My Favourite Books of 2022

Posted: November 26th, 2022 | No Comments »

Books of the Year 2022

NB: crime & espionage included as I review a lot. True crime omitted as I didn’t read much in 2022. Kept to only 2022 books (or 2021 out in paperback this year). Probably forgotten a few so apologies. No particular order of ranking, just what came to mind fastest…

Crime

Too Far from Antibes – Bede Scott – shades of Simenon and Green in 50s Saigon

Shifty’s Boys – Chris Offutt – Grit Noir at its finest

Razorblade Tears – SA Cosby – badass revenge tragedy from a new master

The Stoning – Peter Papathanasiou – the best Outback Noir to date

City on Fire – Don Winslow – the 80’s, Provincetown, the Irish and Italian mobs, Winslow…

Espionage

Paul Vidich – The Matchmaker – the legacy of the Cold War in Berlin

The Berlin Exchange – Joseph Kanon – 1960s spy swaps from the ever-reliable Kanon

No Second Take – Joy Joyce – an Irishman mixed up in dodgy business on the WW2 Riviera

City of Spies – Maria Timon – SOE, Portugal, 1943…great fun

The Unwanted Dead – Chris Lloyd – Wartime occupied Paris, murder, Nazi machinations

Fiction

On Java Road – Lawrence Osborne – Osborne’s world-weary Greeneland eye falls on HK

Justin T Clark – the Zero Season – 2 very different journeys from Cambodia to 1949 Paris

Lucy Caldwell – These Days – the horrors and resilience of the Belfast Blitz

Quentin Tarantino – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – loads hated it; I was totally engrossed

Dwyer Murphy – An Honest Living – Brilliantly evoked just pre-digital NYC & the rare books world. A Chandler heir

Non-Fiction

A Village in the Third Reich – Julia Boyd – a tight dissection of small-town Bavarian fascism

Fragile Cargo – Adam Brookes – incredible story of saving China’s Forbidden City treasures

Hidden Heritage – Fatima Manji – deep dives on the side streets of UK multicultural history

The Barbizon – Paulina Bren – highly readable account of the famed Manhattan women-only building

Matthew Campbell & Kit Chellel – Dead in the Water – the criminality of shipping from Yemeni pirates to the nastier suited variety at Lloyds

Biography

Edda Mussolini – Caroline Moorehead – solid bio with some good China insights too

Ethel Rosenberg – Anne Sebba – finally giving Ethel her own voice in the horrible story

The Lost Cafe Schindler – Meriel Schindler – the café’s history is the story of a community destroyed

Arnold Bennett – Patrick Donovan – still sadly out of fashion Bennett is long overdue a comeback

I Used to Live Here Once – Miranda Seymour – putting Jean Rhys back in her rightful place as an important writer

Camera Man – Dana Stevens – Buster Keaton, early cinema and the growth of Hollywood

Autobiography

A Private Spy: The Letters 1945-2020 – John Le Carré – fascinating insight into the man & and his work

Abi Morgan – This is not a Pity Memoir – by turns funny & sad, but full of hope

Lea Ypi – Free – insightful page turner on growing up Albanian back in Hoxha’s day

Taste – Stanley Tucci – as delightful as you’d expect and then some…

The Language of Thieves – Martin Puchner – a personal history of Rotwelsch thieves’ cant

Short Stories

Land of Big Numbers – Te-Ping Chen – innovative short fiction explaining contemporary China

Homesickness – Colin Barrett – a great successor to Young Skins, suburban Ireland in all its glory

The Low Desert – Tod Goldberg – good novels, great short stories – the gangsters of Palm Spring/Nevada

Don Winslow – Broken – a great mix of styles but all with Winslow’s usual obsessions of betrayal and corruption

Rouge Street – Shuang Xuetao (trans: Jeremy Tiang) – 3 novellas on China’s left behind folk

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