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The Guardian
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Look how well-read I am!' How ‘books by the metre' add the final touch to your home
People have always used books to assert their sophistication and affluence. You need only visit the library of a National Trust property to see that. The novelist F Scott Fitzgerald famously critiqued the shallowness of the super-rich via his character, Jay Gatsby, who lined his shelves with books in order to project a cultured image of himself – yet they were 'uncut' and had never been read. To one guest at Gatsby's party, that doesn't matter – he describes the shelves (that he had at first assumed to be cardboard facades of books) as 'a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too – didn't cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?' A century on from The Great Gatsby's publication, it is once again fashionable to decorate using books – and to question the motives of those who do so. In Vincenzo Latronico's International Booker-shortlisted Perfection, a novel that highlights the hollowness of chasing a 'cool', 'curated' life, Anna and Tom's self-consciously chic flat features 'floor-to-ceiling shelves lined with paperbacks and graphic novels … interspersed with illustrated coffee-table books – monographs on Noorda and Warhol, Tufte's series on infographics, the Taschen history of typefaces, and another Taschen on the entryways of Milan,' carefully arranged with 'succulents in cement plant pots,' and 'a waist-level camera' in the place of bookends. Through their home, Latronico writes, the couple has created a picture of a life that is 'clear and purposeful' – whether or not that is actually the case. In an age of constant scrolling, there is social capital to be gained by simply looking as if you are a cultured person who listens to music on vinyl and reads lots of books. And creating an aesthetically pleasing bookshelf is now easier than ever, thanks to an increase in booksellers who trade in 'books by the metre'. Vintage volumes are particularly popular, as they offer an instant way to create the effect of a long-established library made up of books collected over many years. 'My bookshelf is now complete,' reads one customer review on an eBay listing for a metre's worth of 'randomly selected' antique titles, available for £50. Dayna Isom Johnson, a trend expert at Etsy, another website where some sellers offer books by the metre, says the company has 'seen a 19,616% increase in searches for book-lover decor' over the past three months, compared with the same time last year. If you're willing to pay a bit more, sellers will offer a more bespoke service: for example, for £98, the online shop Country House Library will sell you a metre of assorted vintage books that all have orange covers. Madeleine Ovenden is head of non-traditional sales at the publisher Thames & Hudson, which specialises in what might be referred to as 'coffee-table books'. She has seen an increase in interior designers wanting to bulk-buy books with spines in similar colours, 'to fit a room theme'. The company now sells bundles of coffee-table books that all fit a certain colour or aesthetic – a stack of lemon-yellow Thames & Hudson books, for instance, could be yours for £119.90. Customers will also come to the publisher directly, Ovenden says, with 'requests by the metre for certain shelf sizes'. The rise in such requests can be attributed to the popularity of the 'bookshelf wealth' interior design trend on TikTok – an extension of the 'quiet luxury' and 'stealth wealth' aesthetic. A bookshelf that looks like an heirloom family collection, complete with art and ornaments, suggests you care about literature and art – and have time and money to spend on these things. Philip Blackwell curates bookshelves for a living via his company, Ultimate Library, which is used by hotels, businesses and homeowners who want to outsource the task of filling up their bookshelves. Though he is critical of the 'books by the metre' trend – Ultimate Library's selling point is that a knowledgable team will work with the client to select books they might actually read – he acknowledges that, if you're trying to build a library from scratch, you will almost inevitably have a certain amount of space to fill. I'm speaking to Blackwell at 40 Leadenhall, a newly developed office building in the City of London, where his company was commissioned to create a library for workers to use. 'That panel there is 14 linear metres multiplied by 33.' So he and his colleagues have to find 462 metres of books to fill that space, though most will be chosen for more than just their age, size or colour, and will be available to borrow. 'Creating a book collection, certainly for a private client, is all about having a discussion, going on a voyage to discover it, and it should be really good fun,' Blackwell says. He likes to quote Cicero: 'A room without books is like a body without a soul.' Services like his, then, manufacture that 'soul' in places such as offices and hotels that might otherwise be pretty soulless. Blackwell's service might be less superficial than simply using books for wall-dressing, but its appeal is still partly down to clients liking the way that books look. Michael Wood, who works for M&G Real Estate, which owns 40 Leadenhall, says M&G approached Ultimate Library partly because 'we've got a big space in this ground floor to fill and books are a great way to do that'. Aesthetically, the books make the building's lobby look less stark – and the higher shelves, which feature older books arranged by colour, are wholly ornamental. 'As a decorative element, books are great because they add a lot of texture,' says New York-based interior designer Tommy Landen Huerter. 'They add colour in places where it wouldn't be easy to otherwise integrate it. They just make a home look a lot more lived-in.' There have 'definitely been clients I have bought books for that will probably never be opened', who want full bookshelves 'just for the aesthetic', he says. He has been asked, for example, to style books on high shelves that homeowners will 'never be able to reach'. That is partly because books look good, but also because of their value as status symbols, Landen Huerter thinks. 'It's like: 'Look how well-read I am because I have the time to read and I'm educated enough to know these topics.'' The designer himself has 'a weird insecurity' over the fact that visitors to his own home wouldn't know he reads, since he does so exclusively on an e-reader and therefore doesn't have any physical books on display. Through your home, 'you want to show your interests' he says – but you can also show what you would like people to think your interests are, which is the impulse behind clients asking him to buy books in bulk for ornamental purposes. 'I can understand why people would say: 'I haven't read 100 books in the last year, but I would like to have.'' Just as they do via social media or through clothing choices, people are often trying to present the version of themselves that they would like to be true, rather than what actually is. Presenting the image of being a book lover has never been easier – part of the reason that buying books by length has become a trend is that books can be bought very cheaply, says Matt Hubbard, owner of secondhand bookshop Halcyon Books in south-east London. In the UK and the US at least (the market is slightly less populated in continental Europe), books are published in huge quantities: 'We're definitely spoiled for having a hell of a lot of books around.' Hubbard says he could easily take on more books than he would be able to sell, and some 'tatty paperbacks' have such a low value that they end up getting recycled. There is a 'sort of a rag trade side of the book business', where books are bought by weight and sold on 'very cheaply' by retailers such as Amazon, eBay and World of Books. This has 'hugely depressed the prices' of a lot of secondhand books, he says. Selling books by the metre, then, is a savvy way for retailers to get rid of large numbers of titles that would otherwise be difficult to shift. It's not without its downsides, though. 'It promotes this overconsumption of things that don't really have meaning, that are just for the aesthetic,' says Landen Huerter. The interior designer worries about the rise of 'fast-fashion trends' in home decor, similar to what has happened in the clothing industry. When people start to feel they need to follow new trends and constantly change their homes, it creates 'a new level of waste and overconsumption', which 'gets away from the whole idea of having a collected and curated space of things that represent yourself, your story and your interests,' he says. Buying books by length allows people to create a kind of 'knock-off' version of a richly filled bookshelf put together over years of reading for people who 'can't be bothered to choose the books and read them,' Hubbard says – or who can't afford a service like Blackwell's, perhaps. It is easy to be snobby about people who fill their bookshelves in this way – but 'we've all got lots of books on our shelves that we haven't read,' Hubbard points out. In Japan, they even have a word – tsundoku – for acquiring books with the best of intentions but letting them pile up without reading them. Though it's obviously frustrating for true bibliophiles when someone has bought a random selection of books in bulk to decorate their home, the fact there are books in their home at all is a good thing, Blackwell thinks. Having books around means that, at the very least, the opportunity to read one is there. 'In my experience', he says, 'there is always the right time and the right place to read a book.' Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
The Guardian
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘Look how well-read I am!' How ‘books by the metre' add the final touch to your home
People have always used books to assert their sophistication and affluence. You need only visit the library of a National Trust property to see that. The novelist F Scott Fitzgerald famously critiqued the shallowness of the super-rich via his character, Jay Gatsby, who lined his shelves with books in order to project a cultured image of himself – yet they were 'uncut' and had never been read. To one guest at Gatsby's party, that doesn't matter – he describes the shelves (that he had at first assumed to be cardboard facades of books) as 'a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too – didn't cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?' A century on from The Great Gatsby's publication, it is once again fashionable to decorate using books – and to question the motives of those who do so. In Vincenzo Latronico's International Booker-shortlisted Perfection, a novel that highlights the hollowness of chasing a 'cool', 'curated' life, Anna and Tom's self-consciously chic flat features 'floor-to-ceiling shelves lined with paperbacks and graphic novels … interspersed with illustrated coffee-table books – monographs on Noorda and Warhol, Tufte's series on infographics, the Taschen history of typefaces, and another Taschen on the entryways of Milan,' carefully arranged with 'succulents in cement plant pots,' and 'a waist-level camera' in the place of bookends. Through their home, Latronico writes, the couple has created a picture of a life that is 'clear and purposeful' – whether or not that is actually the case. In an age of constant scrolling, there is social capital to be gained by simply looking as if you are a cultured person who listens to music on vinyl and reads lots of books. And creating an aesthetically pleasing bookshelf is now easier than ever, thanks to an increase in booksellers who trade in 'books by the metre'. Vintage volumes are particularly popular, as they offer an instant way to create the effect of a long-established library made up of books collected over many years. 'My bookshelf is now complete,' reads one customer review on an eBay listing for a metre's worth of 'randomly selected' antique titles, available for £50. Dayna Isom Johnson, a trend expert at Etsy, another website where some sellers offer books by the metre, says the company has 'seen a 19,616% increase in searches for book-lover decor' over the past three months, compared with the same time last year. If you're willing to pay a bit more, sellers will offer a more bespoke service: for example, for £98, the online shop Country House Library will sell you a metre of assorted vintage books that all have orange covers. Madeleine Ovenden is head of non-traditional sales at the publisher Thames & Hudson, which specialises in what might be referred to as 'coffee-table books'. She has seen an increase in interior designers wanting to bulk-buy books with spines in similar colours, 'to fit a room theme'. The company now sells bundles of coffee-table books that all fit a certain colour or aesthetic – a stack of lemon-yellow Thames & Hudson books, for instance, could be yours for £119.90. Customers will also come to the publisher directly, Ovenden says, with 'requests by the metre for certain shelf sizes'. The rise in such requests can be attributed to the popularity of the 'bookshelf wealth' interior design trend on TikTok – an extension of the 'quiet luxury' and 'stealth wealth' aesthetic. A bookshelf that looks like an heirloom family collection, complete with art and ornaments, suggests you care about literature and art – and have time and money to spend on these things. Philip Blackwell curates bookshelves for a living via his company, Ultimate Library, which is used by hotels, businesses and homeowners who want to outsource the task of filling up their bookshelves. Though he is critical of the 'books by the metre' trend – Ultimate Library's selling point is that a knowledgable team will work with the client to select books they might actually read – he acknowledges that, if you're trying to build a library from scratch, you will almost inevitably have a certain amount of space to fill. I'm speaking to Blackwell at 40 Leadenhall, a newly developed office building in the City of London, where his company was commissioned to create a library for workers to use. 'That panel there is 14 linear metres multiplied by 33.' So he and his colleagues have to find 462 metres of books to fill that space, though most will be chosen for more than just their age, size or colour, and will be available to borrow. 'Creating a book collection, certainly for a private client, is all about having a discussion, going on a voyage to discover it, and it should be really good fun,' Blackwell says. He likes to quote Cicero: 'A room without books is like a body without a soul.' Services like his, then, manufacture that 'soul' in places such as offices and hotels that might otherwise be pretty soulless. Blackwell's service might be less superficial than simply using books for wall-dressing, but its appeal is still partly down to clients liking the way that books look. Michael Wood, who works for M&G Real Estate, which owns 40 Leadenhall, says M&G approached Ultimate Library partly because 'we've got a big space in this ground floor to fill and books are a great way to do that'. Aesthetically, the books make the building's lobby look less stark – and the higher shelves, which feature older books arranged by colour, are wholly ornamental. 'As a decorative element, books are great because they add a lot of texture,' says New York-based interior designer Tommy Landen Huerter. 'They add colour in places where it wouldn't be easy to otherwise integrate it. They just make a home look a lot more lived-in.' There have 'definitely been clients I have bought books for that will probably never be opened', who want full bookshelves 'just for the aesthetic', he says. He has been asked, for example, to style books on high shelves that homeowners will 'never be able to reach'. That is partly because books look good, but also because of their value as status symbols, Landen Huerter thinks. 'It's like: 'Look how well-read I am because I have the time to read and I'm educated enough to know these topics.'' The designer himself has 'a weird insecurity' over the fact that visitors to his own home wouldn't know he reads, since he does so exclusively on an e-reader and therefore doesn't have any physical books on display. Through your home, 'you want to show your interests' he says – but you can also show what you would like people to think your interests are, which is the impulse behind clients asking him to buy books in bulk for ornamental purposes. 'I can understand why people would say: 'I haven't read 100 books in the last year, but I would like to have.'' Just as they do via social media or through clothing choices, people are often trying to present the version of themselves that they would like to be true, rather than what actually is. Presenting the image of being a book lover has never been easier – part of the reason that buying books by length has become a trend is that books can be bought very cheaply, says Matt Hubbard, owner of secondhand bookshop Halcyon Books in south-east London. In the UK and the US at least (the market is slightly less populated in continental Europe), books are published in huge quantities: 'We're definitely spoiled for having a hell of a lot of books around.' Hubbard says he could easily take on more books than he would be able to sell, and some 'tatty paperbacks' have such a low value that they end up getting recycled. There is a 'sort of a rag trade side of the book business', where books are bought by weight and sold on 'very cheaply' by retailers such as Amazon, eBay and World of Books. This has 'hugely depressed the prices' of a lot of secondhand books, he says. Selling books by the metre, then, is a savvy way for retailers to get rid of large numbers of titles that would otherwise be difficult to shift. It's not without its downsides, though. 'It promotes this overconsumption of things that don't really have meaning, that are just for the aesthetic,' says Landen Huerter. The interior designer worries about the rise of 'fast-fashion trends' in home decor, similar to what has happened in the clothing industry. When people start to feel they need to follow new trends and constantly change their homes, it creates 'a new level of waste and overconsumption', which 'gets away from the whole idea of having a collected and curated space of things that represent yourself, your story and your interests,' he says. Buying books by length allows people to create a kind of 'knock-off' version of a richly filled bookshelf put together over years of reading for people who 'can't be bothered to choose the books and read them,' Hubbard says – or who can't afford a service like Blackwell's, perhaps. It is easy to be snobby about people who fill their bookshelves in this way – but 'we've all got lots of books on our shelves that we haven't read,' Hubbard points out. In Japan, they even have a word – tsundoku – for acquiring books with the best of intentions but letting them pile up without reading them. Though it's obviously frustrating for true bibliophiles when someone has bought a random selection of books in bulk to decorate their home, the fact there are books in their home at all is a good thing, Blackwell thinks. Having books around means that, at the very least, the opportunity to read one is there. 'In my experience', he says, 'there is always the right time and the right place to read a book.' Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
RTÉ News
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Dublin Literature Fest
From May 16th-25th, International Literature Festival Dublin brings over 200 events across fiction, nonfiction, poetry, film, music and performance to Dublin's Merrion Square. Below, we've selected 10 must-see events at the capital's premiere book bash... Headliners include trailblazing US writer, cultural critic and commentator Roxane Gay, who brings her unique brand of radical honesty to Dublin on Thursday 22nd May. Vincenzo Latronico and Naoise Dolan discuss why writing is about breaking things in order to put them back together again on Friday 16th. Seen through the eyes of two Berlin-based hipsters, Latronico's International Booker Prize 2025 shortlisted novel Perfection astutely skewers contemporary privilege and the disparity between social media and real life. Faith in globalisation has been fatally undermined by the pandemic, energy crisis, tariff and trade frictions and power rivalry. What if globalisation fails is the subject on Friday 16th, when journalist Ben Chu, Policy and Analysis Correspondent at BBC Verify, discusses his book Exile Economics with barrister Ingrid Miley, formerly RTÉ Industry and Employment Correspondent. The Mind Keeps the Score (Tuesday 20th) features ABC News Chief International Correspondent James Longman, whose experiences with depression prompted him to wonder if he had inherited mental illness, and specialist psychotherapist Owen O'Kane, one of the UK's leading mental health experts. They discuss their fascinating new books, The Inherited Mind (Longman) and Addicated to Anxiety (O'Kane). With the controversial relationship between AI and literature a major news topic, The Cost of Truth (Wednesday 21st) sees authors Jo Callaghan and Ian Green talking to Adrian Weckler, Irish Independent technology editor. AI researcher Callaghan's spellbinding mystery Human Remains features the world's first AI detective, while Green's novel Extremophile is a breakneck biohacking thriller set in climate-collapse London. Discover how the stories around Irish words reveal a unique perspective on Ireland's landscape, weather, relationships, feelings and the body on Friday 23rd when Hector Ó hEochagáin tells Patrick Freyne about his award-winning Irish Words You Should Know, described by Tommy Tiernan as "The best book on the Irish language I have ever read". Modern retellings can transform our understanding of a novel. On Sunday 25th, Aimée de Jongh, Xiaolu Guo and Clara Kumagai talk to Martina Devlin about finding inspiration in classic literature: respectively, Lord of the Flies, Moby Dick and Puccini's Madame Butterfly. Also on the 25th, Serhii Plokhy, Professor of History at Harvard University and Director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, discusses his gripping account of the chaos and disaster that unfolded at Ukraine's nuclear plant from the first day of Russia's 2022 invasion. A remarkable story of uncertainty and courage, Chernobyl Roulette sounds the alarm about the dangers of nuclear sites in these unprecedented times. In a packed programme of stories, songs, drawing, and writing for children of all ages, two highlights include The Ultimate Comic Creation Event with comic book artist Will Sliney on Sunday 18th May, where he'll get everyone drawing Spider-Man. On Saturday 24th May, author and illustrator Laura Ellen Anderson, creator of Amelia Fang, introduces Marnie Midnight the moon-loving moth in Make Your Own Minibeast on the Minibeast Mission!
The Hindu
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
World Book Day 2025: 5 unmissable reads that cross borders and stay with you
Books don't just tell stories; they build bridges across time, cultures and perspectives. This World Book Day, celebrate the power of storytelling and literature to challenge how we see the world and our place in it. Whether you're curled up at home or listening on the go, the right story can transport you across borders – no passport required. With a collection of over 16,000 books and more than 2,500 audio and e-books spanning different genres, the British Council's Digital Library offers readers a treasure trove of thought-provoking titles from around the world that inspire and prompt conversation. This year, the British Council spotlights five remarkable works in translation that speak to our most pressing emotions and complexities – displacement, digital burnout, memory, resilience and care. These stories, though rooted in specific cultures, transcend borders to offer universal truths. 1. Under the Eye of the Big Bird – by Hiromi Kawakami, translated by Asa Yoneda From one of Japan's most acclaimed contemporary novelists, Under the Eye of the Big Bird is a speculative masterpiece that reimagines life on Earth after humans have nearly gone extinct. In this distant future, scattered tribes live under the care of mysterious 'Mothers.' Told through fourteen interconnected episodes spanning geological ages, this quietly profound novel is both mournful and hopeful. Blending science and myth, it offers a poetic and unsettling vision of the end of humanity – and what might emerge in its place. 2. Heart Lamp: Selected Stories – by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi In Heart Lamp, Banu Mushtaq vividly captures the everyday lives of women and girls in Muslim communities in southern India. Originally published in Kannada, these twelve stories reflect her background as a journalist and lawyer, with a sharp focus on women's rights and resistance to caste and religious injustice. Praised for their dry humour and vivid style, the stories are filled with unforgettable characters – spirited children, outspoken grandmothers, and resilient mothers navigating complex emotions. Mushtaq's writing showcases her as a keen observer of human nature and a powerful storyteller. 3. Perfection – by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes Anna and Tom – a millennial expat couple – seem to be living an idyllic life surrounded by plants, parties, and filtered social media moments in Vincenzo Latronico's Perfection. As digital creatives, their world is curated to appear flawless, yet beneath the surface lies a growing sense of dissatisfaction and disconnection. Their relationships, careers, and political efforts all begin to feel hollow, as they search for meaning in a life built on appearances. Translated by Sophie Hughes, the novel exposes the emptiness at the heart of curated modern living. Blending sharp social commentary with a stylish, minimalist narrative, Perfection is a striking exploration of identity, authenticity, and the subtle despair of a generation caught in the glow of its own image. 4. Small Boat – by Vincent Delecroix, translated by Helen Stevenson Small Boat is a poetic and haunting novella from France that reflects on grief, guilt, and moral responsibility. Blending fiction with real events, it is inspired by the 2021 tragedy in the English Channel, where 27 migrants died after their calls for help were mishandled. The narrator – a call handler accused of failing in her duty – offers a quiet yet powerful meditation on blame, asking why one person should carry the weight of a crisis shaped by war, politics, and indifference. Vincent Delecroix crafts a deeply philosophical tale, adrift in memory, sorrow, and unanswered questions. Through Helen Stevenson's delicate translation, Small Boat becomes both a voice of protest and a lament. 5. A Leopard-Skin Hat – by Anne Serre, translated by Mark Hutchinson Anne Serre's A Leopard-Skin Hat is a poignant, dreamlike novella centred on an intense childhood friendship between the narrator and Fanny, a young woman grappling with deep psychological struggles. Through a series of short, elegant scenes, Serre explores the narrator's unwavering devotion and emotional turmoil, capturing the delicate dance between hope and despair that defines their bond. Moving and subtly surreal, the story blurs the line between reality and imagination, infused with Serre's trademark wit and stylistic grace. Beautifully translated by Mark Hutchinson, the novella is both a tribute to a life cut short and a quiet meditation on grief, love, and the complexities of care. These five books demonstrate how stories can be deeply personal yet universally resonant. Perfect for World Book Day, each title is a small gem of cross-cultural imagination, offering a portal to the strange and sublime. Whether you're seeking stories that challenge, comfort, or connect, these voices from around the world invite you to read beyond the familiar – and rediscover the transformative power of literature.
Euronews
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
'What it means to be a human': Short-but-punchy books dominate International Booker Prize shortlist
ADVERTISEMENT The International Booker Prize has announced the six books shortlisted for its annual celebration of the best new fiction works that have been translated into English. Five novels and one short story collection are now in contention for the £50,000 (€58,000) prize. All six finalists will receive £5,000 (€5,800). All prizes are to be split equally between authors and their translators. The International Booker Prize recognises translators alongside the original authors as equal recipients. As with the longlist announcement in February, all the shortlisted authors are first-time nominees with two of the translators having previous nominations. Of this year's 12 nominated authors and translators, nine are women. Related Euronews Culture Book Club: Four picks for April These are the 10 most Instagrammable bookstores in the world, according to a new study It's the first time in the Prize's history that books from a Danish, Italian or Japanese author has been shortlisted as Solvej Balle, Vincenzo Latronico , and Hiromi Kawakami are named for the top gong. Also marking a first is Banu Mushtaq, the Indian author whose book "Heart Lamp" is the first work written in the South Indian Kannada language to be nominated. This year's shortlist is unique in that it's made up entirely of books from independent publishers. They're also on the shorter side, with four books coming in at under 200 pages. Two of the books, "Perfection" and "Small Boat" are barely over 100 pages and the longest book "Under the Eye of the Big Bird" is a mere 278 pages long. Max Porter, chair of the 2025 judges, said the shortlist was made up of 'mind-expanding books' that are a 'vehicle for pressing and surprising conversations about humanity'. All six nominated shortlisted books Yuki Sugiura 'Reading 154 books in six months made us feel like high-speed Question Machines hurtling through space,' Porter continued. 'Our selected six awakened an appetite in us to question the world around us: How am I seeing or being seen? How are we translating each other, all the time? How are we trapped in our bodies, in our circumstances, in time, and what are our options for freedom? Who has a voice? In discussing these books we have been considering again and again what it means to be a human being now.' The announcement of the winner will take place on Tuesday 20 May at a ceremony at the Tate Modern in London, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Here are the six shortlisted books: "On the Calculation of Volume I" by Solvej Balle, translated from Danish by Barbara J. Haveland The first book in a planned septology by Solvej Balle, one of Denmark's most acclaimed contemporary authors. Tara Selter is stuck in a time loop of the 18th November and as she reaches a year of being in this state, she starts to wonder if there is any way out of her relentless purgatory. The judges said: 'A life is contained inside the melancholy of an endlessly repeating wintry day. Reading this book is an act of meditation and contemplation.' "Small Boat" by Vincent Delecroix, translated from French by Helen Stevenson French author Delecroix wrote "Small Boat" in three weeks based on recordings from a real event in which 27 people died when their boat sank in the Channel in 2021. He creates a damning fictional portrait of the woman who refused to take action when their calls for aid were received. The judges said: 'An unflinching use of literature to ask the most uncomfortable but urgent question of our time: to what extent are we all complicit?' ADVERTISEMENT "Under the Eye of the Big Bird" by Hiromi Kawakami, translated from Japanese by Asa Yoneda Inspired by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear meltdown in 2011, Kawakami created this speculative fiction about the future of humanity. Told over the course of eons, we see humanity on the edge of extinction setting into small tribes and interbreeding with aliens. The judges said: 'A beguiling, radical, mind- and heart-expanding journey into humanity's future. The visionary strangeness is utterly enchanting.' "Perfection" by Vincenzo Latronico, translated from Italian by Sophie Hughes One of the most damning indictments of the millennial dream yet. Latronico's taught sociological novel about a couple who are living their ideal life in Berlin underlines the vapidity and bland approach to aspiration and consumerism millennials have as they strive for the same appliances and aesthetics. The judges said: 'A pitch-perfect, profound and agonisingly well-observed account of the existential malaise of millennial life.' ADVERTISEMENT "Heart Lamp" by Banu Mushtaq, translated from Kannada by Deepa Bhasthi The only short story collection of the shortlisted books. "Heart Lamp" was published in the Kannada language between 1990 and 2023 and brings Banu Mushtaq's career experiences as a journalist and lawyer to a broad variety of stories about community and family. The judges said: 'Stories about encroaching modernity, as told through the lives of Muslim women in southern India. An invigorating reading experience.' "A Leopard-Skin Hat" by Anne Serre, translated from French by Mark Hutchinson Written following author Anne Serre's sister's suicide, "A Leopard-Skin Hat" is a memorial to her. Through just a few short scenes, Serre paints a beautiful portrait of strong-willed young woman and the demons she's faced. The judges said: 'A masterful lesson in how we remember the lives of those bound up with our own. It holds the fragility of life in its hands with the utmost care.' ADVERTISEMENT
