La Plage, from 1900, by artist Alfred-Victor Fournier
- Credit: Getty Images
CHARLIE CONNELLY offers his selection of perfect holiday reading, from the latest new European paperbacks
I’m ready for the holidays. I’ve a clean vest ironed, a selection of handkerchiefs knotted in each corner to protect me from the sun’s harmful rays and I’ve been practising rolling up my trouser legs to mid-calf level for a couple of weeks now. This guy is, let me tell you, beach body ready.
In this state of demob happiness my thoughts have travelled via brown ale, whelks and sticks of rock to beach reading. Last month I revealed here my infallible recipe for good holiday literature: a thriller, an anthology, a literary prizewinner, some poetry and a stone-cold classic novel. I’m particularly looking forward to cracking the spine of some O. Henry short stories and getting sand and bits of ham sandwich between the pages of Dorothy L. Sayers’
7 May in 10:40
Georgian author and filmmaker Nana Ekvtimishvili s debut novel The Pear Field is one of three finalists of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development s 2021 Literature Prize, after the juries narrowed down a longlist of 10 works unveiled in March.
The book, which, following its release for English-speaking readers in November, has earned plaudits and is also in this year s International Booker Prize longlist, has been selected alongside Szczepan Twardoch s The King of Warsaw and Mr K Released by Matei Vişniec in the penultimate round of the EBRD prize.
In the longlist unveiled earlier this Spring, The Pear Field was one of 10 works selected from regions where EBRD has operations, for representing outstanding works of storytelling . The novel was published by Peirene Press and introduced to English-speaking readers in an online event co-hosted by the publishing house with the Book Hive bookstore.