At the beginning of 2012 I spent a number of weeks at sea. Then late in the year I was on a journey to Iraq.
Neither was for real you understand, they were both the result of book journeys; that uncanny way in which one book leads to another and without really realising it you end up in the same world.
I went to sea with Jamrach’s Menagerie, carried out of London by Carol Birch's tale. The next stage in the journey was The Lifeboat by Charlotte Rogan. Without consciously choosing to, I'd picked another sea-faring tale. This is a dark book and tiring too. I badly wanted to get off that boat having spent too much time hanging on in the cold, thirsty and feeling threatened by my travelling companions.
And much later, Iraq. This is an even stranger connection because what attracted me to Billy Lynn’s Long Half Time Walk was America. I am a sucker for any novel set in America and I loved this one by Ben Fountain. But Billy kept taking me back to Iraq, to a really horrible moment that had defined his life and coloured his view of everything, including America. Then, again without realising where I was headed, I bought Kevin Powers' The Yellow Birds. This time I really was in the dust of hot Iraq and it’s hung about me ever since.
I have just finished St Agnes Stand by Thomas Eidson. This is a wonderful book, so wonderful I am amazed it’s never been recommended to me before, so wonderful I read it in one sitting, so wonderful I visited New Mexico. I wonder where I am headed next.
