Confessions by Catherine Airey

New York City, 2001. Cora’s ditching school and dropping acid when the first plane hits the Towers. Her father is inside. Alone and adrift, a lifeline arrives in the form of a letter from an aunt she never knew she had, inviting her to Ireland. Out of options, Cora accepts, setting off a chain of events that will echo through the decades…

Beautiful, kaleidoscopic, and intense, this ambitious debut spins a mesmerizing story of family and fate, action and inaction, choice and consequence, asking: can you live with the choices you’ve made? Or is it easier to believe you never had a choice at all? An essential read for fans of character-driven epics such as Great CircleThe Goldfinch, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I loved this book, and I’ll be thinking about it for a long time. 


In My Time of Dying by Sebastian Junger

An astounding book, moving and shocking and thoughtful, that is both intensely personal yet deals with the biggest questions we all face. 

Whilst nearly dying of an aneurysm in 2020, Junger had an experience he couldn’t easily explain – and

found it hard to escape from after he physically recovered. A journalist and atheist, a man drawn to fact and rationality, the son of a physicist, Junger suddenly found himself having to confront ideas of the afterlife. Chased by the existential crisis this sets off, he explores spiritualism and quantum physics in search of answers and peace.

Perfect if you’re a fan of Carlo Rovelli or are looking to scratch the itch left by Richard Flanagan’s Question 7.