Supper Club: A Novel

"I also very much enjoyed Supper Club , the debut novel from British writer Lara Williams, which follows a group of millennial women as they embark upon a transgressive art project: a secret society whose members eat and drink and dance until they collapse, with the intention of putting on weight and learning to live unapologetically. The book takes an interesting form, folding food writing and recipes into the mix, reminiscent of Nora Ephron’s Heartburn . Sensuous, gluttonous, joyful and a little unsettling; it’s a celebration of hedonism, but a warning too. Another notable British debut was Candice Carty-Williams’ Queenie . I’d had the impression it would be a Bridget Jones’s Diary -style feelgood farce – but though it shares some superficial similarities (charting the romantic travails of a young woman in London), it’s a far darker book. Queenie deals with domestic abuse, violent sex, panic attacks and racism; but with the help of her friends and (after a fashion) her British-Jamaican family, she rebuilds her life. More gruelling than expected, but very heartwarming and funny – particularly the sections starring her lovable, fast-talking, motley gang of friends she dubs ‘the Corgis.’ As I said at the start, I can’t possibly keep up with all the new books that I’d like to read, and one must also keep a varied diet of old and new reading material. But there are three novels I regret not getting to before year-end, and are sitting on my bedside table ready for when I get a spare moment. These are Max Porter’s Lanny , Rowan Hisayo Buchanan’s Starling Days , and Lucy Ellman’s Ducks, Newburyport . Looking ahead, 2020 already looks chockablock with wonders. I can personally recommend Sophy Roberts’ The Lost Pianos of Siberia , which I was lucky enough to get an advance copy of. I wrote a blurb for it: “…Pack your suitcase for Siberia – Sophy Roberts’ gorgeous prose will summon you there like a spell.” Jenny Offill, whose Dept. of Speculation must be one of the best ever novels of marital crisis, will have a new novel out, called Weather . And, of course, who could forget the imminent arrival (March 2020) of Hilary Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light , the final book in her Wolf Hall trilogy. It’s available on pre-order now, and I for one will not be sleeping until it gets here."