CULTURE CLUB
CAMBRIDGE EDITION Book Club Close out the year with an imagined insight into the life of a literary giant, an exploration of heritage and the latest from a millennial maestro
WORDS BY CHARLOTTE GRIFFITHS
Fifteen Wild Decembers BY KAREN POWELL
Brontë aficionados will adore this fictionalised glimpse into life in the Haworth Parsonage. Told by Emily, the second-youngest Brontë, she and her sisters head out into the world so they can help provide for their increasingly destitute family. She is willing to sacrifice time spent on her beloved moors and knuckle down into studies, but despite her grit, life away from home is hard. The sisters seek comfort in each other; but when illness returns them to the moors before dividing them forever, the remaining siblings retreat into imagined lands, escaping the harshness of an unforgiving life and exploding with creativity. This invented account of Emily’s short life is stunningly rendered,
with beautiful depictions of the changing seasons and extreme weather encountered by the family. Powell manages to create heart- in-mouth moments of peril even though the facts of the sisters’ hard existence are well-documented. It feels wrong to describe this book as a delight, because the tragic events of the Brontës’ lives feel cruel enough when simply listed, and experiencing them from Emily’s own point of view is deeply painful. Yet the moments of joy depicted somehow become magnified when set against such hardship, and the love that Emily has for the natural world is magnificently conveyed. A must-read family saga that makes the perfect gift for a Brontë fan.
BY HAFSA ZAYYAN WE ARE ALL BIRDS OF UGANDA
This novel opens with 26-year-old corporate lawyer Sameer collapsing into bed after several all- nighters working to close a deal for his high-powered city firm. He is on the cusp of being sent to Singapore to head up a new office, but a growing sense of unease is gnawing at his insides. At some point, Sameer needs to tell his Leicester-based family that he’s headed even further away from home, making it even less likely he’ll join their business any time soon. Childhood friends Rahool and Jeremiah have also made the jump to London, and during one of their regular meet-ups, Rahool reveals he is doing what Sameer won’t, returning to Leicester to work with his family. But a racially motivated tragedy sees all three men back in their hometown, wrestling with an unexpected, unwelcome future. Sameer is set further adrift: he takes an unanticipated six weeks off ahead of moving to Singapore and goes to his family’s original home in Uganda, seeking out his roots and reconnecting with the raw beauty and opportunities of this lush country. With a dual narrative that jumps between Sameer’s story and a set of letters written in the 1960s by Sameer’s grandfather Hasan, this stunning book wrestles with questions that echo across the ages: what does it mean to honour your family’s sacrifices? At what point do you strike out on your own? And how can you keep yourself and your loved ones safe in a world mired in prejudice and racism?
28 DECEMBER 2023 CAMBSEDITION.CO.UK
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