If a great book is one that stays in your memory long after you complete it, or one that you find yourself recommending all the time to friends, then I read two great books in 2017.  Both were non-fiction.  Ghosts of the Tsunami is a wonderful piece of reportage and a deeply moving reflection on the consequences in individuals’ lives of an overwhelming natural disaster.  Notes on a Foreign Country is an intelligent and perfectly timed study of America’s place in the world and its sometimes deeply malign influence.  I loved both books and continue to recommend them to anyone who will listen.

It wasn’t a bad year for fiction.  Three books stood out from the mass of my reading.  Back in the springtime, Sebastian Barry’s Days Without End was indeed what the judges of the Costa Book Award described, “a miracle of a book“, a tender evocation of love between two men fighting in the Indian Wars.  Murakami’s unique voice shone through his wonderful collection of stories, Men Without Women.  His latest novel will appear this year and I’ll be one of those who buys it as soon as it’s published.  Finally, Midwinter Break, Bernard MacLaverty’s first novel in sixteen years, was a gem, prompting Hilary Mantel to ask “Why is Bernard MacLaverty not celebrated as one of the wonders of the world?“.  Amen to that.

There were a few duds on the reading pile in 2017, but I won’t dwell on those.  My reading resolution for 2018 is simply “more voices from other worlds”.  Voices from other cultures (novels from Israel and Korea are to hand and waiting to be read) and voices from the past will, I hope, feature prominently.