Book Club Favourites #13
by Brandon King
Spill Simmer Falter Wither, by Sara Baume
Award-winning debut novel in which a lonely man adopts a one-eyed dog and travels the wilds of Ireland.
This is an extraordinary and heartbreaking debut. The writing is beautiful and poetic. If you have ever been to Ireland you will recognise the people, the roads and the small towns. Once you have read this you will almost certainly read another of Sara Baume’s books.
Borrow Spill Simmer Falter Wither →
The Darkest Hour, by Barbara Erskine
In the summer of 1940, eyes are focussed on the skies above the South of England. The Battle of Britain has just begun but Evie Lucas has eyes for no-one but a dashing young pilot called Tony. Evie has a glittering career as an artist ahead of her but seems only to be fascinated in sketching portraits of him.
70 years later, recently widowed art historian Lucy is putting the pieces of her life back together, and to do that she needs to uncover the mystery surrounding a painting in her home. As Lucy ties up the loose ends of one lifetime, she stirs up a hornet’s nest of history in another. Suddenly, Lucy finds herself in danger from people past and present who have no intention of letting an untold truth ever surface.
Our Endless Numbered Days, by Claire Fuller
1960s–1980s: A young girl is taken to a secret hideout in the woods by her father and told the world is going to end. Die Hutte is a special place that only her father knows about and a place which will keep them safe when the world comes to an end.
At first the adventure is like something from a fairytale, but as she and her father venture deeper into the woods and further from civilisation, their path becomes more isolating and remote. Like Hansel and Gretel, they venture further and further into danger and isolation. The journey starts and ends in London, and the reader has to follow the clues to try to solve what really happened at Die Hutte.
Borrow Our Endless Numbered Days →
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, by Natasha Pulley
In 1883, Thaniel Steepleton returns to his tiny flat to find the lock picked and a gold pocketwatch on his pillow. But he has worse fears than generous burglars; he is a telegraphist at the Home Office, which has just received a threat for what could be the largest-scale Fenian bombing in history.
When the watch saves Thaniel's life in a blast that destroys Scotland Yard, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori - a kind, lonely immigrant who sweeps him into a new world of clockwork and music. Although Mori seems harmless at first, a chain of slips soon proves that he must be hiding something."
This isn’t for everyone. If you like Sherlock Holmes with a dose of fantasy like The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern thrown in you will probably ‘get’ this one. If your preference is for something with a beginning, a middle and an end this may frustrate you. It will certainly get people talking though!
Borrow The Watchmaker of Filigree Street →
The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle, by Kirsty Wark
Elizabeth Pringle has left her house, Holmlea, and belongings to a stranger, a young mother she used to watch cooing to her child, pushing a pram down the road more than 30 years ago. Now Martha, the baby in that pram, tries to find out why her mother inherited the house in such strange circumstances.
Borrow The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle →
Gold Fame Citrus, by Claire Vaye Watkins
Gold Fame Circus is set in California where the water has run dry. This dystopian novel follows Luz and Ray and a strange toddler called Ig who comes into their lives. A story of survival and hope against all odds.
This first novel, published in 2016, will appeal to fans of Cormac McCarthy, Annie Proulx and Margaret Atwood.
Shtum, by Jem Lester
Ben Jewell has hit breaking point. His ten-year-old son Jonah has severe autism and Ben and his wife, Emma, are struggling to cope. When Ben and Emma fake a separation in order to further Jonah's case in an upcoming tribunal, Ben and Jonah move in with Georg, Ben's elderly father. In a small house in North London, three generations of men - one who can't talk; two who won't - are thrown together.
Sometimes autism is used as a plot device. This is a view of autism at its most severe. This one will make you laugh, it will make you cry and it will make you think.