Playground by Richard Powers
Playground centres around two friends Todd and Rafi, who meet at high-school in Chicago. Both come from very different backgrounds, and yet they immediately bond over skilful games like Chess and Go. Then there is Evie, who at twelve years old became the youngest person to dive underwater with an ‘aqua lung’ that her dad helped develop. Years later, she breaks all sorts of boundaries as a woman leading pioneering research into the greatest love of her life – the ocean.
Their lives converge (in ways I won’t reveal) on the French Polynesian atoll of Makatea, an island once mined by outsiders for phosphates, used by capitalist countries for fertilisers and more. Once more on the brink of change, the islanders must cast their vote on whether to bring outsiders in and make way for a new Makatea for future generations.
At times a campus novel, at others a scientific study of the sea and all it’s bewildering life and the merky depths of AI and technology, Playground doesn’t shy away from tackling big themes here. It’s incredibly moving, thought-provoking, and yet for a novel that inevitably focuses on climate change, I came away feeling unexpedtly uplifted, and already missing these wonderful characters. – Emma
A Dark and Drowning Tide by Allison Saft
Fans of Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries won’t want to miss Allison Saft’s debut adult novel A Dark and Drowning Tide. When Lorelai, an outcast amongst academics and royals alike for her culture and religion, is made vice captain of an expedition to find the source of all faerie magic, her life is finally on track. Even if she has to go on said expedition with her biggest rival Sylvia. However, two days into their boat trip, their captain, Lorelai’s mentor, is murdered. And one of them must be the murderer.
This book has everything – rivals to lovers, academia, faerie expedition, locked room murder, incredible character depictions, great action, and seamlessly smooth writing. I fell in love with Allison Saft’s writing in A Far Wilder Magic, and I now trust her implicitly. Wherever she leads, I will follow!
The Simple Art of Killing a Woman by Patricia Melo, translated by Sophie Lewis
Translated from Portuguese, this is a dark and enlightening read: both harrowing and inspiring. From a best-selling Brazilian author, this story takes us all the way to Cruzeiro do Sul, where a young lawyer accepts a job in the Amazonian border after her boyfriend slaps her at a party.
There, she is met with all the stories of named women who have been tortured, assaulted, killed and gone unavenged on an epidemic of femicide that trespasses all layers of society and class and that only a few brave people seem to be denouncing at the cost of their own safety.
In the jungle, through the ritual use of ayahuasca, she will also look for answers to her past in the company of a group of warrior women taking agency and revenge against these women-killers that are seemingly everywhere.