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Books of the month: From Nikita Lalwani’s You People to Susanna Moore’s Miss Aluminium

Martin Chilton reviews five of June’s releases for our monthly book column

Friday 29 May 2020 17:15 BST
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According to the glossary of Middle English at the end of Matthew Kneale’s Pilgrims (Atlantic Books), a “quarantine” is a “period of forty days” – so they clearly had shorter lockdowns in the 13th century. Kneale’s suspenseful historical novel is about a ragtag band of travellers who set off from England to Rome in 1289, finding plenty of adventure and sex along the way. The most startling entry in the glossary, however, is the revelation that those in the bad habit of seducing women from religious orders were known as “nun treaders”.

Female suffering – and bravery – are themes running through some of the best novels and non-fiction books in June, another month in which publishers, booksellers and authors have battled the knock-on effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Judy Batalion has written a fascinating history about a little-known group who took on the Nazis. In The Light of Days: Women Fighters of the Jewish Resistance (Virago), Batalion tells the untold story of the “ghetto girls” who carried out espionage missions, bombed German train lines and assassinated Gestapo chiefs. The individual tales of these courageous young women are remarkable.

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