The Inheritors is a beautifully realised tale about the last days of the Neanderthal people, set in a lush natural world. Seen through the eyes of a small tribe of unforgettable characters, this peaceful existence is threatened by the emergence of Homo sapiens, only half-glimpsed, and barely understood. The struggle between the simple Neanderthals and the malevolent modern humans can have only one outcome, and the reader is left to question their own role in the conclusion.
Golding considered The Inheritors his finest novel and the lead character, Lok, is loosely based on Golding himself and Fa, Lok’s partner is very like Golding’s wife Ann. Golding wrote the first draft in 29 days, shortly after the publication of Lord of the Flies. Sharing similar themes to Lord of the Flies, this is a book about the breakdown of a society, in part as a result of its own weakness. But we are left, at the end of the novel, to contemplate the success of our own species, and the undoubted cost this entails.
We will be reading... Toothsucker 🧛 by Kaden Love
Please note a trigger warning for the front cover of this book in some imprints. It’s a bit gruesome.
In a cyberpunk future, an alarming disease strikes, dissolving the bones of those with cybernetic enhancements. Petya, a refugee, sells himself to a company experimenting with a potential cure and instead finds himself with a strange new implant… and a vampiric hunger for teeth.
Petya only wanted a short trial with easy money, and now he’s at the mercy of a company hell-bent on market control, even if it means turning him into their personal pharmaceutical assassin.
They’re out for political power.
Petya is out for an escape and teeth.
Caversham Critics SciFi section meets every 6 weeks (barring unforeseen circumstances).
A breathtakingly accomplished retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of the enslaved Jim, Everett's tour de force reclaims the character's voice from the literary margins with power, precision and dazzling wit.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2025
The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he flees to nearby Jackson’s Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father who recently returned to town.
So begins a dangerous and transcendent journey along the Mississippi River, towards the elusive promise of the free states and beyond. As James and Huck navigate the treacherous waters, each bend in the river holds the promise of both salvation and demise. And together, the unlikely pair embark on the most life-changing odyssey of them all.
Willie Lincoln finds himself trapped in a transitional realm - called, in Tibetan tradition, the bardo - and as ghosts mingle, squabble, gripe and commiserate, and stony tendrils creep towards the boy, a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie's soul.
Unfolding over a single night, Lincoln in the Bardo is written with George Saunders' inimitable humour, pathos and grace. Inventing an exhilarating new form, Saunders confirms his status as one of the most important and influential writers of his generation. Deploying a theatrical, kaleidoscopic panoply of voices - living and dead, historical and fictional - Lincoln in the Bardo poses a timeless question: how do we live and love when we know that everything we hold dear must end?
Arguably the best American short story writer of his generation, George Saunder’s mantelpiece must be groaning under the weight of awards.