This is just a list of books I have read since the start of 2024. Also included are some of my thoughts.
Patria- Fernando Aramburu
Jan 2024
This was the second time I tried this novel. I am not sure why I didn’t enjoy it the first time because this time, I could hardly put it down. It has been a long time since I simultaneously liked one character so much (Txato) and disliked another (Jose-Mari). It felt like a great snapshot of what the Basque Country must have been during those days of ETA, and I felt great sadness throughout the story. I would recommend it to anyone.
It follows two Basque families, once close neighbors turned bitter enemies after their sons take opposing paths during the ETA conflict. When Bittori, the widow of a businessman killed by ETA, returns to her hometown years after the murder, old wounds reopen. The story shifts between past and present, peeling back layers of guilt, complicity, and silence as characters grapple with the legacy of violence.
Aramburu avoids villainizing anyone, instead painting a raw, nuanced portrait of how fear and ideology poison ordinary lives. The mothers, Miren and Bittori, are especially compelling—their friendship destroyed by loyalty to their children, their grief laced with anger and regret. Even minor characters, like a conflicted ETA member or a priest wrestling with his conscience, add depth to the exploration of moral ambiguity.
The novel isn’t about picking sides (although its hard at times not to sympathise with el Txato and Bittori); it’s about the quiet devastation left when communities fracture. Aramburu’s prose is spare but piercing, lingering on small moments—a shared meal, a childhood memory—to underscore what’s lost. It’s heavy but never melodramatic, and the ending feels earned, refusing tidy resolution. A haunting, necessary read about the cost of fanaticism and the fragile hope for reconciliation.
Birnam Wood- Eleanor Catton
Jan 2024
Birnam Wood is an engaging novel about a group of eco-activists who get in over their heads while trying to do the right thing. The writing is clear and straightforward, and most of the characters feel real, even if some of their actions come off as a bit forced. The pacing isn’t always smooth, and the political messages sometimes feel a bit too obvious. Still, if interested in a story that mixes action with some modern political and environmental issues, this book is a decent pick.
I hadn’t read a new novel in about ten years, and it was interesting to do so. Birnam Wood came highly recommended. I personally enjoyed it and could not stop thinking that it nicely represented where the world is currently in terms of environmentalism and partisanism. I could also not stop thinking I’ve not come to a novel in which I disliked every character to such an extent. It was not a challenging book to read despite its length. Still, I wasn’t overly enthused throughout my time reading it. Good, but by no means a classic..
Memoirs of a Geisha- Arthur Golden
Jan 2024
Memoirs of a Geisha offers an intriguing look into the secretive world of Japanese geishas through the life of its main character. The novel paints a vivid picture of traditional Japan with detailed descriptions of settings and customs, which helps immerse readers in the era. While the storytelling is generally engaging, the pace can feel a bit slow at times, and some characters might come across as somewhat one-dimensional. Despite these moments, the book does a solid job of blending personal drama with cultural history, making it a decent pick for anyone curious about a different slice of the past.
The choice to read Memoirs of a Geisha had little thought involved. We were in Japan, and I was looking for something with a Japanese theme running through it. I enjoyed it in the end. It was all a bit sad, given the realities of being a geisha, but I found it very interesting and well-written. I would recommend it to those interested in Japan’s pre and post-war history or those trying to get a glimpse of a practice that, in many ways, is still present in Japan, even if it has evolved somewhat.
Convenience Store Woman- Sayaka Murata
Jan 2024
Convenience Store Woman is a wry, quietly subversive novel about Keiko Furukura, a 36-year-old Tokyo convenience store employee who finds purpose in the strict routines of her job. While society pressures her to marry, climb the career ladder, or at least act “normal,” Keiko resists, clinging to the store’s rhythm as her anchor in a world she struggles to understand. Her deadpan observations about human behavior—customers’ quirks, coworkers’ gossip—highlight the absurdity of social norms, turning the mundane into something surreal.
Murata’s craft lies in flipping the script on who’s truly “alienated.” Keiko, deemed odd for her contentment with a “simple” life, often seems saner than those around her, like her smug married sister or Shiraha, a lazy coworker who scorns the store but leeches off Keiko. Their dynamic sharpens the critique of conformity: both are misfits, but Shiraha’s bitterness contrasts with Keiko’s Zen-like acceptance. The novel asks what “happiness” even means in a society obsessed with checkboxes.
Brisk, darkly funny, and deceptively profound, the story avoids easy judgments. Murata’s prose is crisp and detached, mirroring Keiko’s clinical view of life, yet it pulses with empathy for outsiders. The ending is ambiguous but satisfying—no grand transformation, just a quiet insistence on self-definition. A cult classic for anyone who’s ever felt out of step with the world’s expectations.
Recommended by my brother, having lived in Japan, this was a quick and enjoyable read. I also read this whilst touring in Japan on the bike and relying heavily on Japanese convenience stores. It perfectly summed up the essence of the kombini. It also dived quickly into the issue of individualism (or lack of) in Japan, which is clear to see for all. It was an extremely engaging read for a foreigner, and it felt like a bit of a fly-on-the-wall experience in Japan. I would strong;y recommend to anyone who has experienced Japan first hand. It may not feel quite as perinant for those who haven’t, but the themes are no less important.
The New York Trilogy- Paul Auster
Feb 2024
Paul Auster’s New York Trilogy bends detective fiction into a labyrinth of existential puzzles. Comprising three loosely linked novellas—City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room—the stories follow writers-turned-sleuths chasing shadows: a reclusive author, a pair of voyeuristic private eyes, a missing friend. But the real mystery here is identity itself. Auster’s New York is a hall of mirrors where characters lose themselves in roles, aliases, and the act of writing, blurring the line between hunter and hunted, reality and fiction.
The trilogy thrives on paradox. Quinn, the protagonist of City of Glass, becomes so consumed by surveilling a stranger that he erases his own life; Blue, in Ghosts, spirals into madness while staking out a man named Black. Auster strips the noir genre of its glamour, leaving bare the absurdity of seeking “truth” in a world where meaning is slippery and self-invention is survival. Even the city feels like a character—bleak, isolating, yet charged with a strange, cerebral energy.
More meditation than thriller, the book grapples with obsession and the loneliness of creation. Auster’s prose is cool and precise, layering metafictional tricks without losing emotional heft. It’s divisive—some may find it pretentious, others may revel in its intellectual gamesmanship—but its haunting questions linger: How do stories define us? Can we ever truly know anyone, even ourselves? Unsettling, cerebral, and defiantly unresolved, it’s a cult classic for overthinkers and lovers of literary noir.
Again recommended by my brother. It’s an absolute classic, and I am upset that I had not read any of Auster’s other work until now. A total mind-game from start to finish. I would highly recommend.
4,3,2,1- Paul Auster
Mar-June 2024
Paul Auster’s 4 3 2 1 is a sprawling, ambitious saga that reinvents the coming-of-age novel. It follows four parallel versions of Archie Ferguson, a Jewish-American boy born in 1947, each diverging down distinct paths shaped by chance, love, and historical upheaval. One Ferguson becomes a student activist, another a reclusive writer; one grapples with sexuality, another with family secrets. Auster intertwines their fates with mid-20th-century America—the civil rights movement, Vietnam, New York’s art scene—weaving a tapestry of what-ifs that asks how much control we truly have over our lives.
The novel’s brilliance lies in its structure. Auster cycles through each Ferguson’s timeline in meticulous, rotating chapters, creating a hypnotic rhythm where small choices (a car crash, a missed encounter) ripple into radically different futures. Yet beneath the formal experimentation, it’s deeply human—a meditation on identity, luck, and the stories we tell ourselves to make sense of chaos. The prose is classic Auster: cerebral but warm, peppered with meta-nods (a fictionalized young “Paul” appears) that blur autobiography and fiction.
At nearly 900 pages, it’s a commitment, but the payoff is rich. Some threads resonate more than others, and the pacing lags in spots, but the cumulative effect is haunting. By the end, the four Fergusons feel less like separate entities than facets of a single soul, endlessly refracted. A love letter to youth, art, and the irreducible complexity of existence—best suited for readers who relish slow burns and big ideas over tidy plots.
I didn’t find as much time as I would have liked to read these months, but when I did I was completely engrossed by this. A long slog but engaging an one. It kept me guessing all the way to the end. I would again recommend if you like long reads.
The rest of 2024 was a bit mixed. I started off strong and then stopped reading fiction. I took in a lot of non-fiction but not worth really noting here.
The Man in the High Castle- Philip K Dick
Jan 2024
A haunting dissection of alternate history, posing unsettling questions about reality, identity, and the fragility of truth. Set in a world where the Axis powers won WWII, the novel immerses readers in a fractured America divided between Japanese and Nazi rule. What struck me most wasn’t just the chilling worldbuilding—though the meticulous details, like the commodification of Americana under occupation, are brilliant—but how Dick uses the I Ching (a recurring divination tool) to blur the lines between fate and free will.
The characters—Juliana, Frank, Tagomi—are less protagonists than conduits for existential unease, each grappling with their own complicity in a broken system. The metafictional twist, involving a banned book (The Grasshopper Lies Heavy) that imagines an Allied victory, forces readers to confront the instability of history itself. Is our reality just another layer of fiction? The novel doesn’t answer, opting instead for a disorienting, ambiguous ending that lingers like a half-remembered dream.
It’s not a perfect book—the pacing drags in places, and some threads feel underdeveloped—but its ambition is undeniable. Dick isn’t just writing alternate history; he’s probing the psychological toll of living under authoritarianism and the seductive danger of escapism. Unsettling, philosophical, and eerily relevant, The Man in the High Castle feels less like a sci-fi novelty and more like a warning.
The Seventh Day- Yu Hua
Jan-Feb 2025
The Seventh Day takes readers on a distinctly Chinese surrealist journey through an afterlife where the boundaries of reality and allegory blur. The novel follows its main character as he wanders through a bizarre, dreamlike realm populated by symbolic figures that echo the complexities of modern Chinese society. The narrative is infused with dark humor and unexpected twists, creating a mood that is as unsettling as it is thought-provoking. While some parts of the story may feel meandering and the characters sometimes lean more towards allegory than fully fleshed-out individuals, the book’s unique blend of fantasy and social commentary stands out. If drawn to works that challenge conventional storytelling with a distinctly Chinese surrealist flair, this novel is a solid pick.
This was my first taste of Chinese contemporary literature and I found the style extremely engaging for that reason. It’s a short read, 218 pages, and the writing isn’t complicated. The ideas are neither and despite its clear influences from Chinese society the themes of class, society and expectations are as applicable in western society as they are here. I enjoyed the surrealist element of the book, dancing between life and death (or rather some type of intermediate of the two). It bounced around a bit and I found it sometimes difficult to keep track of where I was, but I would recommend.