#1: 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in This Strange World
Elif Shafak, 2019
Shafak’s vivid imagery slides off the page, dancing across the reader’s mind with beguiling lucidity…
#3: Strike Your Heart
Amélie Nothomb, 2017
Amélie Nothomb’s uncomplicated style is the perfect vehicle for a story that simultaneously draws the reader in and pushes them away…
#5: The Last Will and Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo
Germano Almeida, 1989
Writing your life takes on new meaning in this intriguing tale by Cape Verdean author, Germano Almeida…
#7: How the World Thinks
Julian Baggini, 2018
Julian Baggini’s exploration of the world’s diverse ways of thinking is insightful, rigorous and highly readable…
#9: The House at the End of Hope Street
Menna van Praag, 2013
Living rent-free in Cambridge for 99 days really would be magical…
#11: Under the Influence of Nothingness
Dan Provost, 2020
Dan Provost aptly describes this collection as a series of ‘confessional’ poems…
#2: How to be both
Ali Smith, 2014
Smith challenges the reader’s expectations, drags us out of our comfort zone and offers a book that is bafflingly brilliant and brilliantly baffling…
#4: The Solitude of Prime Numbers
Paolo Giordano, 2008
Paolo Giordano’s The Solitude of Prime Numbers is a striking concept, but a mediocre novel…
#6: Surrounded by Idiots
Thomas Erikson, 2014
A fascinating topic becomes an avalanche of clichés and platitudes in this ridiculously oversimplified book about human behaviour…
#8: Quichotte
Salman Rushdie, 2019
Salman Rushdie, famed for his flamboyant and fantastical style, offers a work of mind-boggling meta-fiction for his fourteenth novel…
#10: The Burning Chambers
Kate Mosse, 2018
Gripping plot. Fast-paced action. Lifelike characters. So what’s missing?
Briefly Write 