Welcome to our Christmas reading list!
Looking for a book to curl up with by the fire? We asked Faber staff to tell us which books they’ve been loving this year, which they’ll be giving as presents, and which they’re selfishly keeping for themselves. We’ve got a recommendation for everyone with our bumper Christmas reading list, featuring books from Faber and from other publishers.
Hassan Ali, Faber Factory Manager
The book I’m looking forward to reading over Christmas . . .
Brother Alive by Zain Khalid (Atlantic Books). I’ve been putting this off for a while now, just waiting for the time to savour it properly. The description hits almost every note that tells me I’ll love it and the first few pages of prose are mesmerising. The themes of capital, identity, repression and reunion feel exceptionally relevant right now too.
The book I’ll be giving as a gift . . .
Recipes from Tender Friends (Tenderbooks). A cookbook with no overarching theme or cuisine, just a handful of cracking recipes written with the gentle humour and encouragement of a friend who wants to nourish you. The illustrations are cute and the book is beautifully produced, but also soft-covered and sturdy enough to become a battered-and-beloved part of your kitchen, so you can gift it to your bookish or your cookish friends.
My book of the year . . .
The Specters of Algeria by Hwang Yeo Jung, translated by Yewon Jung (Honford Star). Quiet and introspective, this is a story that covers intimate family relationships and geopolitical state crackdowns in twentieth century South Korea. In the characters’ uncertain goose chase to find the meaning behind the only play that Karl Marx ever wrote, they reveal something profound here about the pursuit of meaning itself.
Jess Kim, Deputy Marketing Director
The book I’m looking forward to reading over Christmas . . .
I’ve got a copy of Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger (Allen Lane) waiting patiently for 22 December to come, and then I’ll probably counterbalance that with A. K. Blakemore’s The Glutton (Granta) – also an accurate title for my own approach to the festive period.
The book I’ll be giving as a gift . . .
The Orange and other poems (Faber), of course!
My book of the year . . .
Dispatches from the Diaspora by Gary Younge (Faber) – it is always lovely whenever one of our authors wins a prize, but I was genuinely so joyful when Gary Younge won the Orwell Prize for Journalism this year. So deserved and this brilliant collection of his writing from throughout his career shows why he’s the actual best.
Ruby Bamber, Sales Operations Manager
The book I’m looking forward to reading over Christmas . . .
Rice’s Language of Buildings (Bloomsbury). I’m so ready to sit still and absorb lovely details about plinths and crenels and architraves and window shapes and have the time to pore over all of the beautiful illustrations.
The book I’ll be giving as a gift . . .
Foster by Claire Keegan. Like each of her other books this gem will stay with you long after you’ve closed the covers and the writing is complete perfection.
My book of the year . . .
Kathryn Scanlan’s Kick the Latch (Daunt Books). It’s short and punchy and vital and it hasn’t left my thoughts (or my recommendations to friends) since I read it in January. The perfect read to round out a long year.
Angus Cargill, Publishing Director
The book I’m looking forward to reading over Christmas . . .
Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton (Vintage) – I finally got myself a copy of this stunning autobiographical graphic novel and can’t wait to lose myself in it over the Christmas break, back to Canada!
The book I’ll be giving as a gift . . .
I’ll be gifting Peter Swanson’s The Christmas Guest (Faber) which is such a treat – a short, dark, witty and surprising (just wait!) seasonal chiller, from a writer at the top of his game.
My book of the year . . .
My book of the year ran early and has stayed well clear of the pack, post to wire even: Kathryn Scanlan’s Kick the Latch (Daunt Books), an incredibly moving and fascinating fictional (sort of) take on one woman’s life as a horse trainer in the Pacific Northwest. Completely unforgettable.
Ruth O’Loughlin, Publishing Manager
The book I’m looking forward to reading over Christmas . . .
The book I’m looking forward to reading over Christmas is Middlemarch by George Eliot (HarperCollins). Now, am I being too optimistic . . . ? I love to have a long book to read over the Christmas break, and I’m ashamed to say I’ve never read Eliot, so now I’m going to dive in. Wish me luck.
The book I’ll be giving as a gift . . .
The book I’ll be giving as a gift is So Late in the Day (Faber). A masterful short story in a beautiful hardback edition, and the perfect way to introduce the literarian in your life to one of our most beloved writers.
My book of the year . . .
My book of the year is The Collected Works of Jo Ann Beard (Profile). Jo Ann Beard is my discovery of this past year. She is a writer of great humour, warmth and humanity even when the themes in the stories are dark (which they often are). I felt bereft at the final page.
Rachel Darling, Trade Marketing and Product Manager
The book I’m looking forward to reading over Christmas . . .
Where the Wild Ladies Are by Aoko Matsuda, translated by Polly Barton (Tilted Axis Press). I’ve been saving these feminist retellings of traditional Japanese ghost stories, which sound so incredibly up my street, to dip into over Christmas. Fox women, mysterious babysitters, wild body hair, door-to-door lantern saleswomen . . . yes please!
The book I’ll be giving as a gift . . .
Mistletoe Malice by Kathleen Farrell (Faber). The ultimate messy family Christmas novel. Republished this November after more than seventy years out of print, everyone I know will be getting a copy of this book because it is quite simply one of the best Christmas novels ever written – a sharp, savage, sherry-fuelled and hilarious portrait of a post-war Christmas where everything goes wrong.
My book of the year . . .
Termush by Sven Holm, translated by Sylvia Clayton (Faber). My highlight of the year was working on the marketing campaign for this reissued dystopian classic from Faber’s own archive. Set in a luxury hotel where the wealthy elite have paid to shelter in style from a nuclear disaster, the narrative is made up of diary entries by one of the guests as they become more and more uncomfortable with what is happening inside (and outside) the hotel. Originally published in 1967, it’s remarkably prescient and does so much for such a delightfully short novel.
Leah Thaxton, Children’s Publisher
The book I’m looking forward to reading over Christmas . . .
Peter Swanson’s The Christmas Guest (Faber) – it looks so darkly festive, and nothing gets me in the mood for Christmas like a crime novella, especially when wrapped as deliciously as this. (It turns out I’m fussier about the genre than I realised. I’ve just abandoned a chunky whodunnit for being far too grim. I feel Swanson hits the perfect note every time, twisted but not bleak, dark but not foul (!), with an emphasis on tight plotting and characterisation.)
The book I’ll be giving as a gift . . .
Demon Copperhead (Faber) for some, because it’s the book of the decade. Whether you read it with an eye to Dickens or news reports from the US, you can’t help but feel it’s the ultimate, most brutal, and tender social commentary of our age; Wendy Cope’s The Orange for others, because I haven’t seen a juicier, sweeter book, nor one better suited for a Christmas stocking.
My book of the year . . .
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell (Headline) bewitched me. The overwhelming sense of doom, and the rich colour palette and textures of Italian court life was so evocative of a time and place. (Spoiler alert! I wish someone had told me it ends with hope — so I share that now.) I adored this novel, and a part of me is still within it.
Jenn Shelton, Contracts Assistant
The book I’m looking forward to reading over Christmas . . .
Blankets by Craig Thompson (Faber). It’s been on my TBR for forever and the snowy cover makes me want to cuddle up under a blanket with a hot drink.
The book I’ll be giving as a gift . . .
Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff (HarperCollins). EVERYONE needs to read this masterpiece (especially if you love fantasy books). And the highly anticipated sequel comes out next year. It broke the Waterstones website when preorders went live!
My book of the year . . .
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree (Pan Macmillan). I love this prequel even more than Legends & Lattes (Pan Macmillan). It’s the perfect cosy fantasy read.
Libby Marshall, Commissioning Editor, Fiction
The book I’m looking forward to reading over Christmas . . .
David Treuer’s The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee (Little, Brown). Maybe not the cosy uplifting reading experience most opt for during the holidays, but it was recommended by Sterling HolyWhiteMountain, a writer I admire. As an American living abroad I’m trying to keep in touch with the social and political history of home, even the uncomfortable side. Besides, I read fiction for a living – when I’m on holiday I need to escape into a big non-fiction tome.
The book I’ll be giving as a gift . . .
Fanatic Heart by Thomas Keneally (Faber). It’s a perfect gift for uncles and dads: a meaty, engrossing piece of vivid historical fiction that will make them feel like they’re living alongside its complicated hero, John Mitchel, in the late nineteenth century.
My book of the year . . .
It’s got to be Penance by Eliza Clark. One reader said ‘this was absolutely insane. A masterpiece of literary fiction,’ which about sums it up for me; that Clark went from Boy Parts to this epic, cutting satire of the true crime obsession and what it means to have grown up in the Tumblr era is wild. She doesn’t miss.
Hannah Knowles, Publishing Director, Arts & Culture
The book I’m looking forward to reading over Christmas . . .
Oh Lord, too many to name – I have a pile of them beckoning to me. Sara Gran’s Come Closer (Faber), Beautiful Star by Yukio Mishima (Penguin) and Viper’s Dream by Jake Lamar (Bedford Square Publishers) are on there.
The book I’ll be giving as a gift . . .
The Letters of Seamus Heaney edited by Christopher Reid (Faber) (shhh, don’t tell my mum).
My book of the year . . .
I find books to be very jealous of each other, so I don’t like to call favourites.
Bonnie Jones, Commercial Director
The book I’m looking forward to reading over Christmas . . .
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Vintage) is on my Christmas list after I read Ruth’s recommendation of it in the Autumn Reading List! It sounds amazing – can’t wait to see what everyone recommends this time . . .
The book I’ll be giving as a gift . . .
I have loved Mistletoe Malice (Faber), and the sniping and mean comments from warring family members over Christmas made me laugh so much – very cathartic. I’ll be giving it to my sister-in-law to see if she recognises the Christmas chaos too.
My book of the year . . .
Blankets by Craig Thompson (Faber). I haven’t read a graphic novel for a while and was blown away by the beauty and fun of the illustrations. It weaves between him and his younger brother, and him meeting his first love, all under warm blankets in deep deep snow in the middle of America. The latest edition has an afterword about its shaky launch from an American independent publisher twenty years ago – nearly going bankrupt in the process. It took vision and guts for them to go ahead with publication, and I’m so glad they did!
Sarah Helen Binney, Crime Editor
The book I’m looking forward to reading over Christmas . . .
Porn: An Oral History by Polly Barton (Fitzcarraldo Editions).
The book I’ll be giving as a gift . . .
The Letters of Seamus Heaney by Seamus Heaney (Faber.)
Becky Taylor, Permissions Manager
The book I’m looking forward to reading over Christmas . . .
I’ll be reading My Name is Barbra (Cornerstone) – though possibly only in the house, as it’s a wrist-breaking 992 pages.
