The unmissable book of the year for me is The Garden Of Evening Mists, by Tan Twan Eng. I came to it without any clear idea of whether I was going to love it or hate it and I was continually surprised by how it could take what ought to be situations of utter despair and make them uplifting, funny, and heartening. I love that. I also found it believable; several of the people I have met who have lived through nightmares - former prisoners of the Khmer Rouge and former Gitmo and death row inmates alike - possess the same faculty.
Nick Harkaway’s Year in Reading.
