The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen

short stories   - generally went down well.  interesting and humane

Drive your Plow one the Bones of the Dead Olga Tokarczuk

An undoubted success. no real faults with this delightful and subtle complex book

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie

A definite winner    - gripping, relevant , clever

Purple Hibiscus chimamanda Ngozie Adichie

An undoubted success , An early work by women who gone on to write more good books  . The family as a cipher for the society   in this case post-colonial Nigeria  Highly recommended

Shusako Endo The Samurai

Interesting historical setting  East meets West , One disliked it  one really liked it and the rest of us found it patchy but worthwhile.

Francis Spufford Golden Hill

The main interest was the historical setting    New York of mid-1700s which worked well. The characters less so

Samantha Harvey - Dear Thief

A hung jury  on this one  - Had great reviews from professional critics  but a bit of a struggle to read and warm to .  Marmite.