31. Ghost Wall, Sarah Moss
A short and disturbing tale. Teenage Silvie has been taken by her parents to join an Iron Age re-enactment in Northumbria. For two weeks they, and a group of university students, will live off the land, using only the most basic of tools.
We soon learn that Silvie's father is an unpredictable bully, and tensions arise among the members of the family as well as between them and the students. For Silvie's father, the students are failing to take the re-enactment seriously enough - there's a meaning in this for him beyond simple archaeology - while for Silvie, interaction with the students starts to open her eyes to possibilities in her own life.
Considering the short length of this novel, Moss packs in a lot - a genuinely disturbing plot, layers of myth and the supernatural, descriptions of the natural world, gender politics and some uncomfortable questions about racial and national identity. I read this in a few hours driven by the plot but found afterwards that my brain was buzzing with the connections and echoes contained within it.
32. Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire, Akala
Been wanting to read this for ages and it didn't disappoint. Akala (a 30-something musician, writer and activist from London) examines Britain's murky imperial history, and how issues which many people in today's society know little about are still affecting the ways that we think and talk about race - and the lives of BAME people in the UK.
I've read a few similar books in the past year or two but this, for me, was the best. Akala has just the right combination of historical information, contemporary statistical analysis and personal anecdote to make his points in a way that is both illuminating and authoritative. He's also skilled at teasing out the tangled relationship between race and class, recognising the shared issues and concerns between working class people of all racial backgrounds while clearly pointing out the ways in which race can confer a double disadvantage.
As a white reader, I found this eye-opening and accessible. I didn't think I was entirely ignorant on these issues but Akala really made me stop and think about the way that unspoken historic prejudices, and the way that these are wielded by those in power, can lead us to erroneous conclusions even with the best of intentions.
33. Spies, Michael Frayn
Another good read! I seem to have been on a streak of good'uns this month.
Stephen, now an old man, is drawn back to memories of his childhood during WW2, when he and his posh-er, and more dominant, friend Keith spent their time watching their suburban neighbours and making up breathless plots. Mr X is a murderer. The people in number 7 are a secret cult. Keith's mother is spying for the Germans.
With this last conspiracy in mind, the boys embark on a project to follow Keith's mother and write down her movements. They discover that there IS something mysterious going on - and this atmospheric story follows their experiences finding out the secret.
A great depiction of a hot 1940s summer, of childhood and of the feeling one has looking back at ones childhood from a grown-up viewpoint. It reminded me of The Go Between for obvious reasons, but Keith and Stephen's adventures also reminded me strongly of some of the really good wartime Just William stories, boys playing at grown-up things that are happening all around them but which they don't have the capacity to understand. The story is told subtly and with humour, and the clues that lead you to the final denouement are dropped so quietly that you can miss them if you're not paying attention. I wasn't entirely convinced by the ending but this is a genuinely excellent piece of story-telling.