WWTTM Benign Book Dictatorship: Next Month: Disquiet

Have returned from Hay to a To Do Mountain (like the European Butter mountain, but less slimy, and less tasty on toast), one of which I realise is: new bookclub book.

Because I have shaved a week off your reading time, I am going short beyond the call of duty. This month we're going to read Disquiet by Julia Leigh.

Short enough to be read in a couple of hours, Disquiet is - as the title suggests - a disturbing, unsettling novella, about a woman who returns to her family home with her two children, escaping a violent relationship. The day she arrives coincides with her brother's return home from hospital where his wife has just given birth to a stillborn child.

Having picked a series of crowd-pleasers, I expect this one to divide readers. The only reviews on Amazon are both 2-star, from people who found the book hard to engage with. It is an eerie and distant read. On the other hand I found the book utterly engrossing and read it in one sitting. It's dark and haunting and very unusual. But that'll make for a good discussion...

Meet back here on June 18th, literary guns blazing.