Out today in the UK (!), and available for pre-order in the US. Book: @europaeditions.bsky.social Drink: Love Story Prosecco Rosé Brut

Today's very special post comes straight from my desk, where this book was made. Several years ago I met the brilliant Rosa Montero at the FCC in Hong Kong. I plied her with wine and told her I wanted to translate her books one day. 8 years later, here we are.

Saved this to savour on the 12hr flight home from London (photo taken at Heathrow departures, geddit?) If this is his final book it is a perfect ending, reflecting on his lifelong themes of memory, the blurring of fact and fiction, and the stories we tell ourselves. There’s no other writer like him.

A great thing about London Book Fair is getting your mitts on some free advance copies. A great thing about London is lamb chops with old friends at Tayyabs. Bonus cameo from my fave Japanese translator. Book: @andotherstories.bsky.social Drink: San Miguel supplied by @wrongsreversed.bsky.social

Only one book to be reading on the flight to London Book Fair. Looking forward to scouring Olympia for free drinks with my fellow broke translators. Book: @prototypepubs.bsky.social Drink: Tanqueray & Fever Tree G&T

A bit more masc and a bit more brutalist than I usually go for, but Nichola Smalley’s work on this translation is 🔥Book: @andotherstories.bsky.social Drink: Backward from Swim Club (superb new bar in HK)

I put off reading this for ages because, frankly, it seemed way too heavy, but now I can’t believe I waited so long to savour this incredible book. Bold and inventive and gorgeously written, I’m in love. Book: @serpents-tail.bsky.social Drink: Edouard Duval Brut d'Eulalie

always so funny to me when people are like “how am I supposed to explain Gay to my kids?” my kid asks me way harder shit all the time. “why did they build the road this way? why are some people bad?” I don’t know. please ask me about Gay

I don’t often reread books (the TBR pile is bad enough as it is) but had to make an exception before seeing the movie. It hits VERY differently after becoming a mother. Book: @charcopress.com Drink: Vinos de la Luz 2020 Cinema Ribera Del Duero

Julian Barnes, imo, is one of the most intelligent, thoughtful and, frankly, under appreciated writers England has ever had. As I wait for his last (!) book to arrive, here’s his typically brilliant essay from last year. Book: @nottinghilleds.bsky.social Drink: 2024 Honeycomb Chardonnay

It’s been a while since I last read a graphic novel, and I forgot how powerful the format can be. An incredible blend of storytelling and imagery, the personal and the political , history and the present - I’m blown away. Book: MCD/ @picadorbooks.bsky.social Drink: Bollinger

Before we get too far into the new year, here's my list of 5 star reads of 2025! I read much less this past year (new baby sapped time, energy, brain power) but still managed to fit some bangers in there.

Went to Singapore for the first time, found @jeremytiang.bsky.social in a bookshop, had to buy it. A brilliant introduction to the country’s history told in my favourite way: a juicy family saga. Book: Epigram Drink: Pepino from QT Singapore

Catching up on some of this year’s faves before my Best of 2025 list. I went into this one blind and loved it - so twisty and turny and meta, it made me want to reread it the instant I reached the last page. Book: Merky Books. Drink: some green cocktail I can’t remember the name of from Da Nang

Christmas book haul! What are you reading/drinking today? Books: @nottinghilleds.bsky.social @andotherstories.bsky.social @picadorbooks.bsky.social @prototypepubs.bsky.social Brazen, MCD, Hamish Hamilton Drink: Leon Perdigal 2013 Chateauneuf du Pape

While I’m still in moving hell, let’s catch up on some books from the last few months. First, the very definition of tight, terse European prose. Book: @andotherstories.bsky.social Drink: Lady Trieu Hoi An Spice Road Gin & Tonic

. @alexshephard.bsky.social continues to post the very best writing about the Nobel (and not just because he’s also a big Julian Barnes fan)

Sometimes I think I’m overstimulated, and then sometimes I’m trying to read in my second language with a screaming baby and a shouting child and their multiple noisy toys and I’m trying to meet a deadline before dinner with my in laws and I forgot the point I was trying to make here, pls send help.

I had an idea awhile back to try to get a Bluesky prompt going asking people to share photos of their desks/workspaces (I still want to see them all, share yours with me!) so I’m absolutely in heaven with this @wallpapermag.bsky.social feature www.wallpaper.com/design-inter...

Happy #ITD2025!

A belated addition to #womenintranslationmonth: this eerie, engrossing novel that absolutely lives up to the hype, brilliantly (re)translated by the legendary Ros Schwartz.

If you’re looking for one last read for #womenintranslationmonth, may I suggest this slim but powerful novella from Argentina? A moving exploration of loss and grief, translated beautifully as ever by the remarkable @jenniferlcroft.bsky.social Book: @charcopress.com Drink: Limewood Fresca #witmonth

Good reading for hunkering down at home during a T10 typhoon 🌀 Book: Chatto & Windus Drink: Four Pillars Gin Gimlet with a Louis Roederer Champagne reduction (a clever @adamawhite.bsky.social trick for using up flat champagne)

"No, what AI can do is not yet a threat to human translators and human readers of sophisticated, textured human writing. The threat is what some people think it can do." Daniel Hahn nails it as per usual observer.co.uk/news/opinion...

Aussie restaurant, Aussie wine, and a sumptuous, unsettling Aussie classic that is well worth your time. I’m too scared to watch the movie adaptation though 🫣Book: @vintagebooks.bsky.social Drink: Hugh Hamilton The Trickster Pinot Grigio 2024

Amig@s hispanohablantes, me hace mucha ilusión que el segundo libro de mi amigo @jamestgriffiths.com, ya está disponible en español, traducido por Cristina Macía.

Can’t get over how good this one was. Inventive and funny and life-affirming, although maybe not the best decision for me to have read a novel based around child death right now. Book: Random House Drink: Paco Mulero Albariño 2021

For Mother’s Day I can think of no better book to recommend than this, which I’ve been reading one-handed during long nights of newborn feeds. A brilliant dissection of how becoming a mother profoundly changes a person & all the ways society lets them down. A must-read whether you’re a mother or not

Welcome home beautiful Baby Daniel, welcome back delicious proper champagne. Reading material for stellar big brother Ben. Book: Scholastic Drink: Foxey’s Hangout Brut Sparkling White

Also for this reason I am begging. I do not want to see that horrible man’s face.

One month to go til the birth of my second child, figured I should brush up on some motherhood tips. Book: @vintagebooks.bsky.social Drink: 凍檸茶

Thank fuck for new music from Self Esteem www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgVq...

Occasional reminder that whenever you say "sparks joy" you are not quoting Marie Kondo. You are quoting her translator, Cathy Hirano. She invented "sparks joy" out of whole cloth. What Marie Kondo says is "This makes my heart go pitter pat."

It works so well it is crazy! What a superb surprise open.spotify.com/track/43y7ax...

Here's the unlikely century-long story of how a non-gendered pronoun became gendered, and then got itself re-de-gendered. This one's got everything! Poetry! Grammar! Love songs! Queer communities! Unicode! and ... Y.R. Chao! What more could you want? #langsky 🀄️📚 1/

Optimist: The cup is half full Pessimist: The cup is half empty Translator: The cup is half full/half empty/partially filled/semi full/half drunk (?check?)/mostly gone [FIX IN NEXT DRAFT]

We are so back

Publisher: Do you want to put an LLM clause in the copyright statement? Me: Definitely. How specific can we get? Publisher: As specific as you like.

My cartoon for this week’s Guardian books…

Are you a non-fiction book agent? I'm currently seeking representation for a couple of projects I'm working on, please get in touch: [email protected] My previous two works were respectively an FT Book of the Summer and New Yorker Book of the Year.

With the T8 being dropped at 1030am to get everyone back to work, here is satellite evidence of the Li Ka-Shing forcefield around #HongKong, ensuring no working day is lost to typhoon.

Time was I’d read each new issue of Granta as soon as it came out. Now I’m having to wait for a couple of childfree days to catch up on the Winter 2020 edition. Turns out it was a pretty good one! Book: Granta Magazine Drink: Jamu Sling from Potato Head Bali

[laura branigan voice] gloria (gloria) in excelsis deo (gloria) et in terra pax homínibus (gloria) bonae voluntáaaa-ti-i-is

I feel like this site's demographics can be described as "still mad about the loss of Google Reader"

I’ve read a lot of books about grief over the past two years, and this is one of the best. Beautiful and real and heartfelt, and not nearly as depressing as you might think. I recommend for any and all types of grief. Book: Serpent’s Tail Drink: just a really big coconut

Time to come clean about my recent posts: I haven’t actually had a proper drink in months. The sequel to Tiny Gentle Eurasian is arriving March 2025. Time to brush up on leaps… Book: Kiddy World Publishing Drink: Martini Non-Alcoholic Vermouth & Tonic

My cartoon for Guardian Books’ autumn reading special.

"In the 1980s, Auberon Waugh predicted that no one would be reading Barnes in 20 years’ time. He was wrong." I wrote about Julian Barnes's best books, inc the one Barnes told a fan not to read, the cheerfully nasty crime novel, and the one "undoubtedly much too good to win the Booker Prize."