Zara Murao picks her favourite reads of 2023

Rewind again, and there are simply no clear answers. “A small part of the DNA of most modern humans – between 1 and 4 per cent – is of Neanderthal origin. We don’t yet know where and when Neanderthals and Sapiens interbred – but genetic scientists may soon be able to tell us,” Sam Miller says, in his masterful book, Migrants: The Story of Us All.

It’s a sweeping look at a species that has always been on the move. The routes are still the same, the driving forces the same.

Read Migrants for unimaginable detail about how this fact has shaped us as we evolved; shaped our views of ourselves, and of the other. How it has permeated our history and our art, our cities and communities. Even the names by which we call ourselves; and what we call our countries. Chances are, you will never see your world the same way again. (And isn’t that the point of any good piece of writing?)

Also check out Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, a fictional family saga that unfolds across generations, starting out in a small fishing village in Korea in the late-1800s, and moving to expansionist, Imperial Japan. The wealth of detail brings to life a changing world, and the people dragged along by it, in ways that make the book feel more like an act of travel than of reading. It leaves one with a telescopic view of traditional Korean culture; and of a distinct slice of history most of us know little about. As well as a particular fondness for two women characters who ensure you never see kimchi the same way again.

READ MORE: HT editors pick their best reads of 2023

Where are you really from? It’s a question that is impossible to answer. Go back just a few generations, and the mist begins to form. Lines, and oceans, are invariably crossed. Go back even further, and the story becomes a bit clearer – because it is shared. The Stone Age; the Iron Age; the trek out of Africa.

Rewind again, and there are simply no clear answers. “A small part of the DNA of most modern humans – between 1 and 4 per cent – is of Neanderthal origin. We don’t yet know where and when Neanderthals and Sapiens interbred – but genetic scientists may soon be able to tell us,” Sam Miller says, in his masterful book, Migrants: The Story of Us All.

It’s a sweeping look at a species that has always been on the move. The routes are still the same, the driving forces the same.

Read Migrants for unimaginable detail about how this fact has shaped us as we evolved; shaped our views of ourselves, and of the other. How it has permeated our history and our art, our cities and communities. Even the names by which we call ourselves; and what we call our countries. Chances are, you will never see your world the same way again. (And isn’t that the point of any good piece of writing?)

Also check out Pachinko by Min Jin Lee, a fictional family saga that unfolds across generations, starting out in a small fishing village in Korea in the late-1800s, and moving to expansionist, Imperial Japan. The wealth of detail brings to life a changing world, and the people dragged along by it, in ways that make the book feel more like an act of travel than of reading. It leaves one with a telescopic view of traditional Korean culture; and of a distinct slice of history most of us know little about. As well as a particular fondness for two women characters who ensure you never see kimchi the same way again.

READ MORE: HT editors pick their best reads of 2023