Evie Wyld at Review in Peckham

This week’s Book Club recommendation comes courtesy of Evie Wyld, the author whose acclaimed first novel, After The Fire, A Still Small Voice, beat big-name writers such as Aravind Adiga and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to win the 2009 John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for the best work of literature by a writer under 35. She combines writing with working in Review bookshop in Peckham, South London. 

"I’m a writer and I work part-time in a bookshop in Peckham called Review.  We’re a very small independent bookshop, and we specialise in a lot of new fiction. Everything is handpicked, so there’s no filler. I’ve been really lucky, because I’ve been able to sit at the desk and write probably about three-quarters of my book as I’m working in the shop. I generally just sit behind the counter with a coffee, writing on a big pad of paper and stopping every now and then serve a customer.  I work part-time and it really keeps me sane, because I’m able to see other people and talk to other people, whereas a lot of the week I’m on my own writing: it’s a really good way of keeping a grip on reality and not losing sight of the fact that it’s a book that it will be read by other human beings; not just by me. "

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan
"My Book Club recommendation is Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. It’s a novel about Liga, a 15-year-old girl, who lives in the woods with her father.  Her mother’s died recently, and she goes through all sorts of dreadful trauma, eventually trying to kill herself and landing in another parallel world. It’s dark, it’s funny, it’s very, very frightening, and it’s beautifully written.  It’s aimed at young people, but it really doesn’t talk down to young people and I think it’s the sort of book that adults can enjoy just as much.  It’s caused a bit of controversy. People have said that it’s too dark for young readers, but I feel like when I was 15 I would have gobbled this up.  The first 50 pages you can’t put down.  They’re frightening and horrific and you’ll read them in one go."

Liga endures unspeakable cruelties at the hands of her father, before being magically granted her own personal heaven, a safe haven from the real world. She raises her two daughters in this alternate reality, and they grow up protected from the violence that once harmed their mother. But the real world cannot be denied forever ...Magicked men and wild bears break down the borders of Liga's refuge. Now, having known Heaven, how will these three women survive in a world where beauty and brutality lie side by side?