2011 turned out to be a divided reading year in the lighthouse. The first half, I'd say, seemed packed with all the really enjoyable books. In fact, all the contenders for Book of the Year came from that period. Therefore, there are three very honourable mentions for Henning Mankell's The Troubled Man, the audacious and great fun, The Map of Time by Felix Palma and the superb An Uncertain Place by Fred Vargas.
In the end though, I couldn't see further than Between Summer's Longing and Winter's End by Leif GW Persson. Of all the books I read last year, it is the one that has stuck with me the most. I'll be honest, at times, I remember struggling with the sheer scope of it, but by the time it was finished, I felt that I had read something important, a novel of such significance that I would be unlikely to forget it. And so it has proved. My review is here.
The very best of wishes to everyone for 2012.
