Backlisted Podcast: Summer Books 2025 & Revisiting Classics

Summer Reading Picks

• ☀️ The podcast "Backlisted" is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a summer series revisiting beloved books and authors.
• 📚 This episode features discussions on new releases like The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley and The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier, alongside older titles.
• 💡 The hosts also delve into Poetry in the Making by Ted Hughes and a republication of Alexander Baron's The Low Life.

The Ministry of Time

• 🚀 The Ministry of Time is described as a romantic, time-traveling science fiction novel with elements of polar exploration.
• 💖 The core of the book is the romance between a near-future civil servant and a historical figure, Graeme Gore, from Franklin's expedition.
• 💬 The novel is praised for its focus on a female gaze and its exploration of how the 21st century offers a better world for individuals facing challenges like PTSD or societal marginalization.
• 📺 It's noted that this book is being adapted into a TV series for the BBC.

The Anomaly

• ✈️ The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier, translated by Adriana Hunter, is a million-copy bestseller in France that won the Prix Goncourt.
• 🎭 The novel features multiple characters, each with a distinct narrative style, all of whom were on the same flight from Paris to New York in 2021.
• 🧠 The book is characterized as speculative fiction, drawing parallels to TV shows like "The Leftovers" and "Lost," and it explores themes of politics, philosophy, and identity.
• ✍️ Le Tellier's work is connected to the Oulipo literary movement, which emphasizes the use of constraints and rules to generate new literary forms.
• 🖼️ The novel's ending is a calligram, a visual poem, which presents a unique challenge for audiobook adaptations.

Poetry in the Making

• 🎙️ Andy Miller discovered an LP of Ted Hughes reading his talks for schools, titled "Listening and Writing," which led him to the book Poetry in the Making.
• 🤔 Hughes's talks, aimed at 10-13 year olds, focus on the nature of thinking, emphasizing the importance of sustained attention and deliberate practice in capturing ideas.
• 💡 A key takeaway from Hughes's advice is to provide students with all the tasks at the start of a semester, encouraging purposeful engagement with lessons.
• 🎧 The audio recording of Hughes is described as magical and evocative of a past era, highlighting the unique experience of listening to poets read their own work on vinyl.

The Low Life

• 📖 Alexander Baron's The Low Life, a cult classic, has been reissued and is celebrated for its vivid portrayal of postwar East London.
• 🎭 The novel follows Harry Boyas, a gambler and war veteran, whose life unravels amidst the murky underworld of the East End.
• 🕵️ The book is noted for its tight narrative, clear characters, and its focus on the North London Jewish experience, distinguishing it from the more commonly depicted "Swinging London."
• 🎧 While the audiobook is enjoyable, reading the physical book is recommended to fully appreciate its unique ending, a calligram.
• 💔 The novel is characterized by a sense of quiet unease and a lack of redemption, offering a compelling, if bleak, depiction of its characters' lives.
• 📚 The discussion also touches upon Baron's sequel, Strip Jack Naked, and the challenges of finding copies and its different narrative focus.