From a darkly comic new novel to a gripping 1950s memoir, authors including Katherine Rundell, Malala Yousafzai and Matt Haig have selected titles to tempt readers at the Hay festival.
Malala Yousafzai chose Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad, a novel about a British-Palestinian actor drawn into a West Bank production of Hamlet. She praised its exploration of theatre under occupation. David Miliband recommended Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi, calling it hilarious and serious, a memoir of growing up in Stalinist Albania that is both warming and full of warnings.
Katherine Rundell picked Luke Kennard’s Black Bag, a novel about an actor hired to wear a black bag during psychology lectures. She described it as laugh-out-loud funny and brilliantly original. Jack Thorne chose Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising, a mythic fantasy about the battle between Dark and Light, which he plans to share with his son at age 11.
Margaret Busby selected The Black Jacobins by CLR James, a 1938 account of the only successful slave revolt in history, which she reissued in the 1970s. Philippa Perry recommended EF Benson’s Mapp and Lucia series, praising its social comedy and absurd characters. Sajid Javid chose Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, a history of India’s partition.
