What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in February | Books
Paul, Guardian reader I’ve been reading a very short book by Claire Baglin, translated by Jordan Stump, On the Clock. Set on the edge of somewhere in Brittany, all run-down blocks, dual carriageways and drive-in eateries, it’s a dark, sometimes funny story of a working-class family and a young woman starting work in a fast-food restaurant. Through a few short scenes we get a real insight into the quotidian soullessness of the work. It’s a quick read, but although there isn’t much to celebrate in the anomie, or the false bonhomie, of the workplace, it’s full of compassion and heart. By keeping her focus so very narrow, Baglin has more to say about today’s world than a much longer story might. The two protagonists and their precarious lives feel very real. It has the touch of a handheld film: raw, immediate and with something important to say. Francis Spufford, author Photograph: Antonio Olmos/The Observer The best things I’ve read lately have been Melissa Harrison’s The Given World, nearly but not quite published yet, a novel …
