Clezio was awarded the Nobel Prize this year and I bought this book in the hope of working out what the fuss was all about. Having read it, I still don't really understand. - Sathnam Sanghera
Christmas Books
We asked our favorite writers to tell us what's on their Christmas wishlist, and which books they'll be giving this year.
Mister President, please don’t be put off by the futuristic setting. This isn’t science fiction, though you might wish it was. - Tobias Hill
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Sathnam Sanghera
Author of If You Don't Know Me by Now
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All I want for Christmas...
The Portable Henry James by Henry James
I sold my flat earlier this year, put all my belongings into storage and moved in with a friend. I've been surprised by how little I miss most of my things, but I do occasionally pine for some of the books, and this would provide a reminder of one of my favourite writers while I wait for the property market to stabilise.
In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin
This collection of stories describing the overlapping worlds of an extended Pakistani landowning family hasn't been published yet, but I've read some of Mueenuddin's short stories, one of which Salman Rushdie chose for his Best American Short Stories 2008 collection, and I find the writing accessible, richly textured and hugely promising.
Can't wait to get my hands on it.
Untitled by Jonathan Coe
Another yet-to-be published title. I love all of Jonathan Coe's stuff - he is the true inheritor of Evelyn Waugh's crown - and I enjoyed his last book - The Rain Before It Falls - which was a departure in terms of tone and style. However, his new book is apparently a return to the comic form that bought him huge success with titles such as What A Carve Up and The House of Sleep, and an advance proof would be the perfect Christmas present.
This year I'll be giving...
Gifted by Nikita Lalwani
To: David Baddiel
David, who was a 2002 Booker judge, recently confessed in a column in The Times that he struggled with Indian literature, on the grounds that "Indian novels are likely to be magical, mythic, sweepingly historical, quirky of humour, and spring from the tradition of folk tale; all things I don't want in a novel". This hugely enjoyable novel about an Indian maths prodigy growing in 1980s Cardiff is none of these things and I would defy Baddiel not to enjoy it. But given the book was longlisted for the Booker in 2007 and Baddiel remarked in the same piece that "generally, in my book-choosing life, I avoid the Booker shortlist like the plague (except in 2002); year after year (except in 2002), it's a compilation of the worthy and the worthier", I suspect he won't take up the offer.
Onitsha by J.M.G. Le Clezio
To: The Chairman of the Nobel Prize for Literature
Clezio was awarded the Nobel Prize this year and I bought this book in the hope of working out what the fuss was all about. Having read it, I still don't really understand. I thought the characterisation was thin, the description inclined to cliché, and the plot entirely un-engaging. It also really annoyed me that one of the English characters is called "Geoffroy". It's "Geoffrey", godammit.
Did I miss the point? Did the problem lie with my translation? Any help appreciated.
Bare by George Michael and Tony Parsons
To: George Michael
Apparently the great man is writing a new set of frank, warts-and-all memoirs, and I would like to remind him that the last time he attempted this, with the help of Parsons in Bare, in 1991, he omitted a few essential facts... such as the small matter of his sexuality. The actual truth would be nice, this time.
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Nicholas Rankin
Author of Churchill's Wizards
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All I want for Christmas...
The Death of Captain Cook by Glyn Williams
I have read several biographies and travel books about James Cook from Whitby and once even paddled a canoe over Kealakekua Bay in Big Island, Hawai'i to see the now underwater plaque where the great Enlightenment explorer was killed in 1779. After the intense rows between the academic anthropologists over the symbolic meaning of the events that day, I'm hoping for a clear and judicious account.
What On Earth Happened? By Christopher Lloyd
It takes some balls to undertake 13.7 billion years of evolutionary history in a single volume, but I hear that this guy has carried it off spectacularly. I'd like to shore up and organise my extremely wobbly knowledge of just how we got from the Big Bang to Barack Obama.
Semi-Invisible Man: The Life of Norman Lewis by Julian Evans
Norman Lewis is one of the most interesting writers of the 20th century, a kind of Alec Guinness of literature, able to efface himself and yet absorb the world, whether in Amazonia or Bolivia or Cambodia or East Timor, or around the Mediterranean, where his study of the Mafia and his WW2 classic Naples '44 are quite outstanding. I gather that Julian Evans has discovered he also moved in the realms of 'George Smiley'; another writer as spy.
This year I'll be giving...
The Red Hourglass: Lives of the Predators by Gordon Grice
To: my elder brother John
I'll track this down online because there's no way I'm giving away my own copy which I've read at least four times. Grice is a mid-West American who loves spiders and snakes, and he combines precise observation with poetic prose to create a text that is both scientific and yet appallingly horrible. I know of no other piece of nature writing quite like it: a sort of Aldo Leopold with fangs.
Perfumes: the guide by Luca Turin and Tania Sanchez
To: My wife Maggie Gee
She adores good perfumes and knows a lot about them, and I am sure she will love this sassy and opinionated critique of the scent business. A rave review in the Times Literary Supplement alerted me to its possibility as the ideal gift to supplement an exquisite distillation in a little glass bottle.
The Alhambra by Robert Irwin
To: My daughter Rosa
This is a stocking-filler for a student of Spanish who is off to the University of Granada next year on the Erasmus scheme. She last toddled around the final Moorish palace in Andalusia on reins aged 14 months; now is the time for a grown-up look with a good guide.
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Aravind Adiga
Author of The White Tiger, this year's Booker winner
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All I want for Christmas...
W.B. Yeats' collected prose
I've loved Yeats' poetry since I was a teenager, but had not known of his prose before studying him at Oxford. I read and re-read the copies of his essays in the English faculty library at Oxford. I can't find them anywhere in India; when I was at the Strand bookstore in New York some months ago, I went looking for them, but got distracted by a copy of Edmund Wilson's essays instead. Someone has to mail me a copy.
This year I'll be giving...
If you don't know me by now by Sathnam Sanghera
To: Any woman I'm trying to impress
I'm intrigued by what my life might have been like had I grown up in England-- my father was in Edinburgh when I was born, and seriously considered a life in England. This wonderful memoir gives me a sense of what growing up as the child of Asian immigrants to Britain might have been like. Sathnam, who is a columnist for the Times, was an intern with me at the FT, so I'm prejudiced here--but this really is a fine book.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
To: Barack Obama
For the strength of its prose, for its insight into human character, for its odd combination of cynicism and faith in humanity.
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Tobias Hill
Poet and author of The Cryptographer
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All I want for Christmas...
Codex Seraphinianus by Luigi Serafini
Available used from Amazon for £300, the Codex is well beyond my budget and just what I've always wanted...so hey, make my day, why don't you? I promise I'll write a nice thankyou letter. Composed in the late 1970s, Serafini's Codex is a guide to an imaginary world, written in an imaginary language, and illustrated with Escher-like ingenuity and precision. Would this be loved for life, or just for Christmas? I'm not sure, but I want it all the same.
The Arrival by Shaun Tan
The most beautiful illustrated children's book I've seen this decade - and having just written one of these with Michael Foreman, I've seen a few. Tan's narrative is wordless, and all the better for that. In this story of refugee migration to an otherworldly state, Tan relies on almost-monotone line drawings which capture facial expression and the fantastical detail of the new land superbly well.
This year I'll be giving...
The Road byCormac McCarthy
To: President Obama
To my mind this is one of his very best. His style has mellowed - is no longer quite so exuberant or overwhelming - while his grasps of narrative, characterisation and dialogue are all as astonishing as ever. As to theme - McCarthy always seems to have something worth saying. He is a writer worth listening to.
Mister President, please don't be put off by the futuristic setting. This isn't science fiction, though you might wish it was.
[The TS Eliot Prize shortlist]; Europa by Moniza Alvi; The Glass Swarm by Peter Bennet; For All We Know by Ciaran Carson; Full Volume by Robert Crawford; Life Under Water by Maura Dooley; Theories and Apparitions by Mark Doty; Nigh-No-Place by Jen Hadfield; The Lost Leader by Mick Imlah; Hide Now by Glyn Maxwell; Yellow Studio by Stephen Romer
To: All those who think that poetry should be difficult
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Kathryn Simmonds
Author of Sunday at the Skin Launderette, winner of the Forward best first collection prize
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All I want for Christmas...
Drives by Leontia Flynn
I enjoyed this Belfast poet's debut collection. There's a real energy to her writing. This is also an irresistible title for a book of poems.
The Believers by Zoe Heller
Barbara, from Notes on a Scandal, was utterly compelling. I can't wait to see what sort of people Zoe Heller has come up with this time, so I've tried to avoid reading reviews.
What is She Doing Here? by Kate Clanchy
This book was recommended to me by my agent, a woman who reads for a living, so I trust her judgement. I've enjoyed Kate Clanchy's poetry and am looking forward to reading her prose.
This year I'll be giving...
Ed Reardon's Week by Chris Douglas and Andrew Nickolds
To: My uncle
My uncle has been quite ill recently so I'm going to send him the CD of this Radio 4 comedy about curmudgeonly hack, Ed Reardon, as I think it'll cheer him up.
Gentlemen of the Road by Michael Chabon
To: My husband.
He's a big fan and keeps telling me to read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which I still haven't got around to.
The London Novels by Colin MacInnes
To: My brother
My brother reads more than almost anyone I know. He sometimes gives me recommendations, though he'd say himself he doesn't read many female writers. I'm buying him this one because he's already put his Christmas order in!
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Sarah Hall
Author of The Carhullan Army
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All I want for Christmas...
Selected Poems by Simon Armitage
One Morning Like A Bird by Andrew Miller
Because the author is one of the most skilful and searching writers working in the English language today, and any novel of his is cause for excitement and top of my list of must-reads.
Home by Marilynne Robinson
I know nothing about her new work of fiction, but that's because I don't want to spoil what will be, no doubt, another brilliant and unusual surprise. She's a genius.
This year I'll be giving...
The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox
To: A friend
Because it renders the impossible possible. This is the story of a vineyard owner in Burgundy in the early 1800's who forms a relationship with a peripatetic angel. It's such a beautifully rendered novel; one of the most earthy, erotic fictions I have read, while the narrative seems to walk a tightrope between heresy and divinity. Not often is one seduced, revolted, and awed by the same novel, but here is such a book. And it's Christmas - when better to be compelled by angelic visitations.
God's Own Country by Ross Raisin
To: My brother
I really admire vernacular novels, and novels brave enough not to offer the reader any safe places to hide: this one is both. Not only does the story turn its eye to some very uncomfortable territory regionally and sexually - the main character is a troubled Yorkshire farmer's son, living in a valley encroached upon by incomers, who takes a shine to the girl next door - it simultaneously manages to generate laughter and sympathy. My brother is a northerner living in the south, so I like to send him little reminders from time to time.
Disquiet by Julia Leigh
To: My mum
This is a very strange little stocking filler. I always imagine my mum is shocked by sex, death and horror, but she never is, in fact she seems to quite enjoy unsettling fiction. This novella, about a woman and her two children returning to the old family home after a violent marriage, is exquisitely written, and explores the darkest corners of the human psyche. It really creates a sensation in the reader of water going down the plughole the wrong way.
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Sukhdev Sandhu
Author of Night Haunts
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All I want for Christmas...
Militant Modernism by Owen Hatherley
Hatherley's blog, mainly though not exclusively, about architectural modernism is one of the finest there is. This book extends and deep-focusses his gaze to look at film, design, music.
Sonic Warfare: Sound, Affect and the Ecology of Fear by Steve Goodman
Goodman's pamphlet 'Darkcore' was one of the most thrilling publications produced by the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit at Warwick University. Since then, among many other activities, he's gone on to found the Hyperdub label for whom he records as Kode-9. His new and long-awaited book is going to be a path-breaking study of auditory militarism, a brilliant companion to the Stephen Graham's work on violent geographies in the era of the War On Terror.
Cornelius Cardew (1936-1981): A Life Unfinished by John Tilbury
Cardew, about whom Luke Fowler made the film 'Pilgrimage From Scattered Points' (2006), was a remarkable English avant-garde composer who, in the late 1960s, shook off the influence of Schonberg and dedicated himself to creating experimental, participatory musical collectives, among them the Scratch Orchestra, whose work continues to exert a fascination on the likes of Sonic Youth, Alan Moore and Ekkehard Ehlers. This biography by a friend and collaborator is over 1000 pages long; I only wish it was twice as long.
This year I'll be giving...
Totally Wired: Post-Punk Interviews and Overviews by Simon Reynolds
To: The Fratellis, Glasvegas, Pigeon Detectives
It would be great to imagine if just one of the landfill indie bands clogging the charts this year might be inspired by the idealism and experimentation celebrated in this companion volume to Reynolds's wonderful 'Rip It Up And Start Again',
Stone Age Soundtracks: The Acoustic Archaeology of Ancient Sites by Paul Devereux
To: Sara Maitland
Much as I admire her 'A Book of Silence', I wonder if she downplays the focused, laboriously fashioned and profoundly sonorous forms of spirituality whose existence, largely unknown to and inaudible in a modern era afflicted by what the author calls 'team deafness', is suggestively re-narrated in this compelling work of modern archaeology.
Hackney, That Rose-Red Empire by Iain Sinclair
To: Boris Johnson
A brilliant work of documentary-fiction in the tradition of Alan Burns's 'The Angry Brigade' (1973), it's also a canny, sceptical valentine to a London - scratched, revenant, messy - that metropolitan politicians should think carefully about before presuming to tidy or tamper with.
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Robert Macfarlane
Author of The Wild Places
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All I want for Christmas...
The Collected Prose by Geoffrey Hill
Because it's the intellectual equivalent of pemmican; it'll keep me going for years.
Swan Peak by James Lee Burke
Because I have an addiction to American gumshoe, and to JLB in particular.
This year I'll be giving...
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K Jerome
To: Helen MacDonald (friend, poet and falconer)
Because she's never read it and it's unmistakably the funniest book in the language.
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Adam Foulds
Author of The Broken Word
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All I want for Christmas...
The Rest Is Noise by Alex Ross
This history of twentieth century classical music by the New Yorker's music critic has been recommended by a number of friends, was ecstatically reviewed everywhere, and won Alex Ross a MacArthur Genius Grant. I've dipped into it already and liked the balance of excitement, analysis and anecdote.
Paintings In Proust by Eric Karpeles
Because I like paintings. I like Proust. This is a beautifully produced companion to In Search Of Lost Time, with excellent reproductions to illustrate all the paintings or styles of art mentioned in the novel - there are hundreds - alongside the relevant quotations. Both the novel and the art are illuminated. Hours of browsing pleasure.
Homo Poeticus by Danilo Kis, with introduction by Susan Sontag
Danilo Kis is to my mind the greatest European writer that almost no one reads. His novels A Tomb For Boris Davidovitch and Garden, Ashes are masterpieces. This is a collection of essays and interviews, currently out of print but there seem to be second hand copies around.
This year I'll be giving...
The Standing Pool by Adam Thorpe
To: a friend
I loved this novel. This story of an English family's idealistic escape to rural France going horribly wrong is deeply frightening and satisfying as a work of suspense, a genuine page-turner, but also rich and intricate as an exploration of some recent European history and the complex unease of the liberal bourgeoisie in a globalized world. And it is written in brilliant prose.
The Peregrine by J. A. Baker
To: Another friend
Because it's simply one of the best books I have ever read. It consists of an essay on the natural history of the peregrine followed by a diary of two seasons spent watching some on the Essex marshes. Written in prose that often reads like Ted Hughes's poetry, scraped clean of authorial personality in favour of acute, prolonged attention paid to the subject, it's an unforgettably vivid encounter with the natural world.
The Catcher In The Rye by J. D. Salinger
To: My niece
Because she's a teenager. She hasn't read it. Few reading experiences are as intense as this great book arriving at the right time.
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Rabih Alameddine
Author of The Hakawati
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All I want for Christmas...
2666 by Roberto Bolaño
I love his work. By Night in Chile is a wonderful novel, and Savage Detectives is miraculous. To this day, I can't tell you that I understood the latter or know what it was about. It was simply one of the most exciting books I've ever read. I can't wait to jump into 2666. It's a big book and probably expensive, which would make it a good gift for me.
John Keats' Complete Poems by John Keats
Because he's so good, of course. I've noticed that my knowledge of poetry is superficial, so I've been reading and studying. He's next on my list. This is probably an inexpensive edition, so please consider getting me 2666 before this one. T'is the season for giving me nice things.
This year I'll be giving...
The Lazarus Project by Aleksander Hemon
To: everyone I know
It's the best book out there right now. Last year, I gave everyone The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz for the same reason (everyone means everyone who deserved a gift, which means no Republicans, no portfolio managers, no Lufthansa flight attendants, and no Chelsea or Man. U. supporters). The Lazarus Project is a masterwork, a novel that engages on every level. It ignites your mind and tickles your heart. It will probably win every award this year. Oh, and Hemon is a MacArthur Fellow, which means he's a certified genius, but he has a silly accent and dresses funny so you don't have to be intimidated. I love him.
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Alain de Botton
Author of The Architecture of Happiness
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All I want for Christmas...
What is Ancient Philosophy? by Pierre Hadot
Apparently it's a great description of how Ancient Greeks and Romans wanted philosophy to change their lives - rather than merely act as an intellectual puzzle. Shows us how far we've moved in the wrong direction since.
Uncommon Carriers by John McPhee
Five people have recommended this book about how goods move around the United States. Written by a great New Yorker writer.
The Americans by Robert Frank
Because Steidl have just re-released this classic photographic survey of American life. It shows how exciting photography can be when it's led by a grand overarching idea like 'capturing the spirit of America'.
This year I'll be giving...
The Ongoing Moment by Geoff Dyer
To: my wife
Dyer's book is a meditation on photography and the way it affects us: my wife is a wildlife photographer - and so it seems perfect for her.
Religion and the Decline of Magic by Keith Thomas
To: my sister
Because she's a clinical psychologist with a particular interest in family therapy. She's been asking me for a good book about religion for a while, and this is the best I can find.
The Complete Adventures of Noddy by Enid Blyton
To: my son Saul
He's been fascinated by Noddy for a long time now, so it seems unfair to deny him the complete adventures. Naturally, his parents spend a long time wandering what lies behind this fascination.
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Joe Dunthorne
Author of Submarine
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All I want for Christmas...
A subscription to McSweeney's Quarterly Concern edited by Dave Eggers
Because it's like xmas every time the postman delivers a box containing one of these weird, beautiful books. I try and avoid looking at their website so as not to spoil the surprise about what each issue is like. This is an expensive present. Maybe it should be my birthday and xmas combined.
Zeppelins by Chris McCabe
Because it's a fantastic young UK poet's new collection. I am excited about this.
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
Because I never read it before he died and now - like the schmuck I am - my interest has been re-ignited. I just finished Brief Interviews With Hideous Men which was brill.
This year I'll be giving...
Acme Novelty Library 17 by Chris Ware
To: my arty, depressive friend
This is still the most beautiful, miserable comic book I've ever seen. Stunningly well produced. Full of ultra-tragic characters. Ace.
Actual Air by David Berman
To: someone who says they don't like poetry.
This is the best collection of poetry I've read in yonks. It's also terrifically accessible. Readable, original, memorable and great for people who fear poetry.
Cold War Modern by the V&A
To: The Gadget Man
It's a great book accompanying an even greater exhibition. All sorts of Sixties-Future designs and gadgets and showing off from the US and the Soviets.
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Alex Clark
Editor, Granta magazine
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All I want for Christmas...
The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross
Breathtakingly wide-ranging and original criticism.
Jane Eyre - White's Books Ltd Edition by Charlotte Bronte
It's a beautiful edition of one of my favourite classics.
Official Arsenal FC Annual 2009 by Chas Newkey-Burden
For obvious reasons!
This year I'll be giving...
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale
To: My best friend
It's an utterly gripping Victorian mystery tale
Dancehall: The Story of Jamaican Dancehall Culture by Beth Lesser
To: A music-mad pal
A fascinating look at Jamaican culture over more than 30 years
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
To: My dad
It's my novel of the year
Monday, 8 December, 2008
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