Joan's picks: Year of the Locust and Excommunicated

Year of the Locust by Terry Hayes – author of I Am Pilgrim which has been HUGE, and deservedly so. Fans have been waiting almost ten years for this one, which we all knew was coming but the release date kept changing year after year – but it’s finally here. It isn’t a sequel to Pilgrim – it’s a standalone in its own right but very much inhabits that same world –Pakistan , Iran and Afghanistan – about a CIA deep under cover agent who’s sent in to locate what may be the world’s most dangerous man – a local warlord with a huge tattoo of a locust on his back – the significance of which becomes apparent quite early in the story. It’s wonderful. 

Excommunicated by Craig Hoyle. Craig is a Kiwi journalist who was brought up in Invercargill in the Exclusive Brethren, but after coming out gay as a teenager was excommunicated and forced to leave his family and the only home he’d ever known and try to make a life for himself on the outside. It’s a deeply affecting story about a family which is torn apart – but also has fascinating insight and history about the Brethren both here, and the wider global movement. He discovered that his grandfather had in fact also been excommunicated many years ago – it’s a family story with really deep fault lines.

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