BCA Book Club 2024 — 2025
Please choose
up to 10 titles
that you would like
to read and discuss
this year...
Yes, this would be good for our group! | No thanks, doesn’t sound right for us. | |
|---|---|---|
JACOB’S LADDER by Ludmila Ulitskaya and Polly Gannon Year of publication: 2020 560 pages Description: Jacob's Ladder is a family saga spanning a century of recent Russian history, and represents the summation of the author's career, devoted to sharing the absurd and tragic tales of twentieth-century life in her nation. Jumping between the diaries and letters of Jacob Ossetsky in Kiev in the early 1900s and the experiences of his granddaughter Nora in the theatrical world of Moscow in the 1970s and beyond, the novel guides the reader through some of the most turbulent times in the history of Russia and Ukraine, drawing suggestive parallels between historical events of the early twentieth century and those of more recent memory. Spanning the seeming promise of the pre-revolutionary years, to the dark Stalinist era, to the corruption and confusion of the present day, Jacob's Ladder is a pageant of romance, betrayal, and memory. With a scale worthy of Tolstoy, it asks how much control any of us have over our lives — and how much is determined by history, by chance, or indeed by the genes passed down by the generations that have preceded us into the world. Recognition: One of Russia's most renowned literary figures and a Man Booker International Prize nominee. Price at amazon.uk in euros: 21 hardcover and 22 paperback | ||
THE FRAUD by Zadie Smith Year of publication: 2023 446 pages Description It is 1873. Mrs Eliza Touchet is the Scottish housekeeper - and cousin by marriage - of a once famous novelist, now in decline, William Ainsworth, with whom she has lived for thirty years. Mrs Touchet is a woman of many interests: literature, justice, abolitionism, class, her cousin, his wives, this life and the next. But she is also skeptical. She suspects her cousin of having no talent; his successful friend, Mr Charles Dickens, of being a bully and a moralist; and England of being a land of facades where nothing is quite what it seems. Andrew Bogle meanwhile grew up enslaved on the Hope Plantation in Jamaica. He knows every lump of sugar comes at a human cost. That the rich deceive the poor. And that people are more easily manipulated than they realize. When Bogle finds himself in London, star witness in a celebrated case of imposture, he knows his future depends on telling the right story. The 'Tichborne Trial' captivates Mrs Touchet and all of England. Is Sir Roger Tichborne really who he says he is? Or is he a fraud? Mrs Touchet is a woman of the world. Mr Bogle is no fool. But in a world of hypocrisy and self-deception, deciding what is real proves a complicated task... Based on real historical events, The Fraud is a dazzling novel about truth and fiction, Jamaica and Britain, fraudulence and authenticity, and the mystery of 'other people'. Recognition: Book of the Year 2023 according to New York Times, New Yorker, Guardian, Economist, Observer, The Spectator, Financial Times, Vogue, The Times, The Oldie, I Paper, The Standard, Washington Post, Independent, Daily ExpressWaterstones Book of the Year Shortlist 2023, Writers’ Prize for Fiction Shortlist 2023, Sarah Jessica Parker Best Books of 2023, Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction Longlist 2023 Price at amazon.uk in euros: 16.18 hardcover and 10.18 paperback | ||
TRUE BIZ by Sara Novic Year of publication: 2022 Number of pages: 386 Description: In the halls of a residential school for the deaf, readers meet Charlie, a rebellious transfer student who's never met another deaf person before; Austin, the school's golden boy, whose world is rocked when his baby sister is born hearing; and February, the headmistress, who is fighting to keep her school open and her marriage intact, but might not be able to do both. As a series of crises both personal and political threaten to unravel each of them, Charlie, Austin, and February find their lives inextricable from one another's—and changed forever. This is a story of sign language and lip-reading, disability and civil rights, isolation and injustice, first love and loss, and, above all, great persistence, daring, and joy. Absorbing and assured, idiosyncratic and relatable, this is an unforgettable journey into the Deaf community and a universal celebration of human connection. Recognition: NYTimes Bestseller, Reese’s Book Club, Goodreads Choice Award, ALA Alex Award 2023, Best Book of the Year 2022: NPR, Washington Post, Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist Price at amazon.uk in euros: 15.33 hardcover, 8.73 paperback | ||
GLORY by NoViolet Bulawayo Year of publication: 2023 Number of pages: 416 Description: This bold satirical novel follows the fall of the Old Horse, long-serving leader of a fictional country, and the drama that ensues for a nation of animals on the path to political liberation. Inspired by the unexpected 2017 coup against Robert G. Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s president of nearly four decades, Glory shows a country imploding, narrated by a chorus of animal voices that unveil the ruthlessness required to uphold an illusion of absolute power and the imagination and optimism required to overthrow it completely. The story immerses readers in the daily lives of a population in upheaval, as Bulawayo reveals the dazzling life force and wit that lie beneath a surface of seemingly bleak circumstances. The animal kingdom — its connection to our primal responses and its resonance in the mythologies & folktales that define cultures in every part of the world — unmasks the surreality of contemporary global politics to help us understand our world more clearly. Glory is an exhilarating ride; it crystalizes a turning point in history with the texture and nuance that only the greatest of fiction can. Recognition: Booker Shortlist 2022, Women’s Prize for Fiction Nominee 2023, Aspen Words Literary Prize Longlist 2023, Writer’s Prize Nominee for Fiction 2023 Price at amazon.uk in euros: 13.65 hardcover, 11.25 paperback | ||
JAMES by Percival Everett Year of publication: 2024 Number of pages: 313 Description: The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson’s Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father who recently returned to town. Thus begins a dangerous and transcendent journey by raft along the Mississippi River, towards the elusive promise of the free states and beyond. With rumors of a brewing war, James must face the burdens he carries: the family he is desperate to protect and the constant lie he must live. And together, the unlikely pair embark on the most dangerous, and life-changing, odyssey of them all. Recognition: Booker Shortlist 2024, NYTimes Bestseller, National Book Award Longlist 2024, Kirkus Prize finalist Price at amazon.uk in euros: 19.58 hardcover, 11.97 paperback | ||
BOURNVILLE by Jonathan Coe Year of publication: 2022 368 pages Description: From the bestselling, Costa award-winning author of Middle England comes a profoundly moving, brutally funny and brilliantly true portrait of Britain told through four generations of one family. In Bournville, a placid suburb of Birmingham, sits a famous chocolate factory. For eleven-year-old Mary and her family in 1945, it's the centre of the world — — the reason their streets smell faintly of chocolate, and the place where most of their friends and neighbours have worked for decades. Mary will go on to live through the Coronation and the World Cup final, royal weddings and royal funerals, Brexit and Covid-19. She'll have children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Parts of the chocolate factory will be transformed into a theme park, as modern life and the city crowd in on their peaceful enclave. As we travel through seventy-five years of social change, from James Bond to Princess Diana, and from wartime nostalgia to the World Wide Web, one pressing question starts to emerge: will these changing times bring Mary's family - and their country - closer together, or leave them more adrift and divided than ever before? Recognition: Orwell Prize for Political Writing Shortlist 2023 Price at amazon.uk in euros: 20 hardcover and 11.26 paperback | ||
THE MARRIAGE CONTRACT by Maggie O'Farrell Year of publication: 2022 448 pages Description: The woman in the portrait is perfect. So why does she feel so terrified, so alone? Florence, the 1560s. Lucrezia, third daughter of Cosimo de' Medici, is free to wander the palazzo at will, wondering at its treasures and observing its clandestine workings. But when her older sister dies on the eve of marriage to Alfonso d'Este, ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust unwittingly into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage and her father is quick to accept on her behalf. Having barely left girlhood, Lucrezia must now make her way in a troubled court whose customs are opaque and where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appears to be before their wedding, the aesthete happiest in the company of artists and musicians, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble? As Lucrezia sits in uncomfortable finery for the painting that is to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court's eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferrarese dynasty. Until then, for all of her rank and nobility, her future hangs entirely in the balance. Recognition: Women’s Prize for Fiction Finalist, Reese’s Book Club pick, NYTimes Bestseller Price at amazon.uk in euros: 9.02 hardcover and 9.02 paperback | ||
LESS by Andrew Sean Greer Year of publication: 2017 272 pages Description: Arthur Less is a failed novelist about to turn fifty. A wedding invitation arrives in the post: it is from an ex-boyfriend of nine years who is engaged to someone else. Arthur can't say yes - it would be too awkward; he can't say no - it would look like defeat. So, he begins to accept the invitations on his desk to half-baked literary events around the world. From France to India, Germany to Japan, Arthur almost falls in love, almost falls to his death, and puts miles between him and the plight he refuses to face. Less is a novel about mishaps, misunderstandings and the depths of the human heart." A love story, a satire of the American abroad, a rumination on time and the human heart, by an author The New York Times has hailed as “inspired, lyrical,” “elegiac,” “ingenious,” as well as “too sappy by half,” Less shows a writer at the peak of his talents raising the curtain on our shared human comedy. Recognition: Pulitzer Prize for fiction 2018, Northern California Book Award, Paris Review Best Books of 2017 Price at amazon.uk in euros: 16.07 hardcover and 8.78 paperback | ||
TRANSCENDENT KINGDOM by Yaa Gyasi Year of publication: 2020 304 pages Description: Yaa Gyasi's stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national best seller Homegoing is a powerful, raw, intimate, deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama. Gifty is a fifth-year candidate in neuroscience at Stanford School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after a knee injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her. But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family's loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive. Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief--a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi's phenomenal debut. Women’s Prize for Fiction Shortlist 2021, Today Show Book Club pick, NYTimes Bestseller, Best Book of the Year 2021: NPR and 21 other lists, PEN/Faulkner Award Longlist, Dublin Literary Award Longlist Price at amazon.uk in euros: from 1.75 hardcover and 9.40 paperback | ||
HARVEST by Jim Crace Year of publication: 2013 282 pages Description: On the morning after harvest the inhabitants of a remote English village awaken looking forward to a hard-earned day of rest and feasting at their landowner's table. But the sky is marred by two conspicuous columns of smoke, replacing pleasurable anticipation with alarm and suspicion. One smoke column is the result of an overnight fire that has damaged the master's outbuildings. The second column rises from the wooded edge of the village, sent up by newcomers to announce their presence. In the minds of the wary villagers a mere coincidence appears unlikely, with violent confrontation looming as the unavoidable outcome. Meanwhile, another newcomer has been spotted making careful notes and drawings of the land. His presence more than any other that will threaten the village's way of life. Harvest is a story set during the English Agricultural Revolution, dramatizing the effect of the Enclosure Acts on the lives of peasants and seasonal labourers who lose access to the land, their livelihoods and cultural identities. It looks at themes like witchcraft, gender and class relations, and tensions between insiders and outsiders. Recognition: International Dublin Literary Award 2015, James Tait Black Memorial Prize 2014, Booker Prize Shortlist 2013, Goldsmiths Prize Shortlist 2013, Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction Shortlist 2014 Price at amazon.uk in euros: 21.10 hardcover and 12.85 paperback | ||
PROPHET SONG by Paul Lynch Year of publication: 2023 309 pages Description: A speculative novel about a family torn apart by the sudden takeover by a totalitarian regime in Ireland: On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother of four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist. Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and when her husband disappears, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a society that is quickly unravelling. How far will she go to save her family? And what – or who – is she willing to leave behind? Exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive, Prophet Song is a work of great originality, offering a devastating vision of a country at war and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together. Recognition: Booker Prize 2023, Dayton Literary Peace Prize 2024, Kirkus Prize finalist 2024, Price at amazon.uk in euros: 15.06 hardcover and 14.35 paperback | ||
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