Parkland: Birth of a Movement
Dave Cullen
Riverrun, £14.99, pp400
The author of 2009’s bestselling Columbine turns to last year’s Parkland, Florida school shooting, in which 17 students and staff members died. Acknowledging he suffered from PTSD after he finished writing Columbine, Cullen offers a more uplifting biography of the lives of the teenage survivors at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school following the 14 February massacre. He doesn’t once reference the shooter by name. Instead, the author takes pains to show how hard Parkland’s students have been working to put anti-gun legislation back on the US national agenda. Tracing their journeys from courtrooms to marches to bedrooms and back again, Cullen’s book is full of unforgettable details, such as the no-adults-allowed rule in the students’ office space, that illustrate how trauma became a catalyst. Cullen’s narrative suffers from some superfluous logistics, but it’s an important testament and unexpectedly hopeful.
Remembered
Yvonne Battle-Felton
Dialogue, £13.99, pp304
In 1910 in Philadelphia, emancipated slave Spring is narrating her family history to her son as he lies on his deathbed in a debut novel that deftly explores generational trauma and the nature of enterprise, and gives a perspective on slavery not often explored: what happens directly after “freedom”. In style and theme, the most obvious comparison is with Toni Morrison’s Beloved and its evocation of “rememory”, but narrative is less silky and sometimes brutal. Still, her characters get under your skin.
The Word for Woman Is Wilderness
Abi Andrews
Serpent’s Tail, £8.99, pp320
There is an intellectual, if humorous, arrogance to Abi Andrews’ 19-year-old feminist narrator, Erin, that some may find offputting as she sets off on a journey into the wilds of Iceland, Greenland and Canada in relentless pursuit of self-knowledge. Even so, Andrews’ debut, dotted with true stories of trailblazing women (such as those enrolled on Nasa’s first female astronaut fitness programme), contains razor-sharp insights and poetic passages, and will hook those interested in the whole idea of wilderness and self-discovery.
• To order Parkland by Dave Cullen, Remembered by Yvonne Battle-Felton, or The Word for Woman Is Wilderness by Abi Andrews, go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £15, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
