In a recent feature, authors and readers alike shared the books that captivated them in May. Madeleine Thien, Sufiyaan Salam, and several Guardian readers offered their picks, spanning fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.
Madeleine Thien's Selections
Thien, author of The Book of Records, praised Dorothy Tse’s City Like Water, translated by Natascha Bruce, calling it an unclassifiable, sharp, and passionate novel about a dissolving city that remains one’s only home. She also recommended Karen Hao’s Empire of AI for understanding the cost of modern tools, and re-read Hsiao-Hung Pai’s Scattered Sand: The Story of China’s Rural Migrants, which has stayed with her for over a decade. Thien is currently reading Hannah Lillith Assadi’s moving novel Paradiso 17, written around her father’s passing, and Michael Ondaatje’s selected poems The Distance of a Shout, which she describes as a life’s work to hold close.
Stephen, Guardian Reader
Stephen found Francis Spufford’s Nonesuch entrancing, noting its juxtaposition of wartime London’s atmosphere and privations with increasingly weird magical events. He praised the well-defined characters, particularly the complex and vivid Iris, and the cinematic scene-setting and propulsive story. Despite his usual aversion to mystic fantasy, he was glad he picked up the book.
Sufiyaan Salam’s Picks
Salam, author of Wimmy Road Boyz, has been immersing himself in London’s histories since moving there. He dips into The Oxford Shakespeare for the introductory essays, which reveal impressions of the playwright through contemporary poems, court appearances, and his purchase of a Blackfriars house for £140. He also enjoyed Monika Radojevic’s Strangerland, a stranger-than-fiction love story of immigrant parents in pre-smartphone London. His obsession is Alan Moore’s From Hell, which uses the Jack the Ripper murders to weave a magical epic binding London’s past, present, and future.
Sue, Guardian Reader
Sue was deeply moved by Lisa Ridzén’s When the Cranes Fly South, which features a dog named Sixten who stole her heart. She describes it as a beautifully written story about the end of life, memories, relationships, love, and friendship. Though heartbreaking, it is also heartwarming, and she has read it twice, recommending it to everyone.
