A slower year of reading this year with a few breaks and a few dips into and out of reference books for work. Good autobiographies, and more fantastic fiction in translation.

Mariana Enriquez was this year’s immense discovery. Two short story collections and an enormous novel, devoured just like the politics and dark magic of Argentina devour the people she writes about. Please somebody buy the rights to her stories and make TV horror great again.

Slum Virgin is the second novel I’ve read by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara and puts her up there as one of my favourite authors. Looking forward to the new one coming in 2023 via Charco Press.

Percival Everett – wow. I Am Not Sidney Poitier is so bizarre and funny and bang on the nose in so many ways. The only writer I can compare him to is Kurt Vonnegut…and maybe Paul Beatty. I’ve got three more by Everett on my pile that I can’t wait to start. I think there are three more reissues coming out in 2023 via Influx Press too, which will be added to the pile and devoured in due course.

Hurrican Season blew me out of the water. Such immense writing and storytelling. A total powerhouse that just steamrolls its way through your soul. Again, like Mariana Enriquez, it’s dark magic and murder, gossip, class, family fueds and grotesque, violent sex that are the devices that bring the true story of South America to life.

The new short story collection from George Saunders was, as expected, incredible. Parts of that have stayed with me and haunted me since reading it.

Ben Myers continues his run of outstanding novels of outsiders, folklore and history. A new one from him in 2023 as well.

2023 is looking great in terms of reading, already. I’ve got my Charco subscription, new books from Boiler House Press, the Everett novels and lots more ready to read, with more coming from most of my favourite new writers.

This last year’s list in full:

1. The Man Who Watched Trains Go By

   Georges Simenon
2. Die, My Love

   Ariana Harwicz
3. In A Strange Room

   Damon Galgut
4. Slum Virgin

   Gabriela Cabezón Cámara
5. I Am Not Sidney Poitier

   Percival Everett
6. The Dangers of Smoking In Bed

   Mariana Enriquez
7. Bewilderment

   Richard Powers
8. The Promise

   Damon Galgut
9. The End Of Everything

   Katie Mack
10. Things We Lost In The Fire

    Mariana Enriquez
11. The Buried Giant

    Kazuo Ishiguro
12. My Monticello

    Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
13. And Away (The Autobiography)

    Bob Mortimer
14. Lucid Living

    Timothy Freke
15. The Premonitions Bureau

    Sam Knight
16. Aoyade On Top

    Richard Aoyade
17. Assembly

    Natasha Brown
18. Ramble Book

    Adam Buxton
19. Spectacles

    Sue Perkins
20. The Subtle Art of Not Giving A Fuck

    Mark Manson
21. Hurricane Season

    Fernanda Melchor
22. The Perfect Golden Circle

    Benjamin Myers
23. The Year of Magical Thinking

    Joan Didion
24. Liberation Day

    George Saunders
25. Our Share of Night

    Mariana Enriquez
26. The Memory Police

    Yōko Ogawa