Top Five Books of 2014

innominate: A novel of secrets, loss, acceptance, jazz. The most humane, limpid, uplifting prose I read all year. Although I read it three months ago, I am still becalmed by its clarity and grace.

innominate: A novel of time and place, of death and rebirth. Of foxes and not. Historical and ahistorical. A fantastic (in both senses of the word) read.

starfishian: Absolutely brilliant. Kate Atkinson is a gifted writer.

innominate: A bare description of this novel (the tale of the last woman to be executed in Iceland) doesn't do justice to its complexity and clarity of purpose. A tale of death breathing life into a past society.

innominate: Indescribably good evocation of the protagonist's interior life separates this novel from many other mediocre narratives of mental illness.

innominate: Anyone who was born in 1962 will recognise huge amounts of Tracey's experiences (and may even have shared some of them). The book will probably appeal to other vintages too.