Recommended by Mark Fisher (real one not our low IQ version)

We don't live in the present, but in an ever changing past. We're constantly navigating through memories and re-remembered memories. It's a foggy and dark landscape, and we don't choose where the clouds clear and light chooses to shine through. There's no escape from the past, except maybe a few fleeting moments in our lives. Our present selves are like puppets animated by someone, not quite visible, from this shadowy past. We are not in control, as much as we might try. It's a dispiriting perspective offered by the book, but by the same token also offers some consolation. Our tormentors in life are also pushed into action by their pasts too - cruelty travels from one person to another, down the line. It may be possible, that like Mary, we are able to offer grace to our tormentors and break the chain of a cruelty.

One of my favourite reads of the year.