I have lived a thousand lives
Synopsis: In Baxter's Beach, Barbados, Lala's grandmother Wilma tells the story of the one-armed sister, a cautionary tale about what happens to girls who disobey their mothers. For Wilma, it's the story of a wilful adventurer, who ignores the warnings of those around her, and suffers as a result. When Lala grows up, she sees… Continue reading How The One-armed Sister Sweeps Her House by Cherie Jones
Synopsis: Marguerite Demers is twenty-four when she leaves Paris for the sleepy southern village of Saint-Sulpice, to take up a job as a live-in nurse. Her charge is Jerome Lanvier, once one of the most powerful men in the village, and now dying alone in his large and secluded house, surrounded by rambling gardens. Manipulative… Continue reading Review – Nightingale by Marina Kemp
Synopsis: AN INTIMATE, STIRRING PORTRAIT OF A COUNTRY AT WAR AND A FAMILY'S BATTLE TO SURVIVE Set against the backdrop of the Việt Nam War, The Mountains Sing is the enveloping, multi-generational tale of the Trần family, perfect for fans of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko or Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing. Hà Nội, 1972. Hương and her grandmother, Trần Diệu Lan, cling to… Continue reading Review – The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai
Synopsis: She doesn’t exist. She can’t exist. ‘A uniquely gothic tale about grief, belonging and hiding in plain sight’ Jess Kidd, author of Things in Jars ’Those who live in the walls must adjust, must twist themselves around in their home, stretching themselves until they’re as thin as air. Not everyone can do what they can. … Continue reading Review – Girl in The Walls by A.J. Gnuse
Synopsis: The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Ten years later, one sister lives… Continue reading Review – The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
Synopsis: Mercy is hard in a place like this. I wished him dead before I ever saw his face… Mary Rose Whitehead isn’t looking for trouble – but when it shows up at her front door, she finds she can’t turn away. Corinne Shepherd, newly widowed, wants nothing more than to mind her… Continue reading Review – Valentin by Elizabeth Wetmore
Synopsis: TWO EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE. A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A LOSS THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART. On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home? Their mother, Agnes, is over a… Continue reading Review – Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
Synopsis: On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born – a history whose epicentre is rooted in Vietnam – and serves as a doorway… Continue reading Review – On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Synopsis: He's been looking in the windows again. Messing with cameras. Leaving notes. Supposed to be a refuge. But death got inside. When Katie Straw's body is pulled from the waters of the local suicide spot, the police decide it's an open-and-shut case. A standard-issue female suicide. But the residents of Widringham women's refuge where… Continue reading Review – Keeper by Jessica Moor
Synopsis: A breathtaking tale of family secrets, from the international bestselling author of An American Marriage 'My father, James Witherspoon, is a bigamist.' This is the breathtaking story of a man's deception, a family's complicity, and the two teenage girls caught in the middle. James Witherspoon has two families, one public, the other a closely guarded… Continue reading Review – Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
