Emma-Jane Weider recommends
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
Giorgio Bassani
Bitter sweet novel about a group of young friends in Ferrara, Italy in the 1930s and the ominous rise of fascism. It was recommended to me by my college room mate many years ago and I named my daughter after its captivating central character.
Nora Jane, a Life in Stories
Ellen Gillchrist
Ellen Gillchrist has taken my favourite character Nora Jane Whittington from her various compilations of short stories of the American South and gathered them together in one collection with some wonderful new material. I love that Gillchrist has continued to develop this strong female character over the length of her writing career.
The Return of the Native
Thomas Hardy
My favourite of all of Hardy’s books. I have a strong and almost tangible image of Egdon Heath, the untameable space in which the tragic story of Eustacia Vye and Clym Yeobright plays out.
Half of A Yellow Sun
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi
I came to this with very little understanding of Nigerian history. Adichi is a fantastic storyteller, the three main characters are beautifully drawn and her depiction of the violence and suffering in the Biafran civil war is sobering.
All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr
Intense yet beautifully written Pulitzer Prize winning historical novel about war and free will through the story of two teenagers (a French girl who is blind and a German boy) on either side of World War Two and how their worlds collide.
The History of Love
Nicole Krauss
I have read this book so many times. It is both funny and sad. It is a thriller and a Holocaust memoir and a romantic novel all rolled into one. I love that Krauss dedicates it to her grandparents 'who taught me the opposite of disappearing'.