This page is an ongoing list of everything I read during the year. As I go along, I will link to my reviews or other writing about these books.

29. Mircea Cărtărescu, Solenoid (Romania, 2015 tr. 2022). A sprawling encyclopaedic novel that’s not really my kind of thing. Still, I have to admire it even though I can’t say I truly ‘got’ it. [***]

28. Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany, 1929 tr. 1994). One of the great war novels. [****]

27. Kyra Wilder, Gloss (USA, 2025). The myth of the Hesperides, adapted into an examination of trauma set in the present day. [***]

26. Hanna Thomas Uose, Who Wants to Live Forever (England/Japan, 2025). The invention of a drug to halt ageing splits a couple in two. [**]

24. Banu Mushtaq, Heart Lamp (India, tr. 2025). Stories of women’s lives in Muslim communities of southern India, selected from across the author’s career. [***]

23. Hiromi Kawakami, Under the Eye of the Big Bird (Japan, 2016 tr. 2024). A quiet, piecemeal tale of humanity’s deep future. [***]

22. Dahlia de la Cerda, Reservoir Bitches (Mexico, 2022 tr. 2024). Forceful collection of stories illuminating the lives of Mexican women. [***]

21. Gaëlle Bélem, There’s a Monster Behind the Door (France/Réunion, 2020 tr. 2024). A young woman confronts her family’s legacy in this sparkling tale. [***]

20. Samantha Harvey, Orbital (England, 2023). An astronaut’s-eye view of Earth. [***]

19. Vincent Delecroix, Small Boat (France, 2023 tr. 2025). A radio operator argues that she’s not responsible for the deaths of a group of migrants, in a meditation on complicity. [****]

18. Saou Ichikawa, Hunchback (Japan, 2023 tr. 2025). Visceral and intimate portrait of the pent-up desires of a physically disabled protagonist. [****]

17. Christian Kracht, Eurotrash (Switzerland, 2021 tr. 2024). A road trip shadowed by a dark family history. [***]

16. Ibtisam Azem, The Book of Disappearance (Palestine, 2014 tr. 2019). A tale of people, places and memories gone, and what fills the space left behind. [***]

15. Vincenzo Latronico, Perfection (Italy, 2022 tr. 2025). Short novel about a young couple’s surface-level search for the perfect life. [****]

14. Franz Kafka, Metamorphosis (Austria/Czechia, 1913 tr. 2007). I had been looking forward to this for years since last reading Kafka. Surprisingly, it didn’t get to me in the way some of his earlier stories did. [***]

13. Anne Serre, A Leopard-Skin Hat (France, 2008 tr. 2023). Poignant portrait of friendship and the barriers between truly knowing another person. [***]

12. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (USA, 1925). My third time of reading this book, and I’m still finding something new in it. [****]

11. Sharon Duggal, The Handsworth Times (England/India, 2016). I enjoyed this tale of family and community in the aftermath of a tragedy. [****]

10. Serge Joncour, Wild Dog (France, 2018 tr. 2020). Re-read: I liked it in places, but I’m not sure it hangs together as a whole. [***]

9. Mark Bowles, All My Precious Madness (England, 2024). A working-class narrator rails against the contemporary world and masculinity. The ending is especially striking. [***]

8. Gavin Francis, The Bridge Between Worlds (Scotland, 2024). A fascinating exploration of bridges, combining memoir, history, culture and more besides. [****]

7. Anthony Powell, A Question of Upbringing (England, 1951). First volume of A Dance to the Music of Time, chronicling its protagonist’s school days. We didn’t really click, this book and I. [***]

6. Peter Stamm, The Sweet Indifference of the World (Switzerland, 2018 tr. 2020). The lives of a writer and actor mirror and blur into each other. [***]

5. Michel Nieva, Dengue Boy (Argentina, 2023 tr.2025). A novel that destroys itself with gleeful abandon. [****]

4. Michelle de Kretser, Scary Monsters (Sri Lanka/Australia, 2021). Back-to-back, past and future novellas of prejudice and migration. [***]

3. Andrey Kurkov, Grey Bees (Ukraine, 2018 tr. 2020). I read this for my book group, and I just wasn’t in the mood for it. [***]

2. Charles Boyle, Invisible Dogs (England, 2024). Fictitious diary of a writer travelling in a country whose authorities tell one story, but where another truth is apparent. [***]

1. Katja Oskamp, Half Swimmer (Germany, 2003 tr. 2024). Snapshots from the life of a girl trying to find her place in 1980s GDR. [***]