The Book Club Review 9. This Is London by Ben Judah
Laura's latest book club read was This Is London by Ben Judah (2016), a spare and unflinching investigation into what life in London can be like for the migrants who make up over 40% of the city's population. Not a gentle read, but a revealing one that frustrated and impressed in equal measure – a good formula for debate. For our regular interview, we spoke with Claire Griffiths who runs the book club at Islington's Ink84. We end with recommendations for your next book club read, including some from Word on the Water, a London institution and bookshop on a canal barge moored at Kings Cross.
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Ink84 bookshop can be found at www.ink84.co.uk, and the London Book Barge can be found on Facebook under Word on the Water.
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Books mentioned in this episode: Second-Hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich Days Without End by Sebastian Barry The Power by Naomi Alderman The Return by Hisham Matar Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf Swimming With Sharks by Joris Luyendijk A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks NW by Zadie Smith The Mandibles by Lionel Shriver The Last London by Ian Sinclair And more if you keep listening to the end...
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For our next book club we will be reading and discussing The Snow Leopard (1978) by Peter Matthiessen.
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If you have read this far then you're probably the sort of person who might want to keep listening for our 'extra' bit at the end, where we talk about what we've been reading outside of book club. Stay tuned for what we've been reading – or trying to read – over the summer.