precarious state of the world, I’m reluctant to commit to a whole year of anything, But here are six months of books to look forward to…
You can buy all of these books through Bookstore.org at this link.
A Previous Life
By Edmund White (December 2021)
This is the first book I’ve read by Edmund White and it has made me eager to discover more of his work. The premise seems straightforward and salacious: a married couple read aloud the memoirs of their sexual exploits as one of them recovers from an accident. There’s quite a twist later in the book. I had to read this one with a dictionary by my side (“paramecia”, anyone?), so I felt I’d learned an awful lot about words, as well as about sexual mores.
Notes on an Execution
By Donya Kukafka (January)
This is a thriller about the women in the life of the fictional serial killer, Ansel Packer, and a story about the many different forms of violence against women in society. I read it over the course of a couple of days. It’s a real page-turner and its focus on the female victims, rather than solely Packer, is an interesting (and less misogynistic) take on crime fiction.
Free Love
By Tessa Hadley (February)
Hadley captures the suppressed desire of everyday lives in compelling detail. Free Love is the story of a woman who breaks with convention after falling in love with a younger man.
The Books of Jacob
Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft (February)
Tokarczuk is the Nobel Prize-winning author of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead, which (shamefully) I only read last year. Drive Your Plow featured the unreliable narrator and sword of justice Janina Duszejko; this new book follows Jacob Frank, a self-proclaimed new messiah.
In the Margins
Elena Ferrante (March)
Is Ferrante Fever dying down? Not for me. I’d read anything by Italy’s most elusive author. In the Margins is a collection of four essays that examine the craft, inspiration and struggles of writing for Ferrante.
Burning Questions
Margaret Atwood (March)
Margaret Atwood is looking increasingly like an oracle as well as an author. Here she gathers together 50 essays written between 2004-2020.
Time is a Mother
Ocean Vuong (April)
I’ve been lucky enough to hear Ocean Vuong read from his work. His voice is as haunting as his poetry. This work looks at the aftershocks caused by his mother’s death. I lost my own mother recently and struggle with the expression of grief.
This Time Tomorrow
Emma Straub (May)
Emma Straub is a literary hero of mine. I absolutely blasted through All Adults Here. This Time Tomorrow sees the protagonist waking up as her 16-year old self on her 40th birthday. I can’t wait to see the twist Ms Straub makes to the conceit. Also, NB not only does she write great books, she also runs one of the best bookstores in New York, Brooklyn’s Books Are Magic.
Lapvona
Ottessa Moshfegh (June)
I find Ottessa Moshfegh’s writing a beguiling mix of the weird, the absurd and the messed-up and this novel, written during the pandemic and set in the vanished medieval fiefdom of Lapvona, seems very promising indeed.
The House of Fortune
Jessie Burton (July)
A sequel to The Miniaturist. Burton’s novels are thoughtful and well-written. She often takes an unexpected angle on the world. Looking forward to this one!