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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Mothersong by Amy Acre (Bloomsbury)
This debut collection from the London-born poet is confident, witty and a little addictive. As the title suggests, these poems explore motherhood and mother loss, in verse that manages to be both playfully frenzied and movingly intimate.
Taking Liberties by Leontia Flynn (Jonathan Cape)
Flynn captures the tension between poetry as a personal impulse for freedom, and the human tethering to world events (one of her three epigraphs is a quote from Vladimir Putin). This, her fifth collection, is a thought-provoking, calming response to this “intricate, coping life”.
To 2040 by Jorie Graham (Carcanet/Copper Canyon Press)
Graham’s 15th collection takes on the inevitability of extinction — of the individual narrator, of species and of the planet itself. If that sounds grim, it’s anything but. This is an urgent, vivacious book based in stark reality but written with craft and beauty.
School of Instructions by Ishion Hutchinson (Faber)
Shortlisted for this year’s TS Eliot prize, Hutchinson’s collection tells the story of West Indian soldiers in the first world war, from the journey to England through to the traumatic aftermath of conflict. Hutchinson’s biblical language and the parallel experience of a late-20th century Jamaican schoolboy make this a vivid, powerful read.
The Lights by Ben Lerner (Granta/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Followers of Lerner’s poetry and fiction will recognise elements of The Lights, his rich, reflective, fourth collection. At times it feels like he’s leading us into a form of metaphysical poetry for the 21st century — but echoes of Lerner’s own body of work, and the intersection of dreamlike and concrete ideas, stymie anything as simple as transcendence.
Tell us what you think
What are your favourites from this list — and what books have we missed? Tell us in the comments below
Books of the Year 2023
All this week, FT writers and critics share their favourites. Some highlights are:
Monday: Business by Andrew Hill
Tuesday: Environment by Pilita Clark
Wednesday: Economics by Martin Wolf
Thursday: Fiction by Laura Battle and Andrew Dickson
Friday: Politics by Gideon Rachman
Saturday: Critics’ choice
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