The best book I've read this year
The best book I've read this year
We need to talk about In Memoriam
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Backstory is all about going beyond the book, getting the story behind the story. We’d love to give you a warm Backstory welcome at one of our in-person events soon (I promise you: our wine is worth the northern line).
Jill Nalder - Love From the Pink Palace
This Wednesday 7th June, 7.30pm, Backstory
Local resident and AIDS awareness campaigner, Jill Nalder, joins us to talk about her life during the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, which partly inspired Russell T Davies’s TV drama It’s A Sin.
Eleanor Steafel - The Art of Friday Night Dinner
Wednesday 14th June, 7.30pm, Backstory
A social cook through and through, Telegraph writer Eleanor Steafel has perfected the art of celebrating the best night of the week. Join us for a fun evening of recipes and cocktails at Backstory.
Michael Reid - Spain: The Trials and Triumphs of a Modern European Country
Wednesday 21st June, 7.30pm, Backstory
There are few better guides to Spain than Michael Reid, a former columnist and senior editor who covered the country for decades for The Economist. As we contemplate heading back to Spain for summer holidays, he will talk us through its recent history from the death of Franco to the Catalan referendum.
Alice Vincent - Why Women Grow
Wednesday 28th June, 7.30pm, Backstory
Women have always turned to the earth, as gardeners, growers and custodians. Alice Vincent, a journalist, author, Substacker and publishing staffer, is on a quest to understand why.
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Fiction book club (£15 a month or £22.50 for one-off; includes the book)
A book club with a twist - the author joins in, too. Members get the book four weeks in advance, then come together on Zoom. Like any other book club, we discuss what you made of the book with other members. Unlike other book clubs, the author then joins us for the final 40 mins: an interview by Backstory then your chance to ask them your questions directly.
Caleb Azumah Nelson, Open Water 18th July, 8pm, Zoom
Rachel Yoder, Nightbitch 15th August, 8pm, Zoom
Julia Armfield, Our Wives Under the Sea 12th September, 8pm, Zoom
Non-fiction book club (£15 a month or £22.50 for one-off; includes the book)
Same set-up as the fiction one above. Chaired by me, since non-fiction is my first love! We’ve had some amazingly high-calibre authors so far like Patrick Radden Keefe and Sathnam Sanghera. These sessions are so intimate; they feel like invitations to the author’s study. Do join us and give it a go.
Katherine Rundell, Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne 27th June, 8pm, Zoom
Edward Chisholm, A Waiter in Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City 25th July, 8pm, Zoom
Tim Marshall, The Power of Geography: Ten Maps That Reveal the Future of Our World 31st August, 8pm, Zoom
I WANT TO TELL YOU - heck, I want to tell everyone - about the best book I’ve read this year. I’ve written here before that I’m a recovering slow reader. A few years ago, if I’d pronounced weightily at the beginning of June that such and such a tome was the ‘best book I’d read this year’, it wouldn’t have meant much. It might even have come with a little snark… as in, this is the best book about monks in 18th century Norfolk that I’ve read all year.
But I’ve read 29 books so far in 2023 and the very best is In Memoriam. And it’s not even close.
We’ve picked it as June’s Backstory book of the month because my colleagues Amy, Denise and Rory have all read it and loved it, too. But even if they hadn’t, I would still want to tell you about it. It’s one of those books that’s so good, you’re desperate for other people to just get on and read the damn thing so you can talk about it with them.
Remarkably, it’s a debut novel, by a very gifted writer called Alice Winn. It’s about two young men (boys, really), who don’t realise they’re in love until it’s too late. By the time they come to their senses, their world has changed irrevocably with the outbreak of the First World War. Suddenly, they’re fighting in the trenches. War teaches them more about man’s inhumanity to man - but also about comradeship, love and even beauty - than the boarding school where they met ever could.
It’s one of the most beautiful and moving love stories I’ve ever read. I finished it a month ago and the characters are still so present in my mind. I want to have tea with them.
I could go on - and on. But I wanted to try something a little different this week. Alice was over from the States a couple of weeks ago and she very kindly agreed to sign all our copies of her book. Better still, she sat down for a chat with me and Amy to tell us all about In Memoriam.
Click on the ‘play’ button to have a listen to our chat (it will take you to the web version of this post):
Then click on this button to order a signed copy to pick up from the shop, or to have one sent free of charge to any UK address (or anywhere in the world, for a postage fee).
I hope you enjoy the novel as much as I did,
Tom