Writers and Guardian readers discuss the titles they have read over the last month. Join the conversation in the comments
The user-friendly short chapter format of Nicci Cloke’s Her Many Faces, designed for our internet-lowered attention spans, obscures the fact that this page-turning, multiple viewpoint thriller is actually a densely plotted novel full of amazing twists. This is the book you want to take on a long, boring journey you’re dreading. You’ll pray you finish it before you arrive at your destination.
A Family Matter by Claire Lynch is a moving tale of a family fractured by love and kept apart by a reactionary state, partly set in the UK in the 80s. Beautifully observed. I sense a big movie in this.
Rapture’s Road by Seán Hewitt is amazing writing of breathtaking power. One of those poetry collections where, in the internet/AI era, you feel the bone-crunching, heart-scorching humanity in almost every sentence.
Partly a poem, partly an extended narrative through our desperate times, Corpse Flower by Johny Brown goes with incredible boldness and clarity to where few others venture. An instant urban classic.
