It’s a new year and we at the English Faculty Library are here to bring you some of our new books to match! You’ll be pleased to know that we’re back open on Tuesday 4th January, ready for all your borrowing needs. In the mean time, here’s a little teaser of some of our newest materials. As always, you can check out our full catalogue of delightful new titles over on Library Thing: EFLOxford’s books | LibraryThing
Chibundu Onuzo. Sankofa. 2021.
Our first recommendation will be familiar to those of you who tune into Between the Covers on BBC Two (a favourite for me on dreary days). The novel follows the story of Anna, alone and adrift, searching for the father she never knew (who may or may not be a dictator!) and exploring ideas about race, identity, and family along the way. The book weaves between Anna’s narrative and the diary of her father’s time in London, unfurling detail at an enticing pace. The concept of Sankofa, of going back for that which you’ve forgotten, carries a key message.
Purchased through the Drue Heinz Fund.
Catherine Davies. Whitman’s Queer Children: America’s Homosexual Epics. 2013.
One for the poets, here! Catherine A. Davies takes a look at twentieth century poets Hart Crane, Allen Ginsberg, James Merrill, and John Ashbury, all of whom are known to work in the epic tradition (and to queer the form). Davies follows this epic path all the way back to the canonical Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. In her own words: “Whitman’s epic-lyricism forms the foundations of the tradition I trace here, paving the way for Crane, Ginsberg, Merrill, and Ashbery to fashion new kinds of epic voices to speak with in their poetry.” (p.1)
Hilary Mantel. The Mirror and the Light. 2020.
Mantel’s The Mirror and the Light is the third and final book in the Wolf Hall Trilogy, detailing the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell – a controversial figure who served by the side of King Henry VIII. The enthralling writing in this final instalment creates a feeling of perilousness for the reader, knowing the inevitable outcome that’s already carved in history – Cromwell’s fall from favour and execution – but holding your breath to see how he stumbles into the trap he’s laid for himself.
Purchased through the E. H. W. Meyerstein bequest grant.
Joe Moshenska. Making Darkness Light: The Lives and Times of John Milton. 2021.
Moshenska uses this book to take John Milton off the lofty shelf of canonical poets, dust him off, and dig deeper into the complexities of the ‘grim puritan’, scholar, and propaganda-peddler for Cromwell (not Thomas, Oliver). Moshenska is particularly curious about Milton’s fascination with polar opposites (light and dark, Heaven and Hell, self and other) as seen in Paradise Lost. But the book becomes about more than just Milton – it’s about identity, influence, and crucially: why we read and what happens to us when we do.
Torrey Peters. Detransition, Baby. 2021.
Detransition, Baby is a novel with a lot going on: busy, funny, and at times chaotic but with a solid, beating heart at the centre of the narrative. The characters are messy and complicated individuals with a tendency towards self-destruction, but an unexpected pregnancy throws a spanner into all of their lives. With questions of co-parenting concepts, evolved definitions of motherhood, and a healthy dose of trans liberation and gender politics, this novel makes for a delightful, surprising, and dramatic read for all.
Purchased through the Drue Heinz Fund.