1st May Newsletter
What’s On At Veranda
Welcome, welcome! A beautiful week in London, when we all emerged, blinking, into warmer, sunnier days – and our thoughts have turned to summer reading, and our packed schedule of events, which kicks off next week. We hope you’ll be able to join us for a friendly drink and free-flowing conversation, as the days get longer – book online or call into the shop to reserve your spot. For now, enjoy the long weekend: you know where we are if you need a great book to keep you company.
Shop News
Penguin Classics at Shreeji News
Resolutions revisited
- Emily: (resolved to check out the ‘must-reads’ that had passed her by) “So far, my reading resolutions are moving at a snail’s pace. After a strong start, racing through Rebecca Perry’s dreamlike debut May We Feed The King, it seems I’ve been distracted by other new releases that keep jumping to the top of my TBR pile. Elif Shafak, Jonathan Franzen and Hanif Kureishi have had to wait while the new ‘buzzy’ novels for this year take their place. These classics have been strategically repositioned as my ‘summer holiday reading.’”
- Leo: (had heard a rumour of a potential blockbuster and resolved to read it the minute it was published) “My ‘most eagerly anticipated book’ of 2026 was London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe, which was published a couple of weeks ago, and consumed in one heady gulp that same weekend. This book doesn’t need any more plugging, but let’s just say it’s as good as they all say it is. On the subject of great books, the question we have continued to ask this year is: how do small indie publishers consistently find and publish such incredible books? Vision, good taste, passion: all of the above…please check out the translation table in the shop to sample the fruits of their labour
- Alison: (resolved to ditch the doorstoppers and explore shorter books, and those more experimental in form) “Knowing I was about to go cold turkey, I binged over the festive period, wolfing down the entire Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane Howard, 5 books,estimated page count c. 2600. And non, je ne regrette rien! Progress since then has been patchy – I’ve tried novellas with some success, particularly Yuko Tsushima’s Territory of Light (tr. by Geraldine Harcourt) and Sánchez by Esther García Llovet (tr. Richard Village). Short Stories are great for days when the tube is running efficiently – favourites have been by Liliana Colanzi and Lyudmilla Petrushevskaya. And for ‘experimental’, indie publishers Prototype and Fitzcarraldo Editions always have something interesting to offer. So, I’m trying – but in the end, the call of the colossus is just too strong!”
Now Booking
Shida Bazyar in conversation
Our Recommended Reads
Tangerinn by Emanuela Anechoum (tr. Lucy Rand)
Mina is living a precarious life in London (in the spare room of a horrendous ‘digital activist’ called Liz), when the death of her father, Omar, forces her back to her childhood home in Calabria, and the bar Omar established there, Tangerinn. Tracing Omar’s flight from his native Morocco, and the complex family dynamics he left behind, in life and in death, debut novelist Anechoum displays enormous talent. Her writing is fresh and utterly captivating, and she approaches knotty cultural and geopolitical issues with real sensitivity. Enthusiastically recommended by Leo and Alison.
Kingfisher by Rozie Kelly
Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize 2026, debut writer Rozie Kelly’s elegant novel Kingfisher is another of Alison’s recommendations this week. A creative writing professor becomes infatuated with his colleague – known only to us as ‘the poet’, threatening his stable life and relationship with his partner. There are powerful themes at work in this slim volume: power, desire – and grief – surface, but Kelly’s language, with its avian references provides a delicate touch.
Kelly has been compared to Sally Rooney and Deborah Levy, and the awards attention is surely good for her, and for her brilliant indie publisher, Saraband.
What we’re loving this week…
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