I’m always a little hesitant to speak about the books I’ve read. And that’s because there are so many books I haven’t read. Compared to a lot of authors I know, I get through an embarrassingly small number of books. The reason is that I read painfully slowly. Sentence by sentence, word by word. And I go back and re-read sentences just to make sure I’ve really understood and appreciated them. When I’m sure there’s no one listening, I like to read out loud, rolling each word around my mouth. And when I can’t read out loud, I read just as slowly, rolling the words around in my head.

I can certainly list a few of the novels I’ve read and loved recently: Extinctions by Josephine Wilson, A Burning by Megha Majumdar and La Vie Devant Soi (The Life Before Us) by Emile Ajar. And a couple of months ago, I attended a fabulous series of online conversations on Hemingway—a companion event to the brilliant three-part PBS documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. After the first episode, I immediately ordered the Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. (650 pages of microscopic font!) Ken Burns said his favourite is ‘The Killers’ and I think it’s mine too.