Reading Matters (week 10) 03 March 2026

Nathan Harris is an extraordinary young American writer whose debut novel The Sweetness of Water was longlisted for the 2021 Booker Prize. Now his new novel, Amity is also being highly praised.

Both books have slavery at their American Civil War heart. I talk about them both – written in lyrical, magnificent prose, and Harris’ deep insight into human suffering and how his principal protagonists fight defeat. In Amity two former slave siblings are torn apart geographically, whilst in The Sweetness of Water two brothers born into slavery, struggle as freemen to carve a new life in the face of intolerance and hatred.

Peter Hain, anti-apartheid struggle fighter, now a Labour party member of the British House of Lords, has written and edited 29 books. In his new thriller, Fallout we’re taken to Beijing, London, Harare and Pretoria.

The prologue alone will have you reading into the night.

Australian Dr Shade Zahrai who has worked for over a decade with Fortune 500 Companies and educated millions of professionals, sets out to make self-doubters change the way they think of themselves in Big Trust. We don’t believe in ourselves and our power. She wants to change our poor, self-perception.  Chances are by the end of this book, she’ll succeed.

Reading Matters with Sue Grant-Marshall