This Month's Book Recommendations
The International Booker Prize Winner was announced this week. The prize went to Heart Lamp by Banu Mushtaq and Deepa Bhasthi.
In the twelve stories of Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq exquisitely captures the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Praised for their dry and gentle humour, these portraits of family and community tensions have garnered both censure from conservative quarters as well India’s most prestigious literary awards.
A new non-fiction book which is getting excellent reviews is: Is a River Alive? a book by Robert MacFarlane. From celebrated writer Robert Macfarlane comes this brilliant, perspective-shifting new book – which answers a resounding yes to the question of its title.
At its heart is a single, transformative idea: that rivers are not mere matter for human use, but living beings – who should be recognized as such in both imagination and law. Is a River Alive? takes the reader on an exhilarating exploration of the past, present and futures of this ancient, urgent concept.
The book flows first to northern Ecuador, where a miraculous cloud-forest and its rivers are threatened by goldmining. Then, to the wounded rivers, creeks and lagoons of southern India, where a desperate battle to save the lives of these waterbodies is under way. And finally, to north-eastern Quebec, where a spectacular wild river – the Mutehekau or Magpie – is being defended from death by damming in a river-rights campaign.
At once Macfarlane’s most personal and most political book to date, Is a River Alive? will open hearts, spark debates and lead us to the revelation that our fate flows with that of rivers – and always has.
What am I reading?
The Secrets of Blythswood Square by Sara Sheridan. Set in Glasgow in the 1800s it follows the lives of two women who lead very different lives to each other but both are hiding secrets. I’m finding it utterly gripping and look forward to going to bed every night so I can read more. It’s the first one of Sara Sheridan’s books I’ve read but I will be reading more of her work.