THE BEST OF 2019

THE BOOK THAT BLEW ME AWAY

‘My book of the year isn’t a new one, but still quite a discovery: Mark Everett’s Things the Grandchildren Should Know. Usually I prefer fiction, but this memoir is written like a beautiful, sad, funny story. I’ve long admired the songwriting talent of this author, also known as E from the rock band Eels. Now I simply admire his writing, full stop.’ Marita van der Vyver, author

‘Tara Westover’s Educated is an astounding memoir. She was born into a Mormon fundamentalist family in Idaho, one of seven children. Her father was convinced the world was going to end at the stroke of the millennium. He didn’t believe in sending his children to school. Her brother was violently abusive. Westover’s story of escaping this to achieving a PhD at Cambridge is amazing.’ Deon Meyer, crime fiction author

‘[published in 1948] by Sylvia Townsend Warner is set in a 14th-century convent in Norfolk. It’s a beautiful, bracingly tart meander through the lives of the nuns and the man who comes to live among them as a priest. It feels like a direct tap into