Books to look forward to in 2024
Books by Olivia Laing, Ferdia Lennon and David Van Reybrouck have been picked as important publications to look out for in the first half of 2024.
Olivia Laing’s The Garden Against Time has been included in Stylist’s pick of the best non-fiction for 2024, the Guardian’s books to look out for in 2024, as well as the Observer’s and the Independent’s best non-fiction to look out for in 2024.
In the Financial Times ‘What to read in 2024’, Frederick Studemann and Andrew Dickson write that The Garden Against Time is ‘a celebration by the acclaimed writer and critic of the abundant pleasures and possibilities of gardens — not as a place to hide from the world but as a site of experiment and discovery — that ranges from pandemic Suffolk to utopian visions of a new Eden, while also examining the sometimes shocking costs of making paradise on Earth.’
In the US, Ferdia Lennon’s Glorious Exploits has achieved the accolade of having three starred pre-publication reviews in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and Kirkus.
In the Sunday Independent (Ireland), Anne Cunningham selects the best international and Irish novels coming your way in the new year, describing Glorious Exploits as a ‘truly original, blackly comic novel’.
In the Sunday Independent ‘What writers read: a guide to page-turners’, Glorious Exploits was writer Nick Laird’s ‘unexpected joy’. He describes the book as ‘funny, thoughtful, moving, brilliant’.
Edel Coffey writes in The Gloss January ‘Reading Notes’ that there has been ‘an unholy amount of buzz’ around the book, ‘and from the very first page it’s easy to see why’: ‘All of humanity is captured in this really enjoyable and highly entertaining story from a brilliant new voice’.
Glorious Exploits has also been included in The Irish Times titles to look out for across the coming year.
David Van Reybrouck’s Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World was also mentioned in the Financial Times ‘What to read in 2024’, described as a ‘deeply researched account’.
Author and historian Yuval Noah Harari has the book on his list of recommended reads.
Lots to look forward to in 2024! Happy reading.