The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Amma by Saraid de Silva

Republic of Consciousness book club members will have received this one

For those who don't know the publisher was co-founded by Neil Griffiths who founded, and still runs, the Republic of Consciousness Prize

My review of this concluded:

This is the epitome of the great story-telling built up from beautiful sentence-making which Weatherglass Books was founded to publish - highly recommended and a book I very much hope to see on the Women's Prize for Fiction list.

Yes, as another founder subscriber of Weatherglass, I am delighted to see this on the list, and although I read it quite a while ago I am pretty sure it deserves its place,

I have never gotten around to the novel, but it now jumped to the top of my reading list! I am very impressed at how many books from the two subscription I have end up on prize lists.

I feel like the publisher handed me an ARC at dinner a long time back and I never read it. I will rectify that now though my ARC is not at my home so relying on Paul for a copy.

At the same dinner though the publisher did ask questions about the WP do I feel slightly connected here.

I have three copies of the book - my advanced proof, my RofC book club and my Weatherglass subscriber copy!

I will take the Weatherglass one.

Hmmm I am not sure how to tell the difference between t that and the bookclub one.

I have finally started this, and it is beautiful! I like the backward temporal build-up, and so far, the characters are fantastic and the prose perfect for the novel. I hope my level of excitement remains this high.

I have just started as well - I am still judging my thoughts.

This just felt competent but a bit safe to me

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I read this last year and really enjoyed it, although I do think that the timeline jumping worked against it, rather than in its favour.

I had trouble remembering who was who, because people had different names in different story threads (e.g. mother in one timeline is grandmother in another). I also always find it tricky when books jump around over a short period without an anchor date… Annie’s story going from 2017 then 2015 then 2018 (or whatever it is, can’t remember the actual dates) made it harder to follow than it needed to be.

But I did really like the writing, themes and story, so it was a winner for me in the end. Thrilled to see it (and Weatherglass) nominated.

Thanks Ben. That part did not bother me - it just felt like a book I have read lots of times. Great for Weatherglass though.

I read this in 2023 so was a bit of a surprise - but a very pleasant one - to see it on a 2025 list. I think it does what it does - and what Weatherglass set out to do - extremely well and would love to see it go on and win.

I found this quite strong, but a little bit weaker towards the end. A bit too conceptualised in a way, and it tried too hard to not only talk about all the trauma, but finish the story in a neat bow. It was a compulsive read for me anyway, so I am not complaining!