Jonathan Safran Foer
The acclaimed author of Eating Animals, the recent expose of the meat industry Jonathan Safran Foer, reveals what he used to enjoy reading – before he had children...
“My current reading habits, unfortunately, are not to read at all, because I have a 4 year old and a 1 year old child: I occasionally try to read in bed, but immediately fall asleep. Sometimes, I try to read on the subway when commuting but ultimately fall asleep. That said, I used to be a great reader and I sometimes nostalgically think about previous reading experiences: here are three of them. I don’t really have the luxury of reading that much any more, but those of you who do, you couldn’t do better than these three books.”
Omon Ra by Victor Pelevin
“This is a book ostensibly about a Soviet space programme. It is part political thriller, part mystery, part farce, part comedy, part tragedy, part surreal, part social realism. In short, it’s everything, which is amazing because it’s only 150 pages. It is an absolute complete reading experience with probably the most surprising ending I’ve ever encountered in a work of fiction and I can’t imagine a person who wouldn't like it.”
Victor Pelevin's unforgettable first novel, Omon Ra, is the story of a young man who always dreamt of becoming the ultimate Russian hero, a cosmonaut in the mould of Yuri Gagarin. Enrolling as a cadet at the Zaraisk flying school, it is not long before he is chosen to be the sole pilot of a mission - to the dark side of the moon.
The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander
“This is a far more serious book in certain ways, not in the sense of it being deep, but in tone. It takes place in Argentina and it’s the story of a young man who was ‘disappeared’ by the government and his family’s quest to find him and bring him back. A very, very moving book.”
Kaddish Poznan chips the names off gravestones for a living, removing traces of disreputable ancestors for their more respectable kin. His wife Lillian works in insurance, earning money when people live longer than they fear. As Argentina’s Dirty War unfolds around them, their sometimes hilarious misadventures are soon replaced by something much darker. A visit to the dreaded Ministry of Special Cases is only the start of Englander’s stunning vision of a nation in the hold of corruption and torture, a place where absurdity, despair and hope are the end products of a bureaucracy run out of control.
The Old Child and the Book of Words by Jenny Erpenbeck
“This is a collection of stories, a novella, about a young girl – or we think she’s young – found wandering the streets of Dresden holding a bucket and with no memory. She’s taken to an orphanage and little by little, in the most brilliantly-written way, we learn about who she actually is. “
A child is found standing on the street, with an empty bucket in her hand, and no memory of her name, her family or her past. Elsewhere, a girl grows up surrounded by familiar faces - a wet nurse, a piano teacher, a gardener, a best friend and a distant mother - but soon finds them slipping mysteriously from her life. In the company of these girls, we are compelled to tread the uncertain and spiky terrain of memory, where words are dropped like clues to reveal what has been hidden, forgotten or erased.
