Top 10 books of 2021

Anyone who reads knows that books are so much more than piles of paper bound together. And even once they are read, and back on the shelf or passed on perhaps as a recommendation to someone else, they are associated with powerful memories of specific moments and times in our own lives. So, with 2021 almost over, here are ten of the books that will stay with me from a year where I got engaged, finished my first novel, started editing other people’s books, and moved to Bermuda.

Read on for a short note on what makes them great and check the rest of the blog for some full reviews.

The Lincoln Highway – Amor Towles

It may be very different from Towles’ 2017 smash hit, A Gentleman in Moscow, but it is, in its own way, just as enchanting. Erudite but accessible, precise but expansive, this is a very Towles novel. It may slowly but surely count down towards a dramatic and poignant conclusion, but much more than that, this is a book about the journey rather than the destination. The trick, we are reminded, doesn’t work without the setup. As that journey progresses, it displays again and again the author’s exceptional talent for melding a charming lightness of tone with profound insights into life and the people who live it.

Cecily – Annie Garthwaite

If the prospect of the family trees of the Wars of the Roses brings you out in hives, fear not. An exhaustive knowledge of tangled medieval family trees is not required to enjoy this magnificent novel. Cecily confides to her mother at one point that “our inheritance didn’t come to us in a tidy bundle”. Spoiler alert, at this point in England, nobody’s does. Cecily will untangle some of the mess, gradually reminding us that it is strength, as well as the purity of a claim, that gives a man a golden crown, and puts a woman by his side. That it manages to achieve a measure of clarity stretching back to Henry V and Joan of Arc without ever attempting to oversimplify is an impressive achievement. Cecily was a bloody and brilliant woman. Cecily is a bloody brilliant novel.

A Thousand Ships – Natalie Haynes

A Thousand Ships sets out to tell nothing less than the stories of the women of Troy – all of them. It is not ashamed of its mission, the centring of women’s roles in conflict, reminding us powerfully that the knock-on effects when men fight are of not just as bad but worse for women than men. A Thousand Ships is an easy read but not a light one. It is lyrical and beautiful, witty, fast paced, constantly thought provoking but at no point does the novel shy away from the fact that its subject matter is also brutal, bleak and upsetting.

The Mercies – Kiran Millwood Hargrave

If you like your fiction suffocating, chilling and totally compelling, then go and grab a copy of The Mercies. Taking its premise from the real storm that devastated Eastern Finnmark in 1621, killing most of the male population and leading, in time, to a series of witch trials, the Mercies is an atmospheric tale of a town that learns to survive outside society’s norms before the powers that be force convention back on them in the most brutal way possible.

Apeirogon – Colum McCann

An astonishing hybrid of fiction and non-fiction, this was the most harrowing but illuminating novel I read this year. Anyone with a passing interest in understanding Israel and Palestine should read this book.

The Book of Trespass – Nick Hayes

What do we stand on, if not the land beneath our feet? And yet, as Nick Hayes persuasively argues in this captivating treatise on land, we own so little of it. A rich book about nature, politics, idleness and so much more.

A Place of Greater Safety – Hilary Mantel

Hugely ambitious, Hilary Mantel’s first novel is a sprawling look at the great protagonists of the French Revolution, Camille Desmoulins, Georges Danton and Maximilian Robespierre. Impeccably researched, this novel takes an almost day-to-day view of the French Revolution. This is a heavy book in more ways than one. The political intrigue is detailed and rigorous, and the result is that the pace is often slow, as the characters prepare for a court case or stubbornly explain their positions. In fact, it often veers more towards literary history rather than literary historical fiction. What really elevates this book is its dialogue. Over more than 800 pages, Mantel shows us the dreams and vulnerabilities of these extraordinary men as they created and then lost control of an extraordinary movement. Mantel is also very strong in recreating the women in their lives. Perhaps slightly more flawed than her Cromwell trilogy, this is still a hugely impressive achievement.

The Devil and the Dark Water – Stuart Turton

A stark contrast to A Place of Greater Safety, the Devil and the Dark Water is pure, unadulterated fun and Turton even admits that historical accuracy is among the least of his considerations. What he is mainly concerned with is producing a rollicking page turner featuring strong characters and he delivers in spades Set mostly on a Dutch Indiaman ship making the long voyage from Batavia (Jakarta) to Amsterdam, the intricate plot revolves around a series of murders linked to a demonic cult. Amid the ensuing chaos, it’s left to irrepressible detective Sammy Pipps and his sidekick Arent Hayes, with some help from the governor’s wife and her precocious daughter, to save the ship. The Devil and the Dark Water is relentlessly paced and written with immense panache all the way through to the excellent twist.

The Game of Kings – Dorothy Dunnett

If you thought Mantel was a taxing read, enter Dorothy Dunnett. Incorporating a dizzying array of classical and renaissance references, some of which require knowledge of French, Spanish or Italian to unravel, this is a beautifully but unashamedly complexly written novel. In fact, many readers admit that they are baffled and bewildered for large parts of the novel. Others spend large parts hating the silver tongued protagonist, Crawford of Lymond, a man who infuriates, enchants or both almost everyone who crosses his path. However, the effort is more than worth it. As you’ll realise if you stick with it through to the final court case, this is gloriously plotted novel full of characters who are simultaneously larger than life and brilliantly, humanly, flawed.

Exit West – Mohsin Hamid

As readable as it is important and timely, even four years after its publication, Mohsin Hamid’s novel about a world where doors open between countries is a moving piece of magical realism.

Honourable mentions

The Great Passage – Shion Miura

Dreaming the Eagle – Manda Scott

My Name is Red – Orhan Pamuk

Midnight at Malabar House – Vaseem Khan

Mutiny on the Bounty – John Boyne

The Ardent Swarm – Yamen Manai