Saints by Amy Jeffs
The masterful creator of Storyland and Wild returns with a beautiful exploration of the lives and legacies of saints. Some stories may be familiar, and many won’t, but each is suffused with magic and wonder – Jeffs is picking up the mantel to make the tales of the saints just as exciting and beloved as those of ancient myths and legends again.
Follow figures like St Cuthbert as he interacts with otters on the wild Scottish coastline, St Christopher the giant as he wades across a river, and St Uncumber as she determines a life without an unwanted marriage, thanks to her miraculous flowing beard.
These stories are beautifully illustrated with Jeffs’ dramatic paper-cuttings, making this the kind of precious book you want to share with others.
*Don’t miss our event with Amy on September 17th – click here for tickets!*
The Lovers by Paolo Cognetti
Inspired by Kent Haruf’s Plainsong, this quietly beautiful novel transports us high into the Italian Alps. Here we follow Fausto who has left his life in Milan behind and taken up a chef position in a remote alpine village. Living by the seasons, Fausto feels at home here in the mountains – feeding the lone mountain men who drift in and out at the same time every day, and striking up friendships that will alter the course of his own life.
It is here in this restaurant that Fausto meets Silvie, almost half his age, but with an eye to climbing glaciers and pushing herself in ways she’s never been able to before. Needless to say, Fausto and Silvie quickly form a bond, and as their needs and desires pull them apart and push them back together again and again, they each seek something only this landscape and it’s magnificent mountains can give them.
A gorgeous book that still makes me smile every time I think of it.
Songlight by Moira Buffini
Margaret Atwood meets the Hunger Games in this new YA dystopia! In a distant future, the people who have developed the power of songlight are strictly illegal. They’re hiding in plain sight, hiding their telepathic abilities while their country wars with those who have escaped to freedom. No one is safe, not even the inquisitor’s daughter.
This book is beyond epic. Spanning the whole of the countryside, jumping into multiple perspectives from a fisherman’s daughter to a powerful political pawn, I could not put Songlight down. It was powerful, beautiful, pacey. The relationships, friendships, and familial bonds are complicated, messy, and so realistic. The action and adventure will keep your heart pounding through to the end, and of course, as the best ones do, leave you on an absolute cliffhanger.
I’ve never read anything like Songlight before, and I’m so excited to share it as my book of the year!
This is geared for older teen readers, 14+