The Details
Ia Genberg (translated by Kira Josefsson)
Wildfire, £14.99, pp176
Memories of books read long ago and relationships that ended return to haunt the narrator of this prize-winning Swedish novel when she is laid low with a fever. Often, they’re inextricably linked: a copy of Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy, for instance, is inscribed to her girlfriend, while a waterlogged copy of Birgitta Trotzig’s The Marsh King’s Daughter is all that remains of her friendship with former housemate Niki. The nonlinear narrative renders the protagonist both vivid and obscure – the perfect conduit for this compelling, uncannily precise meditation on transience.
Uprooting
Marchelle Farrell
Canongate, £16.99, pp288
When psychiatrist Farrell moved from Trinidad and Tobago to England 20 years ago, she left behind a tropical paradise that already felt too small, too blighted by colonialism. Rootlessness seemed like freedom for a while, but with marriage and motherhood she began to crave a real home once again and gravitated to rural Somerset. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, this debut memoir charts her efforts to put down roots by creating a garden. Full of hope, heart and complex reflections on identity and belonging, it’s beautifully written, contriving to be at once rugged and delicate.
Ponies at the Edge of the World
Catherine Munro
Rider, £11.99, pp288 (paperback)
In 2015, Munro moved to Shetland to research a PhD about how we are shaped by our connections to animals and the landscape. The islanders’ lives have been intertwined for millennia with the smart, stoic ponies that thrive in this “land of extremes”, and over the course of a tough year, Munro learns plenty about how to live with nature and her neighbours. The book begins unconvincingly, but settles down into a thoughtful appeal for us to re-examine our ideas of community and our relationship with the wild.
To order The Details, Uprooting or Ponies at the Edge of the World go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
