1923: The Mystery of Lot 212 and a Tour de France Obsession
Ned Boulting
Bloomsbury, £18.99, pp288
As lockdown projects go, this was a good one. Boulting bought a two-minute clip of an old bike race for £120 at auction. Holding the film up to the light, he realised this was distant and long-forgotten Tour de France footage – a race he commentates on every summer. It sent Boulting down an intriguing rabbit hole as he explored the characters, places and contexts of 1923’s 412km stage 4. He coalesces this disparate content into a lovely meditation on the passing of time and the echoes of history.
Four Seasons in Japan
Nick Bradley
Doubleday, £16.99, pp336
Bradley struck gold with his debut, The Cat and the City; stories of loneliness in Tokyo connected by a strange, recurring cat. Here, the alienated translator from The Cat and the City finds a book on the subway, leading her on a quest not just to understand the traumas and relationships between a strict old woman and her grandson in rural Japan – but the motivations of the book’s author, too. For all the slight contrivances, Bradley builds a poignant, quiet and affecting novel full of love as well as loss.
The Draw of the Sea
Wyl Menmuir
Aurum, £9.99, pp304 (paperback)
Part memoir and part travelogue, this Roger Deakin award-winning book is also a paean to the magic and mystery of the coastline surrounding Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Menmuir uses all the poetic storytelling techniques honed in his Booker-longlisted career to imbue the wonderful The Draw of the Sea with a keen sense of place and purpose. Meeting beachcombers, gig rowers, surfers and freedivers while pondering his own family’s place in this wild landscape, he explores why we are driven to the water’s edge.
To order 1923: The Mystery of Lot 212 and a Tour de France Obsession, Four Seasons in Japan or The Draw of the Sea, go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
