october 2026 books…

Marriage (David Harsent): I’m a great lover of Harsent’s poetry – his words resonate for me when I read them out loud (as I often do). First published in 2002, this book consists of two sequences of poems. The first is loosely based on the relationship between the artist Pierre Bonnard and Marthe de Meligny – his muse and model, who eventually became his wife. The book’s cover notes refer to “the mysteries of domesticity, its unspoken privacies and intimacies, where the painter’s problems of seeing coincide with the husband’s problems of knowing”. The second sequence focuses on the hare (a familiar theme for Harsent). Sadly, I think I’ve virtually exhausted the extent of the poet’s work… I may need to do some re-reading!
One Hundred Shadows (Hwang Jungeun): This is our next Storysmith bookclub choice (theme: Korea-focused book). This South Korean novella that blends quiet social realism with offbeat magical realism. The setting is a dilapidated, slum electronics market in central Seoul scheduled for government demolition and gentrification. The key characters are two young school dropouts working as repair-shop assistants and who share a tender, tentative relationship. Against this backdrop of forced evictions and economic anxiety (drum roll social realism), the physical shadows of the neighbourhood's struggling inhabitants begin to mysteriously ‘rise’ and peel away from their bodies. Although I found it quite an enchanting, haunting and darkly beautiful book at times, there’s something about Korean novels (sorry, this is a ridiculous generalisation, I know) that I find a little off-putting (Han Kang’s ‘The Vegetarian’; Cho Nam-Joo’s ‘Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982’). For me: interesting, without being compelling.
A Parrot In The Pepper Tree (Chris Stewart): I first read this book in 2010 (part of the ‘Driving Over Lemons’ trilogy. I was about to enter hospital and needed a relaxing book (I rejected the tempting option of ‘Middlemarch’ – far too ‘dense’!). Well, it certainly worked for me… Stewart is a very amusing writer and I really rather loved the tales of his family’s adventures in Los Alpujarras (south of Granada) – with all the characters and the landscape. Very enjoyable, relaxing read. Good choice!
The Village Cricket Match (John Parker): I must have read this book four or five times (the last time was 10 years ago) since I bought it in 1979. Of course, it’s ridiculously dated (describing thatched cottages on the South Downs being sold for £20,000, for example) and paints a romantic picture of rural England from a bygone age – rather too sugary perhaps! Nevertheless, I liked its predictability, its familiarity and the cricketing memories that it evoked – a bit like sporting comfort food! It’s full of descriptions of the preparations, routines and typical characters involved in a typical Sunday afternoon cricket match in an English village.
The Things We Never Say (Elizabeth Strout): I really LOVE Strout’s writing! Life has been a ‘little hectic’ lately(!) and so I decided to treat myself to the hardback version of her latest book (it won’t be available in paperback until next summer). Her novels are often about people in the later stages of their lives and, perhaps, that’s of the appeal for me? There’s a quiet, powerful, gentleness to her stories which I find absolutely captivating. She writes beautifully about ‘ordinary’ people… about their frustrations and their experiences. Her stories are deceptively simple, yet profound, wise and, time and time again, about decency. I’ve read a lot of her books (nine, I think?!), but think this is her best yet. Definitely now left with that bereft feeling of ‘happy sadness’… absolutely LOVED this book.