Take What You Need
Idra Novey
Daunt Books, £9.99, pp256
Leah has been estranged from stepmother Jean for four years when she receives news that Jean has died. Returning to the now poverty-stricken town where she grew up, Leah gradually reveals details of their final, unnerving meeting. Interspersed with Leah’s journey is Jean’s story, including her unorthodox relationship with an underprivileged young man. Novey explores the boundaries of familial relationships and the cathartic power of art with depth and sensitivity.
Walking the Bones of Britain: A 3 Billion Year Journey from the Outer Hebrides to the Thames Estuary
Christopher Somerville
Doubleday, £25, pp432
“At school, I was bored by geology,” Somerville confesses in his opening line. It wasn’t until he stumbled across a geological map of Britain and understood “the drama and the colour of the story” that he began to be fascinated by it. Here, his infectious enthusiasm and wry humour infuse his journey from the Isle of Lewis to southern England, revealing our rich geological history with vibrant local and natural history.
The Flow: Rivers, Water and Wildness
Amy-Jane Beer
Bloomsbury, £10.99, pp400 (paperback)
In 2012, Beer’s close friend was killed in a kayaking accident. In response, the biologist and nature writer began studying water in all its forms, from rivers and lakes to glaciers and gas. The resulting book is a fascinating travelogue, investigating the properties of water, the natural world around it and our relationship with it. Beer’s prose has the luminous beauty of poetry, blending personal experience and absorbing research with a sense of awe.
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