The Space Between Us: This year's most life-affirming, awe-inspiring read – Selected for BBC 2 Between the Covers 2023 (Volume 1) (The Enceladons Trilogy)

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The road trip element allows us to explore the three main characters’ personalities and histories, making the resolutions they reach all the more meaningful and moving. I think this is one of those stories where it's best to go in blind and with an open mind, and simply sit down and enjoy the ride. They don’ t know each other, but when a meteor streaks over Edinburgh, all three suffer instant, catastrophic strokes.

I still, to this moment, hours after finishing this book, have not managed to work out how Doug Johnstone has made an alien cephalopod who can’t speak a creature that can illicit such empathy and such strong emotion from, not only the three protagonists in the book, but from the reader as well. With every character being so distinctive with an unique background and development, it is very easy to keep them apart, and they complemented each other perfectly.

Doug Johnstone is best known as a crime author, but with The Space Between Us he successfully moves to Sci-Fi. The three of them wake up at the hospital occupying the same ward, where they are told they suffered an extremely rare form of stroke. That’s nowhere near as easy as it should be because Sandy seems in poor shape and this small group of people are not the only ones interested in the creature, but the others seem less concerned with Sandy’s welfare and more with capturing it for their own nefarious purposes. In 2021,The Big Chill, the second in the series, was longlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. He resembles an octopus with just a few differences: he has only five tentacles, can live outside of water, squish his large frame to fit into a backpack, and has a calming, blue-green glow.

And when they do, they find themselves coming together to try and understand what has happened to them. The implications that has on communication, understanding and even the way we view ourselves is wonderfully explored here. A heart-warming, fast-paced, often tense look at friendships that surpass all boundaries, and an exploration of the very basic need for connection and a place to belong .Sandy is an alien from outer space that crashes into Yellowcraig Beach, located in Scotland; he also is alone. As I said before, I don't read Sci-Fi, but I wouldn't hesitate for one minute to recommend this book. Part Close Encounters, part Local Hero, this is a novel that begins in North Berwick and ends in Ullapool with a galaxy far, far away in between.

Sandy manages to communicate with Lennox initially which guides all three in the direction where Sandy needs to go. They can communicate with him via telepathy and he - well they- guide them to the right body of water where the rest are.The main characters were pretty much pushed around by circumstance all the way through, and I didn’t get a sense of personal growth or change. They are refugees and first we need to understand them, learn how to communicate with them and finally, find a way to live side by side with them in harmony. The Space Between Us reminded me of one of my favourite sci-fi movies Arrival, and although I don’t think it’s quite as brilliant as that movie, I still really appreciated what it did.

He has had short stories appear in various publications, and since 1999 he has worked as a freelance arts journalist, primarily covering music and literature.But I think I would happily exchange some of our own political representatives for those with the hearts and souls of our protagonists. This brings them face to tentacle with 'Sandy', an octopus style creature which has washed up on a nearby shore. It’s also about loneliness but human connection too and how strangers can help us and even become lifesavers if we just dare to let them in.