This weeks book choice for Book Club is the gripping and essential debut novel 'Such a Fun Age' by Kiley Reid. It was a Sunday Times and New York Times best seller, which is no surprise after finishing it.

'Such a Fun Age' is a big hearted, gut wrenching story about race and privilege. When babysitter Emira is accused of 'kidnapping' the white toddler in her care. What follows is the crashing relationship between Emira and her employer, an incredibly privileged young woman yearning for Emira's approval.

This novel is so stunningly written, it's razor sharp, witty, nuanced and challenging. I read it this time last year during the uprise of the BLM movement. It was an essential piece of reading for me to see the complications in our white savour complexes, asking the reader to evaluate the big questions around race, privilege, class and identity.

A passage from the novel that stayed with me.

“Or that when white people compliment her (“She’s so professional. She’s always on time”), it doesn’t always feel good, because sometimes people are gonna be surprised by the fact that she showed up, rather than the fact that she had something to say when she did.”