Novelist and winner of the 2024 BBC National Short Story Award Ross Raisin picks five novels that give the reader unique insights and perspectives into the workplace.
Service by Sarah Gilmartin
A novel that made me wither in my armchair from uncomfortable recognition at its ferocious accuracy. The microculture of ’90s fine-dining is brilliantly observed, from the minute details of napkin arrangements to the hidden, dark horrors playing out behind the scenes.
Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld
As well as being (provocatively) a romantic comedy, this is an entertaining look at the nuts and bolts of working in a scriptwriting team for a Saturday-night sketch show, portrayed by a writer who knows her onions.
The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut
This tale of an ambitious, naive young doctor posted to a failing hospital in South Africa was a quiet revelation to me: a subtle exploration of healthcare as a symbol at a time of societal flux.
Redeployment by Phil Klay
A collection of interlinked short stories (my left-field choice; I’d been thinking of including Far From the Madding Crowd). A brutal, unveiling book about the quotidian monstrosity of war – as lived by soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and redeployed into a life of emptiness thereafter.
The Spoiled Heart by Sunjeev Sahota
While this is, on the one hand, a novel about grief, secrets and community fault lines, it is also about working for a trade union – with all the conflict between idealism and reality, and the backbiting, that come with the job.
