My 10 top reads of 2020

As a reader, I am completely unfaithful to any one genre. I love anything from middle-grade fantasy to historical fiction. The only genres I don’t read a huge amount of are romance and pure science-fiction, mainly because the only thing worse than badly written sex is badly written sex with androids. So my top 2020 reads are a mixed bag, but each of them has left its mark in one way or another.

Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell (Historical Fiction)

If I could only choose one book to read again from 2020, it would be this one. I was so glad when Maggie O’ Farrell won The Women’s Prize for Fiction. The story of Agnes, known to us as Anne Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare and mother to Judith and Hamnet who dies of plague as a child. Her capture of a mother’s grief was so poignant and so profoundly moving, that it was hard to continue reading in places.

Lanny by Max Porter (Literary Fiction)

In some ways Lanny and Hamnet are inextricably linked in my mind. Each of them features a young boy and parental grief. Lanny is extraordinary in its typesetting with words weaving and tipping off the pages, but its even more extraordinary in its portrayal of a little boy that reaches up to the sun like a sweet pea and follows currents of curiosity out into the garden and into the woodland beyond.

Auē by Becky Manawatu (Literary Fiction)

Winner of the New Zealand Acorn Prize for fiction, this debut novel tells the story of two brothers, Ārama and Taukiri. Ārama is eight when he’s dropped off to live with relatives in rural Kaikoura whilst his brother heads to the city to lose himself following the loss of their parents. Ārama’s new home is not a happy one and both brothers find themselves trapped in a cycle of violence that started with their parents before them. There is tenderness in the writing and a joyful innocence in Ari’s friendship with Beth that keep you turning the pages even in the face of the trauma and abuse.

Beloved by Toni Morrison (Modern Classic)

Set in 1873, Sethe was born a slave, but escaped to Ohio where she is living with her daughter Denver. She is haunted by her past and the ghost of her daughter Beloved. A brilliant piece of writing, inspired by a true story, that gives an unflinching insight into the horrific truth of slavery and its legacy.

Good Behaviour by Molly Keane (Virago Modern Classic)

It starts and ends with quenelles of rabbit in cream sauce. Quenelles given knowingly to a weak-hearted, rabbit-hating mother who had inflicted a lifetime of humiliation and hurt on Aroon, her daughter. Growing up as the daughter of landed gentry in Ireland in the 1920’s, Aroon was treated by her father with fond indifference whilst her mother treated her with cruel detachment. We watch as the family fortune and Aroon’s hopes for the future topple. Crystalline prose and searing dialogue, absolutely brilliant.

The Summer Book by Tove Jansson (Literary fiction)

An absolute gem by the author of the Moomintroll books. The Summer Book is about six-year-old Sophia and her Grandmother who spend the summer on a small Finnish Island together. Everything happens and yet nothing happens. Sophia learns about friendship, risk and death and Grandma learns to live in the moment and keep a child-like view of the natural world.

Why be Happy When you can be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson (Memoir)

A book for booklovers, Jeanette escaped her childhood home and the disapproving Mrs. Winterson taking refuge in her Mini Cooper and the library. Reading English Prose from A-Z, Jeanette got herself to Oxford with a little help from her English teacher and became a prize-winning novelist. Full of humour with a complete lack of self-pity, Jeanette notes her favourite hymn as “Cheer Up Ye Saints of God” whilst Mrs. Winterson’s was “God Has Blotted Them Out.” A fact that says about everything you need to know about their respective characters!

All Who Live on Islands by Rose Lu (Essay collection)

This was the book of essays that made me want to read more essays! I loved this collection for its melding of English and Chóngmíng dialect, its discussions of food, Chinese culture and Rose’s exploration of her cultural identity.

Hollowpox by Jessica Townsend (Middle-grade fantasy)

You can substitute Hollowpox for any book so far in the Nevermoor series and I’d be happy. Completely joyous and hugely imaginative, this a world where you can get the brolly line to school, vampire dwarves love throwing parties and Saint Nicholas and the Yule Queen fight it out each year to out-Christmas one another.

Fly by Night by Frances Harding's (Middle-grade fantasy)

Mosca Mye flees her home village, accidentally burns down her Uncles’s Mill, releases a man of dubious reputation from the stocks and goose-naps a homicidal goose called Saracen. They escape to the city of Mandelion where she and Eponymous Clent, the aforementioned charlatan, become embroiled in a revolt. An absolute rollicking riot of a read stuffed full of clever details and beautiful phrasing. A triumph!