Cherrypicker
Our Editors’ Favourite Books

Book Lovers Day is celebrated every year on 9 August. It is meant to encourage people to find their favourite reading nook, a good book, and spend the day immersed reading. Our editorial team presents some of their personal favourites for inspiration for new reading material.

For years, Dutch author Bert Wagendorp reported on major cycling races like the Tour de France for cycling enthusiast newspaper readers of the Netherlands. This is also clearly evident in his novels. Ventoux  is named after the mythical mountain in Provence, the “bald giant” that cycling fans know, admire, and fear. The plot frequently takes steep climbs and rapid descents on two wheels. The story also tells of friendship, youth, and growing older; about life expectations and realities that catch up with us. And again and again about the fascination of cycling, which unexpectedly brings four old friends together again who, after thirty years, no longer have much in common. It’s a wonderful book for hot summer days, highly recommended comfort reading at the worst time of the year: after the end of the Tour de France, when you have to wait another whole year until the next edition of the biggest cycling race in the world. 

From Italy To Ireland

If there’s a dance that combines a sensual love of life and melancholy, then Leo Gazzarra light-footedly masters it. The 30-year-old protagonist of Last Summer in the City makes his way through life and Rome in the seventies with stylish aimlessness. Leo temporarily moves into the flat of an artist couple, buys their Alfa Romeo, works as a typist for the Corriere dello Sport and surrenders himself in fateful devotion to the dolce vita of the Eternal City. He hobnobs with bohemians, meets editors and reporters, gallerists and artists, screenwriters, and authors ... and Arianna. They fall in love, roam through the warm Roman summer nights, go to the seaside, indulge in idleness, and yet reject their happiness in the face of each other. The novel by Gianfranco Calligarich, which was published in 1973, was translated into German after almost 50 years. It is a homage to Rome, reminiscent of Federico Fellini’s La dolce vita; a novel that sings of joie de vivre, ennui, and longing in a tone that is both brisk and tender.


The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne is a moving and poignant novel that takes readers on an emotional journey through the life of its protagonist. It tells the story of Cyril Avery, an Irish adoptee born in the 1940s who grows up with the challenges of his unconventional family and conservative society. Boyne’s narrative style is compelling and empathetic and he manages to provide deep insights into Cyril’s emotional world as he struggles with his identity and the desire for acceptance. The plot spans several decades and masterfully depicts cultural changes and political upheavals in Ireland. Readers follow Cyril’s life and relationships with different people, from his eccentric adoptive mother to his romantic affairs. Complex themes such as family, love, identity, and self-acceptance are handled both sensitively and dynamically. In his tenth novel, John Boyne again reveals his narrative talent and manages to present a deeply touching story that will remain in your memory long after reading. 

Family stories of longing

Transcendent Kingdom is the story of Gifty and her family, who emigrated from Ghana to the USA, where each family member struggles with different problems. Gifty’s brother, a competitive athlete, dies early from a heroin overdose after an injury. Their mother, who has long suffered from depression, is plunged into a deep abyss from grief for her son and not even her faith gives her any support. Gifty, on the other hand, studies neuroscience in order to research addiction and depression and to scientifically trace her family’s fate. The second novel by Ghanaian-American author Yaa Gyasi is a powerful and moving family story that combines themes such as racism, the conflict between religion and science, and mental health. Central to the story are the questions: How do we deal with grief and trauma? And how do we comfort those we love?

“I believe that my father loved me. But he loved life even more.” When a parent was not particularly present in childhood, many people still feel this absence in adulthood. This is the case for the protagonist Marlene in the novel Dad. Her father is absent on important days such as her birth and christening. His life is dominated by drugs; he travels a lot – to Morocco, India, and Thailand. And from one of these trips he brings back something that costs him his life far too early: AIDS. With her autobiographically influenced debut novel, Nora Gantenbrink has produced a book about the longing for a father and the desire to understand what drove him. Accompanying the protagonist on this journey is sometimes touching, sometimes deeply sad, then full of humour – and absolutely recommendable! 
 

Desert island books

Circe, the daughter of the sun god Helios and a nymph, grows up isolated. She is neither beautiful nor appealing enough to attract the attention of the gods. She turns to witchcraft, a forbidden activity, and is banished by Zeus to the island of Aiaia. There she expands her knowledge of sorcery, tames wild animals, and builds a life for herself. Although she is not allowed to leave her island, she meets many familiar figures from the Greek myths: Daedalus, Medea, Odysseus, and the messenger god Hermes. As a lonely, independent woman who does not want to submit to anyone, Circe has many enemies. In order to protect what she loves most she must choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or the mortals she has come to love. Circe is familiar to anyone who knows a bit about Greek mythology. Madeline Miller gives this otherwise rather two-dimensional female figure her own voice with the novel Circe. Miller tells Circe’s story full of monsters, adventure, magic, and drama over thousands of years. This gives her protagonist enough time to mature and develop. The somewhat naive nymph becomes a powerful witch. She is not a perfect goddess; even seems human with her flaws and character weaknesses. The reader feels with her: her pain, her loneliness, her anger – but also her deep love for humanity. Her life story, as told here, casts a spell over you – perhaps by magic.


How can someone survive alone on a deserted island in a rough natural landscape; cope with everyday life and adventure with only the simplest of means? The young adult book Island of the Blue Dolphins is based on the true story of the missing people of San Nicolas, the last survivors of their tribe. In Scott O’Dell’s novel, the protagonist, a young girl named Karana, initially loses everything when normal village life on isolated Dolphin Island turns into a nightmare: Her people are first decimated by strangers, then the entire tribe is forced to flee the island. Only she and her brother Ramo stay behind to retrieve something he had forgotten on the island. Ramo is eventually killed by wild dogs. Karana’s struggle for survival in the wild is exciting to read. Her relationship with the wild dogs changes over time and she develops an aesthetic consciousness by working for a long time on a skirt made of black cormorant feathers, despite ever challenging conditions. Will she leave her home island and reconnect with people?