THE LAND IN WINTER – Andrew Miller

Booker 101 Quick & Dirty Monday!

THE LAND IN WINTER: Andrew Miller
Europa Editions:  4 November 2025 (US)Sceptre: 24 October 2024 (UK) (I’m using the UK edition)
Page Count: 371

First line: He was lying on a varnished wooden board, the top of a boxed-in radiator.

Blurbed by:

Hilary Mantel – (Nominated for the Booker four times, she’s the first woman to win the Booker twice – 2009 for WOLF HALL and 2012 for BRING UP THE BODIES. Her blurb is about Miller not the novel.)

Samantha Harvey – (2024 Booker Prize winner for ORBITAL)

Rachel Joyce – (Longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2012 for THE UNLIKELY PRLGRIMAGE OF HAROLD FRY.)

Sarah Hall – (Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2004 for THE ELECTRIC MICHELANGELO. Longlisted in 2009 for HOW TO PAINT A DEAD MAN.  She has also served as a previous Booker judge.)

THE LAND IN WINTER is Andrew Miller’s tenth novel.  He was previously shortlisted for the Booker Prize for OXYGEN. He lives in Somerset.

Don’t Judge a Book…

Is it possible to like both covers equally?  I keep going back and forth between these two, and I can’t seem to land on a preference.  The UK edition might be edging out the US one – but just barely.  Both covers have a chill to them, but the UK edition seems to capture the stark isolation, the land and the sky blurring under the snow such that what is up is down and what is down is up. The blue words on the greyscale image feel cold and hopeless. The image is turned on its side, further showcasing the topsy turvy impact of the blizzard and subsequent “Big Freeze” of 1962/3. 

The US edition features the two houses on a blanket of white, highlighting the proximity of the two women forced upon each other by circumstance and loneliness. The pink and purple with the white font give the cover a more feminine feel that seems more hopeful with a hint of warmth than the UK cover doesn’t provide. The cover makes me think of Rita and an ending of escape.

What about you?  Which one is your favorite?

“She takes a lemon for no reason but the shine of its waxed skin, its history of sunlight.” (205)

“All winter you hold yourself like a fist, a tension you’re hardly aware of until the first warm day when you lift your face to the sun. (33)

“He had the impression he was following just behind the dragged hem of a dream.” (102)

Set during the Big Freeze that started on Boxing Day 1962 and carried into January, Andrew Miller’s The Land in Winter has been perhaps my biggest surprise of the longlist. Initially, I found myself uninterested, disengaged (primarily because I hate Dr. Eric Parry) – but my heart thawed as the snow fell.  This domestic fiction features two pregnant women, neighbors, in a small town.  Irene, the doctor’s wife, is trying to adjust to rural life with nothing to do but be the doctor’s spouse.  Rita, a former showgirl, is battling the voices in her head and a family disposition to madness while her husband is making a go at being a diary farmer.

The novel alternatives POVS between Eric, Irene, Rita, and her husband, Billy.  Billy loves Rita. He’s not so great at being a farmer or understanding his wife, but he’s trying. Eric is awful. He doesn’t want children. He’s having an affair. He treats his wife like crap. He’s not a good doctor. He thinks he’s too good for the town.  The novel could have benefitted from him ending up face down in a snow drift.

The writing floats like falling snow, but snow filled with shards of ice.  It can be cold and cutting followed by soft and picturesque – the events unfolding as unpredictable as a winter storm.

Things to note:

Martin, Rita’s father, obsession with fire.

The foreshadowing of Drusilla’s dead calf.

The spinning tops Martin made for his unborn grandchild.

The snowman Rita and Irene build.

Gabby.

I want to reread this novel with snow on the ground – but I think the desolation and despair might be too much.  This one made my shortlist.  It’s more of a traditional novel than some of the others on the list, but it is one of my favorites.

ONE BOAT – Jonathan Buckley

Booker 101 Quick & Dirty Monday!

ONE BOAT : Jonathan Buckley
W.W. Norton:  4 November 2025 (US)Fitzcarrldo Editions: 13 March 2025 (UK) (I’m using the UK Kindle version)
Page Count: 168

First line: “The first time the intention was simply to find a place that was quiet, but not somnolent”

Blurbed by:

I could find no blurbs for this novel by authors on the UK edition.  I don’t know if the US version has any.

ONE BOAT is Jonathan Buckley’s thirteenth novel.  Buckley is known for playing around with literary conventions and his preference for unconventional story-telling.   He lives in Brighton, a seaside resort in England.

Don’t Judge a Book…

I’m of two-minds when it comes to the respective covers for ONE BOAT, but ultimately, I think the UK edition takes this one.

The UK edition is bright marine blue with the title printed in the center, in a simple white font.  That’s it.  The upcoming US edition features a greyscale image of a staircase with the title is a simple blue font.

The US edition calls to mind the ruins that Teresa explores as she confronts mortality and the desire for immortality.   “The castle could be my church, I told myself… I would attend the ruins.”

The UK edition calls to mind Petros’s book of poetry, published after Teresa’s first trip to the unnamed town. She reads it, or attempts to, on her second trip – buying the book from the wife of a past summer romance. The simplicity of his poetry is in stark juxtaposition to what Teresa is attempting to create.  But it is Petros’s poetry that gives us the title – and lines that Teresa eventually takes, modifies, and manipulates into her own narrative.

I prefer the blue – with the words floating like a single boat on the water.

What about you?

“The sea wants boats.”

When I finished One Boat, my first thought was “well. That was a book, I guess.” I really didn’t like it. It was pretentious and lacking authenticity. For me, Teresa is a middle-aged woman written by a man.  While there have been other selections in this longlist that I found pretentious, they at least were as smart or even smarter than the author thought them.  I didn’t find this the case here. I’ve seen the novel compared to Cusk’s writing, which makes sense – I’m still bent out of shape over SECOND PLACE being listed.  And I don’t think Buckley was remotely successful at capturing a middle-aged woman in the throes of crisis.

While reading, I briefly wondered if Adrienne Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck” served as muse. There are a lot of similarities between the poem and what Buckley is trying to do with Teresa,  I just think Buckley missed the mark.

The novel tackles grief, the past, mortality, domesticity, the craving of immortality, and relationships with our parents. Teresa places her memories, her story, alongside the ruins as she tries to make sense of it and to write it the way she wants to be remembered.

Best part of the novel?  Petros and the relationship he has with first Sander and then Kal.

This is at the bottom of my stack.

SEASCRAPER – Benjamin Wood

Booker 101 Quick & Dirty Monday!

SEASCRAPER : Benjamin Wood
Scribner:  4 November 2025 (US)Penguin Books Ltd.: 17 July 2025 (UK) (I’m using the UK version)
Page Count: 163

First line: Thomas Flett relies upon the ebb tide for a living, but he knows the end is near.

Blurbed by:

Hilary Mantel – (Nominated for the Booker four times, she’s the first woman to win the Booker twice – 2009 for WOLF HALL and 2012 for BRING UP THE BODIES. Her blurb is about Wood not the novel.)

Ross Raisin – (Numerous awards. No Booker nominations.)

Andrew O’Hagan – (Nominated for the Booker Prize three times, shortlisted in 1999 for OUR FATHERS. His blurb is about Wood not the novel.)

Benjamin Myers – (Numerous awards. No Booker nominations.)

SEASCRAPER is Benjamin Wood’s fifth novel.  At 17, he dropped out of A-levels to pursue a singer-songwriter career; however, he was unable to land a record deal. He went on to get his degrees in art and design, screenwriting, and creative writing. He teaches creative writing at King’s College in London.

Don’t Judge a Book

There’s no picking between covers with Benjamin Wood’s SEASCRAPER as the upcoming Scribner edition has the exact same cover as the Penguin publication – I can see why because it’s a great cover.

The cover is the perfect depiction of the beginning of the novel, capturing the feel of the novel without being too fussy.  And there’s a reason it looks like it could be the cover to a folk album.

“He’s been closer to the grave than he has ever been to marriage. “ (119)

“But he doesn’t have that sort of motivation. He’s no empire builder.” (10)

Benjamin Wood’s SEASCRAPER is an unassuming, slim little novel that is simply beautiful to read. The writing is gorgeous, and the story of Thomas Flett with his horse and cart out on the sea shrimping for a living while dreaming of being a folksinger will settle on your bones like a heavy fog.  And then Thomas almost dies, and the novel hums with an electric fever dream energy that changes both Thomas and the reader. It’s so well done.

Things of note:

We have yet another professor who can’t keep it in his pants – this time with a 15-year-old girl.

The relationship between Thomas Flett and his mother, Lillian, reminds me a bit of Shuggie Bain.

The pregnant woman without a tongue who takes him to his father (or the devil).

His father and the song. (This actually made me think of a SNL skit with Garth Brooks where a man sells his soul for a top song, only the Devil isn’t any good at songwriting. “Oh the Devil never could write a love song…)

Edgar Acheson changing his name to be “more agreeable” in the industry.

Lasting effects of the war seen in both Edgar’s addiction to Benzedrine and the loss of Flett’s father.

Mildred’s treatment of her son.  “The son I had before the war was so much easier to love.”

The inclusion of the song – there is a website provided with a recording so readers can listen to Wood / Flett.  It’s a nice song and clearly Wood hasn’t abandoned all of his singer/song writer aspirations.

I really enjoyed this novel, and I think it is a palatable crowd favorite.  I would love to see it shortlisted.

UNIVERSALITY – Natasha Brown


UNIVERSALITY: Natasha Brown
Random House:  4 March 2025 (US) (unless otherwise noted, I’m reading the US edition)
Faber & Faber: 13 March 2025 (UK)
Page Count: 152

First line: A gold bar is deceptively heavy.

Blurbed by:

Tess Gunty – (Numerous awards. No Booker nominations.)

Raven Leilani – (Numerous awards. No Booker nominations.)

Andrew O’Hagan – (Nominated for the Booker Prize three times, shortlisted in 1999 for OUR FATHERS)

Mendez – (Numerous awards. No Booker nominations.)

Elizabeth Day – (Numerous awards, including for her podcast. No Booker nominations.)

Jo Hamya  – (Numerous awards. No Booker nominations, but she does host The Booker Prize podcast)

UNIVERSIALITY is Natasha Brown’s second novel.  Her debut, ASSEMBLY, earned her numerous awards.  Prior to becoming an author, Brown worked in finance after having studied mathematics at Cambridge. In 2023, she was named on Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists list, which is compiled once every decade.  Fellow longlister Tash Aw was on that judging panel.  Brown lives in London.

Don’t Judge a Book…

Yet again I am going to pick the US cover.  While the US and UK covers of Natasha Brown’s UNIVERSALITY are similar, the US version is much more appealing.  Both feature the golden bar on a dark background, albeit tilted opposite ways, but the devil is in the details.

The US version shows a tarnished bar, signifying what’s to come as pure gold does not tarnish. The title is imprinted on the side of the bar, and a feminine face, nose and lips, is reflected on the top. Considering the role women play in the novel in creating the “story,” this is perfect.  The reflection is absent on the UK version as is the tarnishing.  Brown’s name appears as if written in gold ink beneath the bar on the US version and in big gold letters at the bottom of the cover on the UK version.

The imperfect bar and the reflection as well as the font used for Brown’s name make the US version the clear winner in my book.

“Words are your weapons, they’re your tools, your currency.” (127)

Divided into four sections with each adding to or rewriting the facts of the section that came before, Natasha Brown’s Universality is certainly a remarkable work and well-deserving of being listed; I just didn’t like it.  At all.  But why? The writing is biting and sharp. The story-telling is exciting and tightly wound. Each word on the page was chosen with the precision of a mathematician. So what’s the problem?  The problem is me.  I hated everyone.  (Pretty sure that was the point, but I find little joy in novels where I loathe every person on the page.)

The novel opens with Hannah’s article, “Fool’s Gold,” which introduces us to the Universalists – a group of white, middle-class folks crying for “progress.” They’ve created a little commune on a farm owned by Richard Spencer, a rich banker, where they grow pot. (Funniest part of the novel is that what they’re growing is just hemp, which is perfectly legally and not going to get you stoned.)  Jake’s mother gave him access to the farm because she was sleeping with Richard. He invited Indiya, and suddenly Rob, Tim, Pete and Pegasus join. Jake ends up striking Pegasus repeatedly with a bar of gold Richard kept on the mantle.  As each section unfolds, the more convoluted of a manipulative mess things are.   The novel serves as a reminder that there are three sides to every story. 

I appreciate stories that call into question whether the truth or fiction would sell better and how things get manipulated based on the intent of the involved parties, and I appreciate that aspect here. I just hated Miriam Leonard.  And I found Hannah with her “bohemian brokenness” positively annoying.  Everyone in the Universalities aggravates me – especially Pegasus.  Richard and Claire interest me the most, but they’re also unlikeable.

While I can appreciate the craft, I still hate the final product.

ENDLING – Maria Reva

Booker 101 Quick & Dirty Monday!

ENDLING: Maria Reva
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.: 3 June 2025 (US) (unless otherwise noted, I’m reading the US edition)
Little, Brown Book Group / Virago Books: 3 July 2025 (UK)
Page Count: 338

First line: In the cities, buildings still stood whole.

Blurbed by:

Ann Patchett – (Numerous awards. No Booker nominations.)

Percival Everett – (Shortlisted for the Booker twice – THE TREES (2022) and JAMES (2024))

Lara Prescott – (Bestselling author of THE SECRETS WE KEPT. No Booker nominations.)

Ben Fountain – (Numerous awards. No Booker nominations.)

Anelise Chen – (Numerous awards. No Booker nominations.)

Karen Mahajan – (Numerous awards. No Booker nominations.)

Margaret Atwood – (Joint winner of the 2019 Booker Prize.)

Maria Reva was born in Ukraine and grew up in Vancouver.  She earned her MFA from the University of Texas.  In 2022, she was included on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s list of Canadian citizens who are forbidden from entering Russia. In addition to writing fiction, she works as an opera librettist.  Endling is her first novel.

Don’t Judge a Book… Wednesday

This might prove my most controversial cover discussion yet – I choose the US version.  Don’t get me wrong – I love the snail cloud, I do – but the US version matches the vibes of the book better.   

The UK version features a beautiful illustration of a puffy white snail cloud hanging in a blue sky over a lush green area with a body of water. In the distance, there appears to be smoke. This may speak to the dreamer in Yeva, who is trying to save snails from extinction. She has several “endlings,” thought to be the last of their kind, in her care, including a tree snail she calls Lefty. As Russia attacks Ukraine, she gets word from another conservationist that Lefty might not be the last.  With a backdrop of bombs, she sets out to find the other snail.

The title of the novel sits in all caps, sectioned off from the image. (Is this a UK thing? This blocking?) It’s a lovely cover, but it doesn’t have the grit and roar of the US version, a version with a textured cover that even feels gritty. If you haven’t read Endling, stop now. I’m going to get into spoilers a bit.

ENDLING’s “Acknowledgements,” “About the Author, and “A Note on the Type” fall in the middle of the novel and are an active part of the story. Emily Mahon gets a shout out for designing the cover with “adapted artwork by Valentin Pavageau.” Pavageau is known for drawing on the fields of collage and illustration, creating mesmerizing bits.  (They remind me of those posters that were big in 1990s where you’d stare at the image until another image emerged.)  I wonder if the UK version thanks Emily as well or if there’s a different note.

On top of Pavageau’s print, there is a motorhome driving into the shadows. You can see the trees and the dark blue and the red of the sun as this RV seems to be booking it across the cover.  This is the novel in a nut shell.

While I do find the snail cloud charming, this vibrant, mesmerizing cover takes the prize for me.

Final Thoughts Fridays

“Here’s how it all ends: happily, believably.” (128)

“Life teetered between annihilation and – could she dare think it? – hope.” (264)

“If I get the details just right, my grandfather will leave Kherson.” (297)

I’ve been quite vocal that Maria Reva’s Endling is my choice to take home The Booker Prize 2025; the book is next to perfect. As you’ve likely realized by now, I hate metafiction; however, Endling’s clever and unique use of the technique may just convert me. Maybe because there is more at stake for Reva as an author who is on the outside looking in to a homeland that is being destroyed, an author with family still there, an author who questions her own voice. “Am I no better than a snail, sniffing out the most softest, most rotten part of a log to feast on? At least a snail digests the rot and excretes nutrients, useful.” (331) And not only does the author break the fourth wall, Reva is in the story within the story as Masha, the head of the matchmaking agency. This is where things blur in such a beautiful, chaotic way.

The story within the story is about Yeva, a snail conservationist who is trying to save as many species as possible. She becomes one of the “Brides” with the Ukrainian romance tours for money. There, she meets Nastia. The 18-year-old daughter of an activist who has abandoned her and her sister.  She has joined the “Brides” to get her mother’s attention. Her sister, Sol, has joined as a translator. Nastia hatches a plot to kidnap some of the men using Yeva’s lab, which is an RV. Things go south when Russia attacks Ukraine whilst they are traveling with their captives. The three women, their captives, and a snail named Lefty are just trying to survive, hoping to save Masha/the author’s grandfather and find the snail that a fellow conservationist (not without its own complications) has told her he has seen in a clip of a boy releasing his pet rats before fleeing his home. Maybe Lefty isn’t an “endling – the last of his kind” after all.

Things of note:

Paul/Pasha/Pavel/Pavlo (he doesn’t understand that Pavel is Russian while Pavlo is the Ukrainian  version) and his future career as an artist of bridges (without the bodies).

Nastia comparing her mom to Hitler.

The placement of the author’s note and the hilarious note on type in the center of the book being part of that dark humor she talks about in one of the more meta sections.

The use of dog breeds to draw connections to readers (she indicates this is why she uses the border collie but it is likely also why the two goldens show up).

Motherhood and sisterhood.

Sol’s cake that took 3 days to make.

Hope.

There is so much I could say about this book, but we are short on space. Not only is it my pick to win the prize, it is likely my best read of the year.

THE ROAD TO TENDER HEARTS – Annie Hartnett

PJ pet the cat in his lap. “Well, I think in his past life, Pancakes was a goat herder in Mongolia. And I believe I was one of his goats.”

“A goat?” Ollie asked, laughing. “You think you were a goat?”

“Yep. Or perhaps a yak. But Pancakes and I found each other again, in this life, which is a beautiful thing.”

Annie Hartnett’s Unlikely Animals was one of my top reads of 2022, and I was hoping The Road to Tender Hearts (Ballantine Books 2025)  could bottle some of that same magic.  Spoiler – it can and it very much does. Hartnett’s writing is a hug with teeth – a lot like life. Unlikely Animals said something akin to the stories we like best are “both funny and sad,” and this one hits that mark.

Pancakes is an orange tabby that moonlights as the grim reaper. He was happily living at the nursing home in Pondville, Massachusetts, until the director noticed his unique talents and felt he was paying a bit too much attention to him. He took the cat to the shelter.  He still died, of course, because Pancakes doesn’t miss.

The cat ends up on a road trip with PJ, an alcoholic manchild who is struggling with a powerful grief, and Irish twin siblings, Ollie and Luna. Ollie and Luna are orphaned (pretty horrifically) and are the grandchildren of PJ’s estranged older brother. Child services figures since PJ’s a living relative right in town, he’s better than foster home. PJ was unaware they existed, but just like he couldn’t let Pancakes go back to the shelter, he can’t let them go to a foster home, so he decides to take them on his road trip to visit his recently widowed high school sweetheart who lives at the Tender Hearts Retirement Home in Arizona. His daughter, not on the best terms with her dad, joins because she’s unemployed and she knows that man cannot be trusted to watch children. Or a cat.

It’s a gritty and hard to pin down novel – one that is so full of heart and so delightfully bizarre.  There are ghosts and lollipop trees, talking cats and hats, a mermaid, vultures who sing out for two children to stay alive, near misses, Abe Lincoln’s stolen arm, and a lot of death. You’ll fall in love with this hodge podge group of misfits on a journey to love, forgiveness, second chances, and hope.  And yes, you’ll even love the harbinger of death, Pancakes.

Read this book.

WHEN THE CRANES FLY SOUTH – Lisa Ridzén

“A window opens, and I hear the cranes gathering to fly south.”

“At dinner one day, I snapped and asked what the hell the point of life was if I was too old for a dog.”

If you’ve ever had to say goodbye when death is not a thief but a friend who comes in and warms himself by the fire before leaving with a loved one, this novel will crack open your grief like a jar that holds the scarf of a loved one kept so as to maintain the smell. But what it then does with that grief is what makes this novel a heart hug.

Blurbed by Fredrik Backman, Lisa Ridzén’s debut novel, When the Cranes Fly South (English translation:  Vintage 2025, translated from the Swedish by Alice Menzies), was a bit of an anticipated novel for me; Backman has never steered be wrong, and there is something about Swedish literature that claims a part of my heart. In short, the novel exceeded my expectations – it got in my blood, the words beating in rhythm with my heart and swimming in salt water. Even now, my throat is getting tight.

Eighty-nine-year-old Bo lives alone with his elkhound, Sixten. His beloved wife, Fredrika, lives in a memory care center where dementia has stolen her memories of him. His days are broken up by visits from carers, who feed, bathe, and give him his medicine.  (The novel is broken up by their log entries.)  They also walk Sixten when they can. Bo’s son, Hans, has decided that Sixten needs to be rehomed because Bo cannot care for him and it is not the carers’s responsibility. Bo is livid over this decision, even threatening suicide should they take his dog.

The novel takes us from May 18 – October 13, and we watch Bo fading.  His memories blur with the present, and we become privy to difficult memories of his father, sweet memories of his wife, complicated memories of his relationship with his son, and the friendship with Ture.  As the novel progresses and Bo  fades, his memories become more vibrant.  While the novel is told from Bo’s POV, with the brief entries by his carers and occasionally Hans, we see so clearly Hans’s quiet desperation, fear, and anticipatory grief.

The carers know what’s coming. Hans knows what’s coming.  We know what’s coming.  That doesn’t mean it hurts any less.

Ridzén’s idea for the novel came upon discovering notes left by the carers for her grandfather during his final days; his memory and her loss sit tight to you while you read, like a hound leaning into you.

Read this book.

THE SOUTH – Tash Aw

Booker 101 Quick & Dirty Monday!

THE SOUTH: Tash Aw
Farrar, Straus and Giroux : 27 May 2025 (US) (unless otherwise noted, I’m reading the US edition)
4th Estate (Harper Imprint): 13 February 2025 (UK)
Page Count: 280

First line: Two boys walk through the scant shade of an orchard, far from the house where they are staying.

Blurbed by:

Michael Cunningham – (Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1999, no Booker nominations)

Yiyun Li – (Numerous awards (including finalist for the Pulitzer), previous Man International Booker Prize Judge, 2024 Booker Prize judge)

Edouard Louis – ( Numerous awards, no Booker nominations)

Oisin McKenna – (Award-winning spoken word artist and playwright. His debut novel was published in 2024.  No Booker nominations.)

Tash Aw is the author of five novels, three of which have been longlisted for the Booker Prize. (THE SOUTH, THE HARMONY SILK FACTORY (2005),and FIVE STAR BILLIONAIRE (2013).)  THE SOUTHis the first of a planned quartet.

Don’t Judge a Book… Wednesday

I’m not sure what it is about the Booker dozen this year, but I’m finding myself liking the US covers over the UK ones, and The South follows that trend. The US version features a stunning aerial view of southern Malaysia – lush, green, and hazy with memory (and longing).  This suits the summer-long romance between Jay and Chuan. The novel, set on a farm in the south during a prolonged dry season, is about so much more than this young love between the two boys and Jay’s coming of age, and this picture somehow captures all of that with the tone of the novel.   The font is perfect. I typically don’t like the author’s name as large as the title, but it works here.

The UK version looks like a sister to FLASHLIGHT.  4th Estate opted for a bright green (dare I say garish green?) with a small photo of a man in a river. The man is standing in the water, looking away from the camera. To me, it looks more like a man than a boy.  This doesn’t bother me so much because the novel is framed with an adult Jay looking back on that summer, and the river is important to the land but also memories of the water are tied to the relationship with Chuan; I just don’t like this block single color plus photo style.

What about you?  Which one is your favorite?

“In no time. I can’t remember how long all this takes to unfold; it doesn’t matter.” (116)

“That was how memory worked; it was the opposite of recollection, never as strong as we thought it was, always relinquishing the instances that mattered most to us.”  (200)

Set in Malaysia, Tash Aw’s The South, the first of a planned quartet, is a bildungsroman that does so much more; Jay’s first love story also tackles infidelity, gender norms, geopolitics, Malay v. Chinese Malaysian, urban v. rural, and the socioeconomic struggles during the financial collapse of the 1990s.  (And like a few other Booker books, it involves a professor who can’t keep it in his pants.)

The novel is told in four alternating POVs: adult Jay (his is the only one in first person), young Jay, Sui (his mother), and Fong (his father’s half-brother and farm manager, also Chuan’s father). The connection between Sui and Fong is delicate and often unspoken; one of my favorite sections of the novel is when Fong cuts down tamarind trees following Sui making a decision that will forever change everything.  This act of anger and defiance is in quiet contrast to the depictions of Jay’s father’s violent outburst.

The relationship between Jay and Chuan is at the heart of the novel, but the pieces you get about his sisters, his parents, Fong… these slices of life, quiet moments that pass quickly, are the juicy fruits in a failing harvest. 

Chuan’s friend, Jessie, is also an interesting part of the novel.  She’s vibrant and alive, much like the sunflower print in her apartment, but Aw just drops clues without revealing too much. But it’s the whispers in the novel, the flashes of light that Jay might not notice, that a memory might not recollect, that the reader catches. We can infer what happened, but we’re not told. And that seems to be a bit of the theme with the novel – we’re getting whispers, but it seems unfinished.

As it should.  This is one of four.

Will the whispers get louder?

I am surprised they listed the first of a quartet, though it does stand seemingly well enough on its own.  Aw’s writing is beautiful and he’s been listed twice before – maybe the third time is the charm for him.

MISINTERPRETATION – Ledia Xhoga

Booker 101 Quick & Dirty Monday!

MISINTERPRETATION: Ledia Xhoga
Tin House : 3 September 2024 (US) (unless otherwise noted, I’m reading the US edition)
Daunt Books: 6 May 2025 (UK)
Page Count: 287

First line: I was fifteen minutes late and his phone number was out of service.

Blurbed by:

Jennifer Croft – (With the author Olga Tokarczuk, she was awarded the 2018 Booker International Prize for her translation of FLIGHTS)

Idra Novey – (Numerous awards, no Booker nominations.)

Maisy Card  — (Numerous awards, no Booker nominations. Her THESE GHOSTS ARE FAMILYwas my top read of 2020)

Elizabeth Gaffney – (Numerous awards, no Booker nominations.)

Tom Grimes – (Numerous awards, no Booker nominations.  I think, but could be wrong, he was Xhoga’s advisor during her MFA.)

Ledia Xhoga (pronounced Joga) was born and raised in Albania. She worked in publishing in New York prior to going to Texas for her MFA.  She currently lives in Brooklyn. This is her first novel.

Booker 101 “Don’t Judge a Book…” Wednesdays

I think we finally have one of the longlist selections where I prefer the UK cover.  The Daunt Books Publishing cover of Xhoga’s MISINTERPRETATION is more appealing than the Tin House version, though I appreciate what Tin House was trying to do.

The UK version captures the narrators paranoia and descent into madness in the font and the way it’s fall down the side of the page. (This is similar to what is attempted on the US cover, but the differences in font make all the difference.)  The shade of purple is the shade I imagine her mystery hyacinths are. Those flowers are important aspects to the novel, in particular in building the “thriller” aspect, which the rest of the cover heavily leans into with the magnifying glass over the New York skyline. As the narrator serves as both prey fleeing and the predator prowling the New York streets, this choice nails that “thriller” vibe.

The US version went an entirely different way, moving away from the “thriller” aspect and more into the gothic.  A seemingly female hand (the clothing choice a nod to the coat Billy gives the narrator that she gives to Leyla) holds an ornate, vintage mirror that is reflecting a human-looking big cat with stripes.  Per the cover art description, it’s a tiger.  Now, the Cheshire cat does show up in the text, and Alfred is seeing hybrid animals, but I think this reflection in particular references a scene near the end with a panther.  But that reflection isn’t of a panther. Panthers don’t have stripes.  Panthers also aren’t in Albania. But you know what is – the critically endangered Balkan lynx.  Is that what is supposed to be on the cover? The panther is a reflection of the narrator in the text. Was the panther in the text originally a Balkan lynx? Or is it really supposed to reflect Alfred’s fragmented hybrids? (Considering the artist being Anton Vierietin, I think that might be the point. I don’t like it – his visions are not her’s.)

I’m not sure that either cover would cause me to pick the book up for further inspection.  And while I think the Tin House version is on the right track, it falls short. Because of that, I’d likely pick the UK version.

What about you?  Which one is your favorite?

“You’re misinterpreting your emotions.” (58)

“Old ghosts were everywhere and proved more helpful than the rare street signs.” (160)

Booker loves a unnamed and unreliable narrator, and they have one in Ledia Xhoga’s Misinterpretation. (This is the Creation Lake of this longlist, I believe.)  The novel is set primarily in New York, with a brief 50-page trip to Albania. It has some thriller vibes and some gothic vibes, but it’s not squarely either. And I think that’s part of the point. There’s a lot of fragments in the novel, including Alfred’s face, caused by the narrator’s lived experiences and trauma and the stories she carries for those she translates for; she’s become a vessel for the pain and horrors of others, and it begins to flow outward.

As a former immigration attorney, the themes of the immigrant experience in America, including visa overstays, Anna saying she once thought Billy had married the unnamed narrator to get her a greencard, and the fear of being removed silencing victims, stood out to me as some of the stronger snapshots of time, place, and people. It’s likely what I appreciated the most from the novel because of how honestly it is depicted.

The unnamed narrator becomes a predator when she begins stalking Rakan, who is in turn stalking Leyla. Upon returning from Albania, the roles have reverses; she has become the prey.  Billy leaving her to her own devices during these moments was one of the many times I said “he is not the one for you.”  (I didn’t like Billy. Not in the slightest. But for what it’s worth, I don’t really like our “Clara” – the only name given to the narrator is the “joke” name bestowed upon based upon some man who had been obsessed with her mother.)

The novel deals with displacement, trauma, identity, immigration, self-preservation, domesticity, and motherhood (she doesn’t want to become a mother.  Billy wants a family.  She ignores those conversations). I think it’s an interesting novel that isn’t necessarily as polished as I would like – but I’m apt to believe that was intentional – first narration and madness? It’s not meant to be polished.

The longlist is feeling pretty global this year, and I am appreciating that.

LOVE FORMS – Claire Adam

“I’m recalling this as best I can, you understand. The truth is that I only remember impressions – images, sounds, feelings.” (9)

Claire Adam’s Love Forms started out strong – a first-person narrative with a lyricism to the storytelling that I enjoyed.  It didn’t last. On page 11, she writes: “In the darkness, the fallen coconuts all around us glimmered like skulls.” I never recovered. Was it Adam who gave me this impossibility or Dawn Bishop, our unreliable narrator trying to make her story of being smuggled to another country as a teen to give birth to the child she placed for adoption sound flowery?  And that’s a theme throughout the novel – real pretty imagery that just is just off. If intentional, Adam could have done a better job of showing that it’s Dawn who is painting the pictures that raised my eyebrows.  And if intentional, why?  What purpose would it serve? We already know we can’t trust what she’s saying.

This rambling, stumbling story takes us  from a pregnant 16-year-old in 1980 to a 58-year-old divorcee questioning her choices and thinking about her baby girl.  “She just drifts in and out of my thoughts, the way that a breeze might pass through a room.” (44) In between this search for the child she placed for adoption, is a geopolitical drama of time and place for Trinidad and Tobago that nearly fades into the backdrop of the family saga, guilt, and trauma Dawn suffered when she was smuggled into Venezuela for four months, to live with strangers, birth a child, and be sent home like nothing happened.  “You were the lion. I didn’t realize it back then,” she tells her father when she returns home as an adult. (223)

Full of emotion but with unrealized potential, Love Forms didn’t do it for me. I know some folks have already questioned its inclusion in the longlist and wonder if SJP’s involvement should have made it ineligible for consideration. As for me, I think  there are other novels that would have easily fit in this Booker slot – Mottley’s The Girls Who Grew Big being one.  (Mottley’s use of language is a thing of art.)

Right now, this sits at the bottom of my ratings.

*As part of my Booker 101, I’ve been posting on instagram three times per book. Today is the final thoughts, which I always share here. Below are the previous entries for this book.

Booker 101 “Don’t Judge a Book…” Wednesdays

The UK and US covers for Adam’s LOVE FORMS are both beautiful, but this is the year I seem to be liking the US covers more.

The UK cover features bright colors and a dated font that is reminiscent of 70s-80s romance novels.  The jungle of flowers on the ocean blue is indicative of the wildness and beauty of Trinidad and Tobago. It’s okay, but it doesn’t really do much for me.

The US cover is striking with artistic green and the corner of the ocean with the citrus fruit in the center. The citrus fruit works because the Bishop family owns and operates Bishop Fruit Juices – they are wealthy because of the fruit they grow.  Other than that, however, fruit doesn’t show up as much as I feel like it could.  Don’t get me wrong – this cover is lovely, but I’d have replaced the citrus fruit with a similarly drawn little brown dog.  Dogs, especially the knee-high brown one, are frequently on the pages.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I didn’t like this book.  I did, however, find the cover striking as a work of art, just not as the cover to this novel.

Booker 101 Quick & Dirty Monday!

LOVE FORMS: Claire Adam
Hogarth : 29 July 2025 (US)
Faber & Faber: 19 June 2025 (UK)
Page Count: 271

First line: It was my father who made the arrangements.

Blurbed by:

Charmaine Wilkerson – (No Booker nominations – I’m a huge fan though)

Sara Collins – (No Booker nominations – 2024 Booker judge)

Monique Roffey – (Numerous literary awards – no Booker nominations)

Claire Kilroy – (Numerous literary awards – no Booker nominations)

Romesh Gunesekera – (Shortlisted for the 1994 Booker Prize for REEF – 2024 International Booker Prize judge)

Maria Keyes – (Numerous literary awards – no Booker nominations)

Denis deCaires Narain – ( Senior Lecturer and reader in postcolonial studies – not an author)

LOVE FORMS is Claire Adam’s second novel.  Her first, GOLDEN CHILD, was published by current Booker judge Sarah Jessica Parker’s SJP for Hogarth. Adam was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago and currently lives in London.