The Vagabond’s TOP ten
Our bestsellers of 2022, find a new favourite from this list where recent releases sit amongst old friends.
Find stocking fillers for the readers in your life, a gift for yourself for an evening fireside, or why not send a loved one a book instead of a Christmas card this year (we’ll condone writing a wee note in the front!)
#1
The Last Woman Born on the Island
POETRY by Sharon Black
An exploration of the past and present, a celebration of the landscapes that make up our lives. Poetry that contemplates the history, language and traditions of the Highlands and Islands.
#2
Indrek
CHANGELING by A.H. Tammsaare (translated by Chris Moseley and Matthew Hyde)
Volume II of the Estonian Truth and Justice pentalogy (following #4, Vargamäe), we see the education of our central character Indrek as he moves from countryside to the polyglot city.
#3
Giselle and Mr Memphis
VAGABOND by Jerry Simcock
The journal of Ignatz Himmelsputz, a man living in 1974 Frankfurt, as a chance meeting with an old acquaintance forces both to confront their pasts in a story of man’s inhumanity to man.
#4
Vargamäe
CHANGELING by A. H. Tammsaare (translated by Inna Feldbach and Alan Peter Trei)
Volume I of the Truth and Justice pentalogy. Andres, an Estonian peasant, takes his young wife to live on a smallholding on marshy land where they struggle in and out of extreme poverty.
#5
White Shroud
CHANGELING by Antanas Škėma (translated by Karla Gruodis)
A psychological work telling the story of an émigré poet working as an elevator operator in a 1950s New York hotel. It moves through sharply contrasting settings and stages, breaking down any stable sense of self.
#6
I Loved a German
CHANGELING by A.H. Tammsaare (translated by Chris Moseley)
In newly independent Estonia, prejudices remain between the Baltic Germans and Estonians, sparking questions about the source of two young lovers' love. Is Oskar just drawn to dynamics of the old order? Does he really love Erika as a person?
#7
In Praise of the Garrulous
VAGABOND by Allan Cameron
A book about the value and essentiality of language in our lives. It argues that the process of homogenisation that we call globalisation is not only damaging our external environment, but our internal one as well.
#8
Mither Tongue
POETRY by Jidi Majia
A collection of Chinese poetry translated into English and three strands of Scots: Lallans, Doric and Shetlandic.
#9
Against Miserabilism
CONTEMPLATION by David Widgery
A collection of articles from a prolific Marxist writer on a number of cultural and civil rights issues. Written in the 1960s-90s and recently updated by those who knew him, it is a love letter to a new generation of radicals.
#10
Blessed Assurance
VAGABOND by Stewart Ennis
A coming-of-age novel set in a close-knit evangelical Scottish community in the 1960s, exploring family, friendship, faith, loneliness and grief through six soul-searching days in the life of 11-year-old Joseph.