What we’re reading: writers and readers on the books they enjoyed in April

Torrey Peters, author

Even though it came out only last year, I was so impressed with Álvaro Enrigue’s You Dreamed of Empires that I am on my second reread. As all around me institutions fall and norms fail, I feel the moment requires audacious re-imaginings of history or possibilities of thought, and on both a political and imaginative level, Enrigue delivers with his wild telling of the meeting between Hernán Cortés and Moctezuma.

I’d be remiss not to shout out the Australian essayist Vivian Blaxell’s sharp and amusingly tart new collection Worthy of the Event. These essays span years – the book seems to contain a whole library of experience.

Lastly, my entire relationship to plants has been altered, rather shockingly, by having read The Light Eaters by Zoë Schlanger, which explores the possibility of plant intelligence, plant behaviour and even plant consciousness. Just sitting in a backyard, surrounded by plants, became a visitation with other beings – a truly life-expanding book.

Stag Dance by Torrey Peters is published by Serpent’s Tail (£16.99). To support the Guardian and Observer, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

Colin, Guardian reader

I’ve been reading Tim Winton’s 1991 novel Cloudstreet – quite an old book now but a really warm account of two families occupying one old house in Perth, Australia. I’ve also been enjoying Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer. I’m constantly amazed at Kingsolver’s ability to get inside characters, and her capacity to communicate the natural world (in this case entomology). She’s an extraordinary writer.

Sinéad Campbell, Guardian writer

I picked up a copy of Brian by Jeremy Cooper recently on a whim. I was drawn in by the novel’s central location, the BFI Southbank, as it’s a cinema I frequently visit. Beginning in the late 1980s, the novel follows the titular character Brian, a recluse who works for Camden council, as he finds solace, community and escapism from the humdrum and isolation of his daily life, inside the dark walls and bright screens of the cinema.

Cooper’s style is a clever blend of fiction and film criticism. I’m no film-buff (at least not by Brian’s standards) and the narrator’s sprawling thoughts on postwar, Japanese arthouse films for the most part flew over my head. But Cooper’s novel is a sweet and at times devastating portrait of how fulfilment can be found through a quaint, esoteric passion.

The book also acts as a critique of the way cinema-going has declined as we have entered a joyless age of streaming. Reading it was a much-needed reminder for me to ditch the laptop viewing and head to my local cinema instead.

Diana, Guardian reader

Lately I have read Looking at Women, Looking at War by Victoria Amelina and Once the Deed Is Done by Rachel Seiffert. Both books are utterly gripping. Although the latter is fiction, it is based on fact and Amelina’s book, though fact, seems like fiction from time to time. Sobering but essential reading, these books shock but also bring hope. They both tell of people’s innate courage and kindness in the face of deliberate cruelty.