Column | Top books to read this July

This month’s reading list is proof that books remain the most efficient form of transport. One moment, you are in ancient Rome watching a republic edge towards dictatorship; the next, you are in present-day Mumbai, where property, marriage and social standing are all part of the same intricate negotiation. From there, it’s on to speculative futures powered by unsettling technology, New England family dramas tinged with folklore, and quietly devastating stories about memory and the lives we think we’ve left behind.

The American writer’s remarkable new collection brings together 13 stories written over more than three decades. Her characters are writers, mothers, daughters, siblings and solitary people, looking back at their lives and discovering that memory often preserves the oddest details while blurring the things that once seemed important. Nunez’s voice is conversational and funny, with an awareness of illness, ageing, regret and death, running just below the surface.