'One of the most unusual and powerful books I've read'

The Herald Scotland

30-04-2025

Allen Lane, £20
One of the most unusual and powerful books I've read in a long time.
Chinese Canadian-British writer Alice Mah is Professor of Urban and Environmental Studies at the University of Glasgow.
Red Pockets – the red envelopes used in China to give money to family and clan members – describes her return to her ancestral village in South China, and the reverberations of that disturbing visit.
In a soul-searching narrative that charts her escalating despair over the global climate emergency, she addresses the ways in which the world's plight is connected with unresolved issues from the past.
Drawing on the cultural and economic histories of China, Canada, England, and Scotland, Mah navigates her own fretful response to her family history and her fears for the future.
Clear-eyed and sensitive, Red Pockets is a moving and imaginative memoir of facing up to the wrongs of the past, at the same time asking what we owe to previous generations, and to those who will inherit this planet from us.
A Granite Silence
Nina Allan
Riverrun, £20
A Granite Silence by Nina Allan (Image: Rivverrun) The murder in Aberdeen in 1934 of eight-year-old Helen Priestly horrified the nation and had a shattering impact on the overcrowded tenement community where she lived.
In this closely researched account, Nina Allan creatively explores the many elements exposed by this dreadful crime.
Wild Fictions
Amitav Ghosh
Faber & Faber, £25
In the run-up to the Iraq War, Indian-born novelist Amitav Ghosh clashed with a well-known American editor, who refused to see the USA as anything but a benign and altruistic force.
In the years since, he has produced a drawerful of highly-researched pieces, now brought together in this collection.
Covering some of the most pressing subjects in recent decades, from 9/11, the ongoing legacy of imperialism, Hurricane Katrina, the refugee crisis, and disasters such as the 2004 Indonesian tsunami - the natural and the political cannot be separated, he argues - this is an unflinching portrait of our times from a refreshingly original perspective.
Room on the Sea
André Aciman
Faber & Faber, £12.99
Room on the Sea by André Aciman (Image: Faber & Faber)
Meeting while awaiting jury selection, New Yorkers Paul and Catherine covertly take stock of each other.
She reading Wuthering Heights, he looking every inch the dapper Wall Street type.
What starts as nothing more than a brief encounter becomes more serious, and soon a life-changing decision must be faced.
André Aciman is a romantic with a melancholy soul and an eye for detail that makes his fiction read as if real.
Of Thorn and Briar
Paul Lamb
Simon & Schuster, £20
"It is during the shortening days of the autumn months, when the September mists return and the morning dew settles on the pastures once more, that the hedger begins his work."
So writes Paul Lamb, for 30 years a hedgelayer in the west country, who lives in a converted horse box.
An enlightening and beautifully told monthly journal of following an ancient craft, and the benefits it brings to the countryside.
Uncommon Ground: Rethinking Our Relationship with the Countryside
Patrick Galbraith
William Collins, £22
According to popular belief, access to the countryside in England is highly restricted, while in Scotland, with its Right To Roam legislation, the situation is idyllic.
In this hard-hitting account, Patrick Galbraith sets out to destroy the clichés surrounding this inflammatory subject.
Making a point of talking to "people who are often forgotten" - among them salmon poachers on the Isle of Lewis, grassroots activists, and much-loathed landowners - he shows that land access is much more nuanced than provocative headlines suggest.
Not only are things far from perfect here, but in England there is better access than many people realise.
Galbraith's informed and passionate analysis of those tussling over the land is essential reading for anyone with opinions on the countryside.
Back in the Day
Oliver Lovrenski
Trans. Nichola Smalley
Hamish Hamilton, £14.99
Back in the Day by Oliver Lovrenski (Image: Hamish Hamilton)
On publication in Norway in 2023, Oliver Lovrenski's debut novel Back in the Day swiftly became a bestseller.
Norway's Trainspotting is a deep dive into the chaos, terror, and black humour of teenagers locked in a cycle of deprivation.
Ivor and Marco, who live in Oslo, have been on the downward slope since they were 13 when they started getting high.
At 14 they were dealing drugs, and a year later began carrying knives.
This bleak tale, told with brio, offers a fresh take on what it is to be young in an environment where a positive future is but a dream.
The Einstein Vendetta: Hitler, Mussolini and a Murder That Haunts History
Thomas Harding
Michael Joseph, £22
Robert Einstein, Albert's cousin, lived with his family in a villa near Florence.
One summer's day in 1944, while he was safely in hiding, a unit of soldiers arrived at the villa.
When they left, 12 hours later, Robert's wife and children were dead.
Their murder has never been solved, but in this scrupulously researched account, Thomas Harding takes on this notorious case, asking who ordered the killings, and why was no-one brought to account?
The Eights
Joanna Miller
Fig Tree, £16.99
In 1920 Oxford University finally admitted female undergraduates.
Joanna Miller's debut novel follows a group of young women, all living in rooms on Corridor Eight, who become close friends.
From varied backgrounds - privileged, hard-up, politically engaged - all are hopeful of what lies ahead.
All, too, are scarred by the recent war.
With an influenza pandemic terrorising Europe, their time in Oxford promises to be eventful.
Victory '45: The End of the War in Six Surrenders
James Holland and Al Murray
Bantam, £22
To mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two, James Holland and Al Murray have joined forces to illuminate how peace was finally achieved.
Between May and September 1945 there were six surrenders: four in Europe, two in Japan.
Describing the events leading to each, and telling the stories of the people involved, from generals and political leaders to service men and women and civilians, Victory '45 memorably brings history, and those who made it, to life.