On this episode of The Writer and the Critic, your hosts, Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond have a mercifully brief and borderline hysterical conversation on the state of COVID before jumping a discussion of this month's books: The Cost of Living: A Working Autobiography by Deborah Levy [3:45] and Dissolve by Nikki Gemmell [29:50].

If you've skipped ahead to avoid spoilers, please come back at 58:15 for final remarks, including a minor rant on the subject of book annotations/defacement.

Next month, the two books up on the slab will be:

Little Eve by Catriona Ward

Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford

Read ahead and join in the spoilerific fun!