Daisy Johnson: ‘Flesh is a masterpiece’

Memories from my childhood open up as I read to my own young children. Something in the pictures of Helen Cooper’s The Bear Under the Stairs or Lane Smith’s The Big Pets takes me back to being four and being read to. My favourite book growing up was the Sabriel series by Garth Nix; I first read it alongside my father and, later, my younger brother, and it gave us a new connection.

I don’t remember what age I was when I found The Bone People by Keri Hulme on my parents’ bookshelf, probably too young. Reading about Kerewin alone in her tower felt momentous; the anger and fear in the book bury into the writing. Ed Yong’s An Immense World completely changed my perspective on the world around us.

Recognising the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative by Isabella Hammad has started to educate me about the genocide of the Palestinian people, and Women Talking by Miriam Toews showed me what fiction could be capable of. The Alfie books by Shirley Hughes and Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow by Peter Høeg helped nudge me toward wanting to write.

Palestine

daisy johnson, sabriel, garth nix, bone people, keri hulme, ed yong, isabella hammad, women talking, miriam toews, palestinian genocide