The Short End of the Sonnenallee
Thomas Brussig (translated by Jonathan Franzen and Jenny Watson)
4th Estate, £14.99, pp160
The involvement of Franzen gives this entertaining translation of Brussig’s charming East German novel plenty of star quality. But you can see why the American was so keen to bring this superb slice of life behind the Berlin Wall to a wider audience. Written in 1999, each chapter from the point of view of teenager Michael, it is a pitch-perfect takedown of the totalitarian experience. A reminder that no matter the harshness of a situation, a community can still live with hope and humour.
Oxblood
Tom Benn
Bloomsbury, £9.99, pp247 (paperback)
It feels slightly odd for late 20th-century tales of the Manchester underworld to read like historical novels. But Tom Benn, who in March won a young writer of the year award, has a firm grasp of the genre and a desire to subvert it. This is no-holds-barred stuff that makes no apologies for the attitude and behaviour of its powerful characters – three women who have been shaped by the misdemeanours of violent men and, in breaking free of their pasts, fashion their own futures. Northern noir brimming with honesty and hard-won optimism.
Because They Can Play F’cking Good Football
Jamie Jackson
Substack, £4.99/month
Published as serialised chapters on Guardian and Observer football writer Jamie Jackson’s Substack, Because They Can Play F’cking Good Football is a fresh way of chronicling the madness of Erik ten Hag’s first season as Manchester United manager. Sardonically written in verse riffing off Robin Robertson’s The Long Take, Jackson’s book gets under the skin of what it is to be a fan and coach, the nightmarish stream of consciousness vocalising the horror of a 7-0 defeat in a way match reports could never achieve.
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