In this powerful, short memoir, Junger describes his experience in 2020, when he suffered a ruptured pancreatic aneurism, which he shouldn't have survived. As he slipped away, he was visited by his dead father, who invited Junger to join him. He then returned to life, but was then spurred to explore scientifically, philosophically and personally the meaning and events around mortality and death, and how we might understand an afterlife from a physicists perspective.

This is a difficult novel to describe, other than to say that it's set during the COVID pandemic, in Manhattan, and describes the experiences of a solitary writer, the narrator, who unexpectedly finds herself sharing a friend's apartment with a Gen Z dropout, and a spirited parrot. It seems like an unlikely set up for a novel, but it's compelling, compassionate, wry and moving. Nunez uses storytelling to advocate for community and connection, despite the difficulties in the modern world. She's a lovely and important writer.

Wandering Stars, a companion book to his earlier There, There, begins at the Sand Creek Massacre of 1864, and spans nearly 200 years, culminating in the devastating events at the heart of the earlier book. It's a devastating epic novel, tracing one Native American family's history of appalling treatment by a variety of authorities over that time. It takes in dispossession, oppression, racism, while also being tender and human. It's an incredibly well-conceived book, brilliantly written and structured, moving and hopeful. One of the best things I've read in some time.

This charming and warm hearted novel tells the story of Yeongju, a woman who is burnt out from a high-flying career, and a failed marriage which has brought shame on her family and caused a rift with her parents; so she opens a bookshop. Gradually, she gathers a community around her, and they all find a new way to live. The pressure of life in South Korea, expectation around careers and conventional ways of living, is extraordinary. There's quite a lot of discussion around this in the novel, and also discussion of books and philosophy.

Whaea Blue is a fierce, fiery and original memoir, with a distinctly Māori perspective. It jumps backwards and forwards in time, takes in inter-iwi conflict, dispossession and racism, Ans Westra and her work, as well as a having a fearless and honest approach to her own life story. It's written in frenetic prose, propulsive and wild. It's a terrific book, a book like no other, and could only have come from Aotearoa.

Teju Cole is a Nigerian-American novelist, photographer and critic. Tremor is a collage of a novel, it takes in art history, race, the legacy of slavery, life in Lagos. It's reflective, passionate, moving; there are shifting narrators, some of whom address the reader, who has to work to fully appreciate this marvellous book. It's a joy to read this profound book.