Writers and critics have had their say, now readers pick their books of the year – from Brexit to bohemians, emperors to existentialists
Of the many books that have engaged me this year, three stand out: James shows in a brutally honest memoir how someone can be saved, and The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota (Picador) depicts a life that many of us choose to ignore. More recently I have been transported to Cumbria by Sarah Hall’s The Wolf Border (Faber), which has all the ingredients to keep you reading and wondering if it might actually come true.
Sarah Akhtar, Stoke-on-Trent
