Staff Recommendations May 2025

What We’re Reading

The last words in this book are “The good life was to be found in fellowship and generosity to others, in a world in which people carried on learning and supporting each other until the music stopped”. And fellowship and generosity suffuse this book of essays, personal, architectural, historical, ethnographical, biographical, by an old comrade of Five Leaves.
The “East” is often Essex, home of utopian experiments, good, like Canvey Island, and, like Bernard Cornwell’s Peculiar People, bad. The book starts with Worpole’s own story of growing up in Southend, with skiffle and CND. I hope he will write a full autobiography one day.

–Ross

I was disappointed this didn’t make the International Booker shortlist, but am so glad the longlist prompted me to pick up the first work from a disabled author to win the prestigious Akutagawa Prize. Hunchback is funny, unapologetic and addresses the complexities around disabled rights, reproductive rights, sexuality and feminist activism all in just 97 pages. Be prepared for some raunchy descriptions, as our narrator has a side-line in online erotica!

–Sarah

Troll: A Love Story by Johanna Sinisalo, trans: Herbert Lomas (Pushkin £9.99)

The premiss of this peculiar novel is one small tweak to our world – in the early 20th century trolls were discovered to be a real wild animal, endemic to northern Finland. It begins as the young, gay photographer Angel recues an injured troll, which proceeds to obsess him and turn his life upside. Written more as a queer love story than a fantasy book, I was drawn in by short punchy chapters with shifting narrators, and interludes of Angel’s research into trolls. Sinisalo’s debut novel, first published in 2000 (now deservingly revived under its new title by Pushkin), has stayed surprisingly current feeling, with only a few now-nostalgic references to CD-roms and Windows 98.

–Kate

 A classic from the 1940s and a Turkish bestseller by political author, Sabahattin Ali, thought to have been murdered by the National Security Service. His most uncharacteristically romantic book nonetheless challenges gender stereotypes and conservative norms. Set in Ankara and 1920’s Berlin it is a touching and tender account of first love.

–Giselle

This anthology is written by and about trans people, tackling milestones, jargon, creative expression, healthcare and everyday life. If you are trans, you may be feeling particularly scared and alone right now – this book won’t change the world, but it might give you some solace and a sense of solidarity through the pages. If you are not trans and want to know and understand more about trans people and their experiences, give this a read. Trans people are the experts on their lives, not the tabloid press, cis men in courtrooms or MPs perpetuating culture wars through fear-mongering!

–Sarah