Lincoln in the Bardo by the American George Saunders has won the Man Booker Prize 2017. It is the weirdest book. It is an odd combination of narrative, maudlin cemetery wanderings, and historical captions that just didn’t do it for me. I might get back to it sometime but, after about 30 pages, I gave up. It is so hard to follow.

I had hoped Autumn by Ali Smith might win. What a lovely book. It’s wonderful musings on contemporary life – terrific lists – really engaged me. I bookmarked a lot of pages on my Kindle, and I’ll write about it next.

I’m reading Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid now, which is also very good. The author weaves the magic of a new relationship into the horrors of a city torn apart by violence, and does it very convincingly.