The Unwilding, by Marina Kemp
For some reason, I resisted picking up this book for a while. I was confronted by it repeatedly: in Waterstones, in Lutyens & Rubenstein, in Daunt Books, on social media. I read the blurb, put it down. I leafed through it, put it down again. Eventually, I succumbed – and I'm so glad I did. The Unwilding is a polyphonic novel that traces the lives of the Travers family across three locations: Sicily, London and Appalachia. It opens with fledgling writer Zoe arriving at the holiday house of Don Travers, a celebrated and powerful novelist. As the summer unravels, so do the Travers family children, and the events that occur in Sicily continue to haunt the family for years after. Marina Kemp's lyrical writing is assured and heartbreaking, delivering as much punch as it does poetry. It's a deftly-handled assessment of power, patriarchy and how siblings can have wildly different childhoods under the same roof. - Arabella Bowes, commerce editor
Brother of the More Famous Jack, by Barbara Trapido
Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido was my grandma's favourite book, and it's warm, witty prose have been such a lovely way to remember her. I can see why she revisited this coming-of-age novel so frequently over the years. The story follows Katherine at the point of leaving her mundane suburban life for university, clad in homemade crochet accessories and a mini dress, and ready for adventure. It's at her university interview that she meets the key to the unravelling excitement and romance that will be her life, in the form of the sardonic and magnetic Professor Jacob Goldman. Despite being set between 1960 and 1980, the book fits into the current fascination with upper-middle class, sophisticated bohemia. Like the protagonists of Talented Mr Ripley, Salt Burn or Brideshead Revisited, Katherine becomes quickly enamoured with the Goldmans' Sussex 'utopia' which, described as bustling, dirty and full of arty, musical ephemera, poses an exact counterpoint to her neat and tidy suburban upbringing. The sharp-tongued characters are vivid and hilariously funny: from Jane, the sensual matriarch and brooding heart-throb Roger with the embroidered butterfly on his back pocket, to his bouncy, romantic brother Jonathan. Like Katherine, I quickly found myself sinking into their Sussex sofa, surrounded by cultured chaos, and watching the family drama unfold from 60s Sussex to 80s London via a period of heartbreak and loss in 70s Rome. I'll be rereading this lesser-known classic for a long time. - Eve Delaney, digital associate
Till Death Do Us Part, by John Dickson Carr
John Dickson Carr is the latest Golden Age mystery writer I've got stuck into, and all of his books are hugely enjoyable (if slightly silly). A specialist in locked room mysteries, his books are just as much ‘howdunits’ as ‘whodunits’ – it usually involves impossible alibis and hiding places and the occasional rigged-up mechanism. Most of Carr's mysteries feature a florid detective called Gideon Fell, who was apparently based on G.K. Chesterton, and Till Death Do Us Part is one of these. The story of a man who is made to question his fiancée's identity and honesty after a well-known lawman is murdered (in impossible circumstances, naturally), it is a rollicking ride and a wonderfully easy read. I've chosen it more or less at random – you could start pretty much anywhere in Carr's oeuvre, and I've also got a soft spot for Hag's Nook, which is the first featuring Gideon Fell. There is often a suggestion of supernatural agency in Carr's books, and some of them (such as Hag's Nook) are downright creepy. If you want a deep dive, have a go at some of Carr's earlier mysteries, which are even sillier and more sensational, and feature a Mephistophelean Parisian detective by the name of Inspector Henri Bencolin. Perfect Halloween reading. – Virginia Clark, Digital Director
The Hope Factory, by Lavanya Sankaran
In a recent blitz of my bookshelves to make space for new purchases, I came across a slightly dusty copy of The Hope Factory by an unfamiliar writer. Lavanya Sankaran's novel turned out to be an unexpectedly compelling read – well written and wryly amusing with sympathetic characters. It is many years since I last visited India, but the backdrop of a country coping with rapid changes and their effect on a rigid social structure felt authentic. Set in Bangalore, it tells parallel stories of upper-middle-class factory owner Anand and Kamala, one of his maids. Anand is prosperous and apparently successful but dissatisfied with the restrictions of his life and his marriage. His unrequited admiration of a friend of his wife could be perceived as pathetic but I found it rather endearing, and it is hard not to admire his dogged attempts to expand his business in a system rife with corruption. Despite being a widow on the edge of poverty, Kamala is admirably determined to improve the lot of her work-shy son. I loved the way the two stories intersected and was sad to reach the end. – Caroline Bullough, Chief Sub-Editor
Close to Home, by Michael Magee
This book was included in a huge pile of holiday reads my mother had completed and passed on to me, including some of the big name books this summer. However, it was this quiet Irish book which I'd heard nothing about that really grabbed me and I'd recommend to anyone (so long as you can stomach raw, bleak stories). It follows the Sean, a young man in Belfast, returning from university in England and trying to make something of his life but being consistently pulled into the same bad cycles that he grew up with, misled by wayward friends, addict family members and an unfortunate socio-economic situation. It's a brilliant new take on a coming-of-age novel, bleak yet hopeful and you find yourself rooting for Sean to make positive changes throughout – albeit when his destiny seems entirely controlled by external forces whose soul aim appears to be to keep men like Sean down. There are excellently written characters, painful-to-read passages and where similar novels about the youth and the economy become stayed, dated and boring, Michael Magee gets it so spot on that you wonder if it's semi-autobiographical. He paints a depressing picture of working class Belfast, yet within it, the hope that shines through is palpable. It's not a light read, but I devoured half on a flight to Spain and the other half on the way back two days later and was desperate for more. – Charlotte McCaughan-Hawes, Deputy Digital Editor
Precipice, by Robert Harris
War! Romance! Intrigue! Feckless aristocrats and big country houses! Robert Harris's latest novel has it all. I am a big fan of Harris’s, both his historic fiction (Enigma is thriller involving the Bletchley Park code breakers) and alternative history (Fatherland is set in a world where Hitler won the Second World War). Precipice is an example of the former, kicking off in the long hot summer of 1914 as the world hurtled toward the Great War. But does Prime Minister HH Asquith really have his eye on the ball as things start kicking off on the continent? From the huge number of love letters the married 60-odd year old was writing to the 20-something socialite Venetia Stanley (his daughter’s friend, the old dog!), it would seem not. Astonishingly, these letters to Venetia are genuine and Harris has been able to reproduce them with the permission of Venetia Stanley’s descendants. Her replies to the Prime Minister come from Harris’s imagination, however (Asquith is thought to have burnt the real ones). This gives Harris licence to develop Venetia as an intriguing character in her own right - and for welcome moments of humour. I love these sorts of books, because although I love reading about history, I’m unlikely to pick up a nonfiction account of this period. This one has already sent me down plenty of rabbit holes of discovery about aspects and characters I wanted to know more about. It’s brilliant. – David Nicholls, Deputy Editor
A Town Called Solace, by Mary Lawson
I am always drawn to novels set in small towns. Whether it is in Maryland or Cork – I’m thinking of Anne Tyler and Graham Norton – or somewhere entirely fictional, I want to inhabit a place and get to know its people. In this 2021 book, Canadian-born author Mary Lawson takes us to northern Ontario, where vast landscapes and brutal winters provide the backdrop for a quietly powerful story. In 1970s Solace, we meet three protagonists, their lives deeply intertwined: Clara, a little girl anxiously awaiting the return of her missing sister; Liam, newly divorced, newly unemployed and newly arrived here; and Elizabeth, nearing the end of her life and seeking to make amends. It is hard not to develop a lasting sense of connection with these characters, their experiences and, of course, the town they call home. – Rose Washbourn, Sub-Editor and Books Editor
Iris Origo: Marchesa of Val d’Orcia, by Caroline Moorehead
“Bring her up somewhere she does not belong . . so that she should be really cosmopolitan,” wrote the American Bayard Cutting, as he lay dying, to his English wife Sybil regarding their seven-year-old daughter, Iris, who had been born in 1902. Caroline Moorehead’s biography charts the privileged, fascinating and yet unsettled life that followed, simultaneously bequeathing us more pieces of the puzzle that make up the history of art, architecture and interior design, and inspiring us – for Iris was remarkable. Her childhood was spent in a Fiesole villa originally built for the Medicis, amid a circle that included Edith Wharton, Sibyl Colefax, Bernard Berenson, and Geoffrey Scott (whom her mother married). She married an Italian of whom her mother disapproved (he was illegitimate, and ‘too handsome’), and they bought a barren estate in the Val d’Orcia – Iris described it as “a lunar landscape, pale and inhuman,” – which they successfully revived and for which, with Cecil Pinsent, they created exquisite gardens (that exist still, and are visitable). There was tragedy (the death of a child), affairs, and Iris wrote, and her books were published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press.
When the Second World War broke out, Iris – cut off from England and America – documented the days in her diaries (they’re still in print, and an extraordinary record.) She and her husband became by-word-of-mouth contacts for those fleeing German occupation, and took in refugee children, saving an untold number of lives (including – though this isn’t in the book – a group of German Jewish children whose English boarding school fees Iris paid. One of them was Frank Auerbach.) There’s more – much more. Iris was also Nicky Haslam’s godmother, (her stepfather, Geoffrey Scott, decorated the house Nicky grew up in – Cecil Pinsent did the garden), but in his autobiography, Nicky recounts it taking until he was a grown-up “to realise why my father so admired Iris.” Fiercely intelligent, stylish, and compassionate, she was also modest, and this brilliant account hadn’t yet been written. – Fiona McKenzie Johnston, Art Editor
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
It's not often you read a great book as an adult with a third of it narrated by a highly intelligent octopus, but Canadian writer Shelby Van Pelt's debut novel does just that, with a beautiful tale of loneliness and finding friendship and community. The story is set in a fictional town in the Pacific Northwest where Shelby grew. Here 70-year-old Tova Sullivan is a lonely widow who works as the night shift cleaning lady at a local aquarium. Tova likes to keep herself busy to help her cope with the mysterious disappearance of her eighteen-year-old son 30 years earlier and the recent loss of her husband. The story follows her friendship with a smart, mischievous and similarly lonely giant Pacific octopus named Marcellus who's living at the aquarium. As the story goes on, Tova helps Marcellus find freedom as he escapes each night to wander around the facility, feasting on its other inhabitants. Marcellus also knows more than he lets on about Tova's lost son. ‘That Octopus book’ might have come out in 2022 but those who have yet to dive in, don't dilly dally. Netflix have already picked up the film rights for Remarkably Bright Creatures, with the brilliant Sally Field set to play Tova. – Tal Dekel-Daks
One you've scrolled through the best books to read, find the loveliest bookcases to house them in.
