Arctic Summer

South African author Damon Galgut has twice been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and his latest book, Arctic Summer, explores the life of the writer EM (Edward Morgan) Forster.

Galgut has created a fictional account of Forster’s travels to India and how this shaped Forster’s seminal 1924 novel, A Passage To India, and its view of the relationship between East and West.

Galgut vividly describes how Forster laboured for 12 years to write what would become his most successful work, and how he shed the clarity and order of his English life to embrace India’s mysticism. The literary scene is described in meetings with Virginia Woolf and DH Lawrence, among others, on his return to England.

But Arctic Summer is not just about the creative process. Galgut draws on Forster’s letters and diaries to create an intimate portrait of his inner life. Forster struggled to understand his homosexuality and Galgut poignantly describes his closest relationships, including his affair with a young Egyptian tram conductor. Arctic Summer is a must-read for Forster fans, but is also the story of a man trying to live in a society that cannot fully accept him.