I love a book with new ideas that challenge, novel glimpses into the near future, and a taste of ethical dilemmas. And a new author to discover. This is only Lynn Watson’s second novel – a beautifully scripted, gentle masterpiece of intrigue that has it all. It is set in an all too realistic 2048, where medical science has advanced, diseases are a thing of the past (at least for some), and radical life extension is becoming possible. As ever, it is about power and wealth, corporate intrigue and self-interest versus the good of society. The cybirds are an inspired vision of runaway AI. The characters at Wellowfern are well developed and comfortable, almost our friends, but we also know there is a world outside, a world of great suffering. Where do our morals lie?
In 2048, medical science has overcome all the diseases and limiting conditions of old age. In the exclusive community of Wellowfern, radical life extension has turned from distant dream to near reality and competing forces are lining up to impose their widely different visions of the future. Isabel is a loyal and influential resident who knows about corporate intrigue and the power of self-interest. She now has to figure out who is pulling the strings, which side she is on and how best to defend her safe haven and her eccentric, misfit friends, as the high-level infighting threatens to overwhelm…
I simply devour crime mysteries and spy thrillers all the time, and could easily have chosen my three best of the year. But I become even more deeply invested in a bittersweet love story. Who isn’t. Katie Khan’s debut novel is just that – unique and serenely beautiful, gripping and deeply emotional. This is about true love, selfless love, spinning together out of control and so completely alone in the deep void of space – with just 90 minutes of air remaining. It is set not too far in the future and is hugely plausible. Tragedy is always present, love is forever timeless. I rarely read a book at one sitting – this one I did.
'A high-stakes, high-concept love story from a bold new talent.' Matt Haig
Carys and Max have ninety minutes of air left. None of this was supposed to happen. Adrift in space with nothing to hold on to but each other, Carys and Max can't help but look back at the world they left behind. A world whose rules they couldn't submit to, a place where they never really belonged; a home they're determined to get back to because they've come too far to lose each other now.
I generally have both a fiction and non-fiction book on the go at the same time. One for easy nighttime reading, and one for more earnest contemplation and edification through the day. Ravita Navai’s first book, for which she won the Royal Society Award for non-fiction, amongst other acclaims, was rather more than I bargained for. It is excellent, deeply troubling and strongly feminist. Based on interviews with eight Iranian men and women of all persuasions, she vividly dissects and exposes the cynicism and dishonesty so rampant in Iran today. The book’s subtitle is ‘Love, Sex, Death and the Search for Truth in Tehran’. It is this indeed, and much more besides.
'Phenomenal. An extraordinary insight into a country barely known - an often feared - by the West' Vogue
'Utterly compelling' Daily Mail
'Gripping, a dark, delicious unveiling . . . Deeply researched yet as exciting as a novel' Simon Sebag Montefiore
Welcome to Tehran, a city where survival depends on a network of subterfuge. Here is a place where mullahs visit prostitutes, drug kingpins run crystal meth kitchens, surgeons restore girls' virginity and homemade porn is sold in the sprawling bazaars; a place where ordinary people are forced to lead extraordinary lives.
World-renowned geologist, Dorrik Stow, tells the story of a long-lost ocean, named Tethys Ocean after the Greek goddess of the sea. Tethys lasted for 250 million years of Earth's history, straddling the equatorial world and playing host to the changing life and events that have shaped the planet we inhabit today. Tethys teemed with colourful life but also experienced devastating mass extinctions, bore witness to unparalleled climate change, and experienced the highest sea levels ever recorded. It finally disappeared just as early humans marveled at its shores.
For many years, Dorrik Stow has sought clues of this past ocean hidden in the rocks of many continents and buried beneath the ocean floors. Here he brings to life its rich legacy and explains how it vanished.
