What To Read In November: The Books On Team Service95’s TBR Pile
The team behind the Service95 Book Club share the books they’re reading this month, from new releases we’ve enjoyed to the titles topping our to-be-read piles…
The City And Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami
“In Murakami’s latest magical realism novel, a young man’s girlfriend goes missing and he sets out to find the imaginary walled city – where there are horned beasts and no shadows – where her true self lives. His search leads him to find work in an illusory library with mysteries of its own, and as the lines between reality and fantasy become more hazy, he has to decide what he’s prepared to lose. In Murakami’s signature dreamlike mysticism and introspective exploration, it’s a contemplation on love and time.” – Samantha de Haas, Creative Production Manager
A Fertile Earth by Ruthvika Rao
“This story opens with the assassination of an entire family of zamindars (landlords) at their gadi in rural Telangana, India, in 1970. It then zooms back to the same village 20 years before, where we follow a cast of characters including Krishna, Vijaya and Ranga – growing up against a backdrop of huge political change – to discover how the atrocity came about. It has everything I love in a novel” immersive family drama, evocative world-building and central love story. I was hooked.” – Katie Teehan, Editorial Director
Indeterminate Inflorescence: Notes From A Poetry Class by Lee Seong-bok, translated by Anton Hur
‘“Inflorescence” is the order in which flowers bloom on a stem.’ So begins this study on the art of poetry from Lee Seong-bok, considered one of South Korea’s greatest living poets. A small gem of a book, it offers 470 short mediations that can serve as pearls of wisdom to aspiring poets – and as micro-poems in their own right. Skilfully translated into English by Booker Prize winning translator Anton Hur. – Maria Padget, Book Club Director
The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
“As soon as I heard the title of this book I was intrigued – and it did not disappoint. It’s 1913, and young Mieczysław Wojnicz is sent to a gentleman’s health resort in the mountains to receive treatment for his respiratory issues, among guests whose main topic of conversation is the inferiority of women. When he finds the body of a woman who he assumed was a household servant lying on the dining table, things prove not to be what they first appeared. Refreshingly light-hearted thanks to Antonia Lloyd-Jones’s flawless translation, it tells a folk horror story you won’t forget. If you’re not a fan of horror, don’t be put off. This book will make you feel uneasy, but the intrigue is too good to miss.” – Samantha de Haas, Creative Production Manager
Forest of Noise by Mosab Abu Toha
“Award-winning poet Mosab Abu Toha was born in Gaza’s Al-Shati refugee camp in 1992 and has never lived without war in his homeland. Forest of Noise is his chronicles the violence, loss and displacement Palestinians have lived through not just the past year, but for decades. These poems serve as a powerful reminder of what has been lost to occupation and destruction, offering poetry as an act of resistance.” – Maria Padget, Book Club Director
