"Disgustingly lewd" French poetry, Sappho, an absurd (and frightening) attack on Plato, the bloody end of American civilisation and some sustaining literary diversions.
My book of the year for 2025 was Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen - the debut novel from the current Scottish Makar. It's a coming of age story set on Shetland's northernmost (formerly) inhabited island with its lighthouse. The lighthouse keeper is a stern man of repressed emotions who doesn't understand his son, who is otherworldly, a bit neurodivergent, a passionate reader and craftsman, and motherless (she is presumed dead). When they take on a bird-watching artist as a lodger in the island's other cottage for some extra cash, the relationship between father and son will come to a climax as the son gets a feel for the mainland world through the lodger. Beautiful, poetic, very Scottish, I fell hard for this novel.
One of my standout books of 2025 was The Colony by Audrey Magee. It was recommended to me and I was astonished that I hadn't previously heard of it. Longlisted for the Booker, shortlisted for The Orwell Prize, this is set on a small, thinly populated island of the west coast of Ireland. The year is 1979. Two visitors come to spend summer on the island, to 'capture' an authentic community, one through visual art, the other through language. But the 'troubles' and politics of the North of Ireland spill over even into this isolated place. I loved how Magee wove reportage (appalling incidents of violence committed by both Republican and Loyalist paramilitary groups) through her fiction here. A brilliant book.
Right now I am recommending Christian Kracht's Air to everyone I meet. Completely wonderful in a way that is difficult to put in words. I could say it is about an interior designer invested in a way of life he sees as the most robust and aesthetically pleasing (never buying bread from anywhere else than a specific bakery,wearing fisherman's clothes, favouring certain materials, fabrics, natural environments...) getting a job from a design magazine he is a great admirer of to find the 'perfect white' colour for... the interior of a huge AI data centre, it turns out. At the same time we follow a 9-year-old girl in what seems like ancient times accidentally shooting a man with strange ways and, it seems,superior knowledge... plot wise, I could try and describe some of it this way but in the end one just has to experience this book.
Actually more alarming if they have but I'm imagining something more like the teacher Kitty Farmer in Donnie Darko trying to ban teaching of The Destructors.
I agree on Oreo, the charm of which it’s almost impossible to capture - people should just read it. Right now I have been sucked into the vortex of Solvej Balle’s On The Calculation of Volume, and I don’t think I’m going to escape any time soon
Sam, I've been to see 'Hamnet' this afternoon as mentioned in another thread, and here are some thoughts as promised. Full confession, I really loved Maggie O'Farrell's novel but it's been a while since I read it and I'm not confident to say how faithful or not the film was to the novel. Maybe that is not the point of the film...
As expected Jessie Buckley was astonishing, Paul Mescal was also excellent - they are a great pairing. The surprise for me was the actor who played the boy Hamnet, Jacobi Jupe, an absolute star. I did become tearful, not a spoiler, everyone knows Hamnet's fate? Those scenes between the siblings Hamnet and Judith were so moving, with elder sister Susanna, played by Bodhi Rae Breathnach, also in a very strong supporting role.
It's a very enjoyable cinema experience - Buckley is really up to the task, full on in every way.
Mention of your and Lori's podcast, Sam, reminds me that Lori has been talking about Agaat, by Marlene Van Niekerk, on https://thebigbookproject.substack.com
I read this Afrikaans novel, translated by Michael Heyns, some time ago and, as Lori says, it's extraordinary. Two women, one black and one white, have to deal with the effects of Apartheid and, in different ways, the extreme challenge of motor neurone disease (ALS). It's a long novel and quite a tough read. The themes are similar to those in The Promise by Damon Galgut, which won the Booker. The Promise is a good book but for me it was always overshadowed by the more powerful Agaat.
The Irish author Jennifer Johnston died last year, in her nineties. Most of her novels seem to be out of print except, in the UK anyway, How Many Miles to Babylon?, which is published by Penguin Essentials. Johnston is one of those writers who achieves both big and delicate emotional impact by writing sparely. Digital versions of her books are still available and, for anyone interested in seeking her out, I recommend The Christmas Tree. It's a sad story (more terminal illness) but it's also romantic and hopeful. I re-read it recently for the third time and will doubtless return to it. Don't be put off by the covers her novels ended up with in later years. They don't reflect the quality of the writing.
It seems to me a big part of the problem resides in the elision in that sentence between the education undertaken in a university course and 'advocacy'. Propaganda isn't art. Advocacy isn't education. Education is the very act of figuring out such distinctions. Ah well... *sound of soapbox being pushed aside.
Two great books over the end of the year for me: Love's Labour by Stephen Grosz. I loved his first book, The Examined Life, which was all case studies. In Love's Labour he mixes them up with some memoir pieces too, and all are characterised by his limpid, precise sentences and his profound perspective on love and desire. The other, quite different, was The Scent of Flowers at Night by Leila Slimani. It's a novella-length memoir piece about a night she spent alone in the Punta della Dogana museum in Venice (a kind of writerly installation, if you like). It's really mostly about the act of writing and Slimani's genesis as a French-Moroccan writer. I thought it was beautiful and intriguing.
My book of the year for 2025 was Muckle Flugga by Michael Pedersen - the debut novel from the current Scottish Makar. It's a coming of age story set on Shetland's northernmost (formerly) inhabited island with its lighthouse. The lighthouse keeper is a stern man of repressed emotions who doesn't understand his son, who is otherworldly, a bit neurodivergent, a passionate reader and craftsman, and motherless (she is presumed dead). When they take on a bird-watching artist as a lodger in the island's other cottage for some extra cash, the relationship between father and son will come to a climax as the son gets a feel for the mainland world through the lodger. Beautiful, poetic, very Scottish, I fell hard for this novel.
Thank you! I hadn't heard of that at all. Sounds really interesting.
It's very quirky, like its author! Full of glorious landscapes and nature as well as laughs, drama and tears.
OK, I'm sold!
Spoiler alert. IMHO you’re right to be less than excited about Hamnet.
One of my standout books of 2025 was The Colony by Audrey Magee. It was recommended to me and I was astonished that I hadn't previously heard of it. Longlisted for the Booker, shortlisted for The Orwell Prize, this is set on a small, thinly populated island of the west coast of Ireland. The year is 1979. Two visitors come to spend summer on the island, to 'capture' an authentic community, one through visual art, the other through language. But the 'troubles' and politics of the North of Ireland spill over even into this isolated place. I loved how Magee wove reportage (appalling incidents of violence committed by both Republican and Loyalist paramilitary groups) through her fiction here. A brilliant book.
Right now I am recommending Christian Kracht's Air to everyone I meet. Completely wonderful in a way that is difficult to put in words. I could say it is about an interior designer invested in a way of life he sees as the most robust and aesthetically pleasing (never buying bread from anywhere else than a specific bakery,wearing fisherman's clothes, favouring certain materials, fabrics, natural environments...) getting a job from a design magazine he is a great admirer of to find the 'perfect white' colour for... the interior of a huge AI data centre, it turns out. At the same time we follow a 9-year-old girl in what seems like ancient times accidentally shooting a man with strange ways and, it seems,superior knowledge... plot wise, I could try and describe some of it this way but in the end one just has to experience this book.
So: one more tip you just need to read rather than talk about... :)
To be fair, Plato wasn't exactly against censorship himself, at least in theory. Maybe the Republicans have been reading The Republic.
LOL. True. (But also, I'm guessing they haven't...)
Actually more alarming if they have but I'm imagining something more like the teacher Kitty Farmer in Donnie Darko trying to ban teaching of The Destructors.
I agree on Oreo, the charm of which it’s almost impossible to capture - people should just read it. Right now I have been sucked into the vortex of Solvej Balle’s On The Calculation of Volume, and I don’t think I’m going to escape any time soon
Sam, I've been to see 'Hamnet' this afternoon as mentioned in another thread, and here are some thoughts as promised. Full confession, I really loved Maggie O'Farrell's novel but it's been a while since I read it and I'm not confident to say how faithful or not the film was to the novel. Maybe that is not the point of the film...
As expected Jessie Buckley was astonishing, Paul Mescal was also excellent - they are a great pairing. The surprise for me was the actor who played the boy Hamnet, Jacobi Jupe, an absolute star. I did become tearful, not a spoiler, everyone knows Hamnet's fate? Those scenes between the siblings Hamnet and Judith were so moving, with elder sister Susanna, played by Bodhi Rae Breathnach, also in a very strong supporting role.
It's a very enjoyable cinema experience - Buckley is really up to the task, full on in every way.
Thank you! Really pleased it was so enjoyable
Mention of your and Lori's podcast, Sam, reminds me that Lori has been talking about Agaat, by Marlene Van Niekerk, on https://thebigbookproject.substack.com
I read this Afrikaans novel, translated by Michael Heyns, some time ago and, as Lori says, it's extraordinary. Two women, one black and one white, have to deal with the effects of Apartheid and, in different ways, the extreme challenge of motor neurone disease (ALS). It's a long novel and quite a tough read. The themes are similar to those in The Promise by Damon Galgut, which won the Booker. The Promise is a good book but for me it was always overshadowed by the more powerful Agaat.
The Irish author Jennifer Johnston died last year, in her nineties. Most of her novels seem to be out of print except, in the UK anyway, How Many Miles to Babylon?, which is published by Penguin Essentials. Johnston is one of those writers who achieves both big and delicate emotional impact by writing sparely. Digital versions of her books are still available and, for anyone interested in seeking her out, I recommend The Christmas Tree. It's a sad story (more terminal illness) but it's also romantic and hopeful. I re-read it recently for the third time and will doubtless return to it. Don't be put off by the covers her novels ended up with in later years. They don't reflect the quality of the writing.
It seems to me a big part of the problem resides in the elision in that sentence between the education undertaken in a university course and 'advocacy'. Propaganda isn't art. Advocacy isn't education. Education is the very act of figuring out such distinctions. Ah well... *sound of soapbox being pushed aside.
Two great books over the end of the year for me: Love's Labour by Stephen Grosz. I loved his first book, The Examined Life, which was all case studies. In Love's Labour he mixes them up with some memoir pieces too, and all are characterised by his limpid, precise sentences and his profound perspective on love and desire. The other, quite different, was The Scent of Flowers at Night by Leila Slimani. It's a novella-length memoir piece about a night she spent alone in the Punta della Dogana museum in Venice (a kind of writerly installation, if you like). It's really mostly about the act of writing and Slimani's genesis as a French-Moroccan writer. I thought it was beautiful and intriguing.