Booklist

David’s New Year Picks 2023

Selected by David Lea


What could possibly go wrong when you send an effete Austrian aristocrat, obsessed with butterflies, to be the ruler of a country he knows nothing about and which is engaged in a brutal civil war? Quite a lot as, it happens. Also included are botanical rambles, obviously, the great Nell Zink in a rather gentler mood than usual, and a final book from the incomparable and much-missed Janet Malcolm.

From the publisher:
The bizarre and little known story of how a hubristic Archduke became the puppet Emperor of Mexico – with tragic results and pivotal historical consequences for Europe and America.‘Hilarious, heartbreaking and utterly…

From the publisher:
For most of 2020, Mikes Dilger's day-job of travelling to the four corners of the British Isles all but disappeared. Having been confined to one place by the Covid pandemic, and with daily dog walks his sole permitted outdoor pursuit, the…

From the publisher:
The new novel from one of America’s most original voices—a wild, blackly funny story of female emancipation and the journey to one’s own utopia.Bran’s Southern California upbringing is anything but traditional. After…

From the publisher:
For decades, Janet Malcolm’s books and dispatches for the New Yorker have poked and prodded at biographical convention, gesturing towards the artifice that underpins both public and private selves. Here, Malcolm turns her…

From the publisher:
A New Statesman Best Book of the Year 2023. A Waterstones Book of the Year 2023. An Economist Book of the Year. One of Smithsonian Magazine's Ten Best History Books of 2023. A BBC History Magazine Book of…

From the publisher:
Translated by Ottilie MulzetAn exquisitely beautiful new novel from one of the world's greatest living writers.The grandson of Prince Genji lives outside of space and time and wanders the grounds of an old monastery in Kyoto. The…

From the publisher:
'A classic of its kind.' William Boyd'Thought-provoking, hilarious, sardonic and scarily brilliant.' Scotsman'A work of dazzling craft.' Times Literary Supplement'A memoir in a million.' Sunday Times** Chosen as…

From the publisher:
The stories in this collection are rich, tangled, and suffused with mystery and wonder. In the narrowing, winding city streets, strange figures roam. Great flocks of birds soar over rooftops, obscuring the sun. Cockroaches appear through…

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