Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton

I impulsively chose to read this between a couple of book group titles, and I’m so pleased I did. As the pandemic hits and dramatically changes our lives, political advisor, Chloe Dalton finds herself unexpectedly raising a vulnerable leveret. For centuries, the hare has fascinated us, yet despite that, we know very little about this mysterious creature. Dalton revels in learning this animal’s habits, observing with a gentleness and curiosity matching the leveret’s own endless inquisitiveness. Written in beautiful, soothing prose, delicately witnessed moments of a rare co-existence are perceptively captured in this intimate account that highlights the warmth and hope that so often come from the natural world.

Brotherless Night by V.V. Ganeshananthan

I’d not heard of this author until she won this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction, and what a discovery. This novel generated an excellent book group discussion, shining a spotlight on the atrocities of the civil war in Sri Lanka. Brotherless Night tells one family’s story set against the greater scale of a country and its political troubles and in doing so, enables readers to see the war through different and opposing lenses. The voice of the main character, Sashi, is exceptional, and the author has brilliantly woven real-life characters into the narrative, their storylines authenticating the danger faced by people on all sides. Yet the writing is compassionate, demonstrating the importance of human connection in the hope for survival and a better future.

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

This book could be described as being about gaming, but really it is a moving, intricate story of friendship, creativity and resilience that hugely opened my eyes to appreciate the gaming medium and its creative storytelling. Zevin has crafted a vivid world that captures the highs and lows of artistic ambition and love. In the 90s, a time that seemed so full of possibility, Sam is reunited with his childhood friend and the pair are launched into a creative project which could make them famous. Then overnight, still in their early 20s, the world becomes theirs, testing their relationship. Utterly brilliant!

Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck

Feeling a sense of wanderlust and out of touch with his fellow Americans, Steinbeck embarks on an investigation of America, his purpose: to listen and understand localness. The account of his travels is prophetic, philosophical, and above all, human. It offers a snapshot of America in 1960, celebrating social interactions, the serendipity of journeys and the unknown in the everyday. His honest practical approach keeps his romantism for the past in check, couching nostalgia in the reality of the era. His observations describe the complexities of this diverse nation; at times troubled, deeply personal, yet generous and hopeful, Steinbeck writes with such a refreshing ease - a privilege to be in the hands of such a prodigiously talented writer. 

City of Vengeance by D V Bishop

Prepare to be transported to sixteenth century Florence, awash with institutional corruption and personal intrigue, at the centre of which is Cesare Aldo; soldier and officer of the criminal court, struggling to hold on to his life and integrity, as he’s tasked with investigating a politically sensitive murder. The plot is wonderfully labyrinthine (as befits its setting) and Aldo a charismatic yet flawed central protagonist, as he attempts to navigate the murky moral waters of Medici Florence, never without his trusty stiletto tucked into his boot.

Vagabonds - Oskar Jensen

Full of interest, insight and wonderful research, this book brings an incredibly fresh perspective to the study of poverty in nineteenth century London. Oskar Jensen has eschewed the ‘top down’ approach to his study and instead concentrates on the stories of individual ingenuity, endurance, success and failure amidst the capital’s poor. He cleverly ranges across age and gender to highlight particular issues faced and writes brilliantly about the complex psychological and prejudicial interactions between the perceived ‘lower’ classes and those they encounter. In its examination of the ‘othering’ so often at the heart of social injustice, this is a book which still resonates hugely with us today.

Windswept by Annie Worsley

This is an intimate depiction of the Erradale Valley where Annie Worsley lives in Red River Croft. Annie’s writing is a joy to read, soothing and thoughtful about the world around her and considerate of her own presence in this varied landscape. As she explores this special place, from its geological history and topography, to the wonders and graft of crofting, her connections with nature and exquisite observations embody the movement and rhythms of the land, sea and air. Annie’s rich descriptions of nature through the seasons opened my eyes to a vast spectrum of colours, with subtleties of palette that I hadn’t registered before; her compositions engage all of your senses.

Tall Bones by Anna Bailey

This is a stunningly ambitious and brilliantly executed hybrid of crime and literary fiction. Set in Colorado in the small town of Whistling Ridge, it’s a brutally convincing examination of abusive power, corruption, prejudice and domestic dysfunctionality, rendered in prose of elegance and emotional power. When teenager Abi Blake goes missing after a party in the woods, the subsequent efforts to discover her whereabouts bring a myriad of toxic secrets to light, threatening to expose the hypocrisy of one generation and poison the future of the next. Although not always a comfortable read, this book expertly cracks the veneer holding a community together while still holding out hope of redemption.

The Fair Botanists by Sara Sheridan

I adored this historical novel, not least because the author’s vivid depiction of nineteenth century Edinburgh is a shining delight throughout. But this is far from the book’s only source of joy. Set in 1822, its central narrative involves the relocation of the city’s Botanical Gardens from their original site in Leith to their (still current) site on Inverleith Row. Against this backdrop the author’s central characters Elizabeth, a young widow traumatised by a violent marriage and Belle, a courtesan determined to maintain her independence at all costs, form a complicated friendship wherein the author examines gender roles, class, and social hypocrisy with a keen yet humorous eye.

Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins

This is such a superb psychological thriller; set in Oxford and centring around an apparently successful but highly dysfunctional family with nods to gothic fiction and a wonderfully tricksy potentially unreliable narrator, it’s an utterly fabulous read. A child has disappeared, and her nanny Dee is being questioned by the police; she seems like a sympathetic character but we’re seeing everything through her eyes regarding the family’s behaviour: how far can we trust her, plausible as she seems? Lucy Atkins’ writing is just so good; she has a brilliant eye for character, and she also evokes a great sense of Oxford as a city full of ghosts and often at odds with itself.

We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker

This is a genuine emotional roller coaster of a novel which examines the consequences which ripple out across time after a young girl is found dead outside a small Californian town. Years later, her supposed killer is released from jail and returns home; her damaged, psychologically fragile sister Star is then found dead, and the town seethes with suspicion once more. Star’s children Duchess and Robin become the focal point of the town’s attention; who will protect them as the local police struggle to find out what happened? This novel is heartbreakingly poignant as it follows the children’s journey to try and reach some kind of sanctuary, and in the teenage Duchess Day Radley, Chris Whitaker has created a complex, brave, and utterly compelling heroine.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke

This is a wonderfully bold piece of imaginative storytelling. A novel which plunges the reader into the unforgettable world of its central character; where tides cause waves to crash through a house of infinite and strange spaces, all revealed to the reader in poignant detail as we try to work out just who and where Piranesi actually is. There’s a mystery to solve but the truth is as obscure to the novel’s central character as it is to the reader, with the curtain only slowly and tantalising being drawn aside by this supremely talented author. Clarke’s book is a subtle and beautiful look at humanity’s constant questing for something beyond ourselves, into obsessive investigation and the consequences thereof. Stunning, moving and delicately memorable.

The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

This fascinating book reveals the disparate lives of five women, better known for the circumstances of their deaths. Although we may recognise their names, they have long been overshadowed by the cult of their killer, alias Jack The Ripper. Diminished in the face of sensationalism, dismissed as prostitutes and objectified as victims, I love the way that Hallie Rubenhold has reclaimed these women’s stories. Compelling, compassionate and immaculately researched, The Five resets the skewed perspective of history. Essential reading!

The Forager’s Calendar by John Wright

I know less than I would like to about wild plants and fungi – certainly not enough to eat anything more adventurous than the odd blackberry. So, I expected to find The Forager’s Calendar useful and informative, which it absolutely is, with clear descriptions and excellent colour photographs. Not only a superb practical handbook, it is also full of thought-provoking insights and sparkles with John Wright’s humour. Equally fascinating on conservation, nutrition and the relationship between foraging and the law, Wright will prove the best of companions on your forays into finding food for free.

Norwegian by Night by Derek B Miller

This is an incredibly gripping debut novel by an American writer who works for the UN and currently lives in Norway with his family. The idea of uprooting oneself and trying to assimilate into another culture is a prominent theme in this interesting book.

The novel, set in Oslo, has the plot and pace of a thriller with the central character rescuing a young boy after his mother has been murdered in his apartment block. However, its overriding concern seems to be with the effect of and attitude towards conflict at individual, family and national level. The main character Sheldon Horowitz is a veteran of the Korean War, and a large part of the novel concerns his seeking what he sees as atonement for the death of his own son in the Vietnam War. Meanwhile other characters have been involved both as aggressors and victims of the more recent conflict in the Balkans. By turns moving and comic this is that quite rare thing – a genuinely thought provoking thriller.

West by Carys Davies

I loved the spare beauty of this novel which encompasses so much with so few words. The story is a deceptively simple one with the transcendent air of myth; American pioneer Cy Bellman leaves his home and family on a quest to discover a giant beast, the bones of which have allegedly been unearthed in Kentucky. While Cy follows his dreams into a land of both physical and spiritual extremes, he believes his daughter, Bess, to be safe at home living with his sister. However, by abandoning his paternal duties, has he in fact left Bess prey to threats of a different, more insidious kind? The insightful, menacing portrayals of both the unknown wilderness and the familiar domestic landscape are utterly compelling and the emotional engagement I felt with both Cy and Bess has been long lasting.

​The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

The heroes of classical antiquity are brought alive by Miller’s sensual and original language as she follows the life of Achilles from childhood to his destiny in Troy. However, it is the figure of Patroclus who really takes centre stage at least for the first part of the novel. It is chiefly through this character that Miller finds a way of reinterpreting the classical world in a way which gives the book an emotional realism for the modern reader. It is a book, essentially, about decisions and destiny but is rich in the nuances of a developing relationship and contains some beautiful writing which makes the physical world the author describes vivid and affecting.