An Inheritance – Diane Simmons
This is an excellent novella in flash, a series of short stories that link to tell the story of seventy years and four generations of a single family. As you’d expect for a flash piece, it demonstrates really tight writing and Simmons can really paint a picture with few words.
Station Eleven – Emily St John Mandel
My work reading group chose this to read – a novel about a pandemic, nice timing – and yet I found it strangely comforting. It is a hopeful book anyway, the idea of a theatre company travelling around a ravaged America performing Shakespeare couldn’t be anything but, and yet the parts where the disease starts to take hold were also interesting to read. It was worse than we had outside the walls and that too, was comforting in a weird way. Mandel was lauded for this when it was published and rightly so. Very enjoyable.
Hamnet – Maggie O’Farrell
I love Maggie’s writing. And her books. This was a departure from her usual style – into historical fiction – and although I often say I don’t like historical fiction, it isn’t true. The story of Shakespeare’s son who died and inspired his father’s greatest play – O’Farrell takes the scant facts we know of Shakespeare and runs with them. She restores Anne Hathaway to prominence in WS’s life and Anne is the main character here, a wife and mother grieving and confused by her family’s tragedy. This is heart in the mouth kind of writing, and insightful on grief, loss and love. One of this year’s best.
High Wages – Dorothy Whipple
I was recommended Whipple by a friend and, given that she lived and wrote in Nottingham, I was keen to read her. This is great stuff, a really enjoyable tale of a working class shopgirl trying to make her way in inter-war years, and navigating work, old fashioned employers and confused swains.
Dear Emmie Blue – Lia Louis
I read an advance copy of this, by my Twitter pal Lia, and I loved it. I don’t read a lot of what I believe is called ‘chick lit’ type books but Lia’s writing is so fun and assured that I make exceptions. Emmie, aged 16, releases a balloon with her name and email address on and hopes that a fabulous person finds it. That person is Lucas, in France, and they become best friends. Now, many years later, Emmie has realised she is in love with Lucas but he is about to get married to someone else. The book is about destiny thwarted, sustainable friendships and Jon Bon Jovi, the characters are dear flawed sillies and the writing makes you race through the book as fast as you can.
The Birdwatcher – William Shaw
I picked this up because my hubbie is a birder and it’s set in Kent where I grew up. It’s a crime thriller, the first in a series with a new detective and yet the focus of the book is not on the detective but on her partner, an old grizzled cop (aren’t they all?) whose neighbour is found brutally killed, and his death leads them down a path of trafficking, drugs and dark secrets. A light read.
Susan E Barsby 