Best books of 2016 – part one
Blake Morrison
The Return; Frantumaglia: A Writer’s Journey; Solar Bones
The letters and interviews in Elena Ferrante’s Frantumaglia: A Writer’s Journey (trans Ann Goldstein, Europa), reveal all you ever need to know about the author of the Neapolitan Quartet, apart from the trifling matter of her identity.
James Meek
Everyone Is Watching; Memoirs of a Medieval Woman: The Life and Times of Margery Kempe
My cooking, cleaning and driving hours have been filled with Hillary Huber reading Elena Ferrante’s Naples quartet (trans Ann Goldstein, Europa/Blackstone). Not all writers adapt well to unabridged audiobookery; Ferrante, translated, does.