2024 has been another year of notable publications. There have been delightful debuts, memorable memoirs, and personal (and powerful) poetry. We’ve had literary fiction which has often looked to the past to greater understand the present; fascinating, at times intensely personal, non-fiction; and thought-provoking examinations of life and all that entails, from the first flush of youth to reflections on and from old age. All of the above and more is taken into consideration as SNACK presents you with Ten of the Best Scottish Books of 2024.
Ajay Close – What Doesn’t Kill Us
Set in Yorkshire as the 1970s move into the 80s, the backdrop, and loose inspiration, for Ajay Close’s What Doesn’t Kill Us is the Peter Sutcliffe murders and the controversial police investigation associated with them. From there the novel examines themes of feminism, family, politics, class, race, and place, managing to remain objective and balanced throughout. Ajay Close is a master storyteller, but there is also evidence of her journalistic background, with thorough research and forensic detail lending events credence and authority. What Doesn’t Kill Us also makes clear that the more things purport to have changed, the more they all too often stay the same.
What Doesn’t Kill Us is published by SarabandÂ
Andrés N. Ordorica – How We Named the Stars
Better known until now as a poet, Andrés N. Ordorica brings a poetic flourish and an uncanny ability to find magic and beauty in the everyday to his debut novel. It’s a coming-of-age story which will inspire both empathy and sympathy in readers as the extraordinary impact of first love turns to tragedy, and the intensity of feeling found in those formative years becomes unbearable. Sensual and sensitive, How We Named the Stars has some of the most beautiful prose of this year, and in many years.
How We Named The Stars is published by Saraband
Andrew O’Hagan – Caledonian Road
With every novel Andrew O’Hagan wrong-foots readers in the most interesting ways, and he has done so again with his latest. He tells stories as few others can, inhabiting his writing as an actor might a role, with every detail, thought, and action adding to the whole. It is tempting to think of Caledonian Road as his magnum opus, the novel he’s been working towards since the very start, but I think it’s just the next extraordinary publication from a writer who chronicles our times as few others do: artfully yet without artifice. An epic undertaking which succeeds on every level.
Caledonian Road is published by Faber & Faber
Elle Machray – Remember, Remember
Remember, Remember touches on institutionalised racism and misogyny, but also on threats against the right to protest, the role of police, prolonged and toothless parliamentary process, universal civil liberties, and much more. As the quote from Edmund Burke goes, ‘The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing’, and it’s as relevant today as it was then. Elle Machray has written a novel which weaves together history and fiction seamlessly, and which is genuinely thrilling and thought-provoking throughout. Educate, inform, entertain. Remember, Remember ticks all the boxes.
Remember, Remember is published by Harper North
Genevieve Jagger – Fragile Animals
As a gross over-simplification, Fragile Animals is a vampire novel set on the Isle of Bute, but if you’re thinking ‘Anne Rice visits Rothesay’ then I’m doing Genevieve Jagger – and you – a great disservice. This is one of the most inventive and arresting novels of the year. An often uncomfortable and uncanny read, which befits the horror narrative, it focuses on that complicated move from child to adult and the accompanying confusion and sheer terror which results. Horror and the supernatural are at their best when they make comment on the all-tooreal- world, and Fragile Animals is an impeccable example of this.
Fragile Animals is published by 404 Ink
Graeme Macrae Burnet – A Case of Matricide
As always with Graeme Macrae Burnet, the devil is in the detail. There are few better at painting a picture of an individual through the objects and items which surround them. The key incident in this novel is from Inspector Georges Gorski’s past in the form of a memory of a broken mustard spoon, and it is in no small part at the heart of his existential crisis. It’s a shame that A Case of Matricide is to be the last hurrah for Gorski, but it confirms what we already knew: that Graeme Macrae Burnet is a writer of style and substance. Don’t overlook the Georges Gorski trilogy. These are novels to treasure.
A Case of Matricide is published on the Contraband imprint of Saraband
Malachy Tallack – That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz
Malachy Tallack’s That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz has two strands, which converge as the novel progresses: Sonny’s story, which runs from 1959 to 1981, and Jack’s, which is set in the present day. It’s an intricate and elegant novel which gives up its secrets guardedly, the strands subtly intertwined. Music and song are central to the novel, with many of Jack’s life lessons learned from his record collection. He also writes his own songs to try and make sense of life, which appear on the page in Jack’s own handwriting. Don’t make the mistake of skipping them, as they don’t just mirror events but are where real emotional punches land.
That Beautiful Atlantic Waltz is published by Canongate
Margaret McDonald – Glasgow Boys
Glasgow novels had many moments in 2024, spurred by the success of Yorgos Lanthimos’ screen adaptation of Alasdair Gray’s Poor Things, and Glasgow Boys was one of the best. Margaret McDonald’s debut introduced readers to Finlay and Banjo, two beautifully realised characters who found each other just when they needed it most. What follows is an examination of friendship and all the complexities that accompany it. Tough and tender in almost equal parts, Glasgow Boys will stay with you long after you’ve turned the final page. It also announces Margaret McDonald as a writer to watch.
Glasgow Boys is published by Faber & Faber
Sara Sheridan – The Secrets of Blythswood Square
Although it begins on Edinburgh’s Calton Hill, Sara Sheridan’s The Secrets of Blythswood Square brings new stories, characters, and context to Glasgow, a city whose identity too often seems set in stone. The best historical fiction speaks to the present day, and The Secrets of Blythswood Square does this in the most smart and stylish manner imaginable, investigating themes and ideas which remain all too relevant – including the troubling and terrible effects of Empire, which are ever present. Sara Sheridan has written a novel which looks to the past, and the past looks straight back at us.
The Secrets of Blythswood Square is published by Hodder & Stoughton
Thomas Stewart – Real Boys
Depending on the time in your life you encounter it, poetry can connect in a way which verges on the visceral. That’s the case with Thomas Stewart’s debut collection, Real Boys. These poems examine themes of identity, masculinity, and sexuality, but it’s the enquiries into the complexities of grief and guilt (inspired by the death of his father, to whom the book is dedicated) which hit hardest. With Real Boys Thomas Stewart has offered us a collection of intensely personal, often painful, but ultimately life-affirming poetry.
Real Boys is published by Polygon
Check out more of our book reviews here
