Recommendations based on "The Things We Keep A Novel"

'Compelling and fine and rich, I devoured it' TESSA HADLEY 'A writer to watch' FRANCIS SPUFFORD A stunning new novel of power, desire and the secrets all families carry, from the acclaimed author of Nightingale, Marina Kemp. When fledgling writer Zoe arrives at the Sicilian holiday home of famed novelist Don Travers, she feels that she has made it. And yet as the week unfolds it is not Don but his children and unknowable wife, Lydia, who come to intrigue Zoe most. On the fringes, Don's youngest, Nemony, watches as her older siblings begin to navigate the treacherous waters of the adult world. When her adored oldest sister makes a terrible mistake, the holiday ends suddenly, shattering the fragile balance of their parents' marriage and the siblings' lives. Many years later and in the wake of loss, the events of that summer continue to haunt. Nemony, now a lonely new mother herself, strikes up a chance friendship with Zoe. With her support, Nemony attempts to grapple with the casual damage enacted by her father. But as their relationship deepens, she is soon forced to question the true extent of Zoe's fascination with the Travers family. Tracing their lives through Sicily, London and the old mining towns of Appalachia, Nemony must uncover the stories untold - about her implacable father, her troubled mother, and the siblings she might still do anything for. 'Exquisitely written, subtle and transporting' SUSSIE ANIE, author of To Fill a Yellow House 'Ambitious, immersive' OLIVIA SUDJIC, author of Sympathy 'Complex and nuanced...I adored it' LUCY CALDWELL, author of These Days 'Unflinching, magnificent' KAREN POWELL, author of Fifteen Wild Decembers

The New York Times bestseller with more than 1 million copies sold worldwide | Now a Hulu limited series starring Joey King and Logan LermanInspired by the incredible true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of World War II, determined to survive—and to reunite—We Were the Lucky Ones is a tribute to the triumph of hope and love against all odds.“Love in the face of global adversity? It couldn't be more timely.” —GlamourIt is the spring of 1939 and three generations of the Kurc family are doing their best to live normal lives, even as the shadow of war grows closer. The talk around the family Seder table is of new babies and budding romance, not of the increasing hardships threatening Jews in their hometown of Radom, Poland. But soon the horrors overtaking Europe will become inescapable and the Kurcs will be flung to the far corners of the world, each desperately trying to navigate his or her own path to safety.As one sibling is forced into exile, another attempts to flee the continent, while others struggle to escape certain death, either by working grueling hours on empty stomachs in the factories of the ghetto or by hiding as gentiles in plain sight. Driven by an unwavering will to survive and by the fear that they may never see one another again, the Kurcs must rely on hope, ingenuity, and inner strength to persevere.An extraordinary, propulsive novel, We Were the Lucky Ones demonstrates how in the face of the twentieth century’s darkest moment, the human spirit can endure and even thrive.

My sister Rose lives on the mantelpiece.Well, some of her does.A collarbone, two ribs, a bit of skull, and a little toe.To ten-year-old Jamie, his family has fallen apart because of the loss of someone he barely remembers: his sister Rose, who died five years ago in a terrorist bombing. To his father, life is impossible to make sense of when he lives in a world that could so cruelly take away a ten-year-old girl. To Rose's surviving fifteen year old twin, Jas, everyday she lives in Rose's ever present shadow, forever feeling the loss like a limb, but unable to be seen for herself alone.Told with warmth and humor, this powerful novel is a sophisticated take on one family's struggle to make sense of the loss that's torn them apart... and their discovery of what it means to stay together.

After the men in an Arctic Norwegian town are wiped out, the women must survive a sinister threat in this "perfectly told" 1600s parable of "a world gone mad" (Adriana Trigiani).Finnmark, Norway, 1617. Twenty-year-old Maren Magnusdatter stands on the craggy coast, watching the sea break into a sudden and reckless storm. Forty fishermen, including her brother and father, are drowned and left broken on the rocks below. With the menfolk wiped out, the women of the tiny Arctic town of Vardø must fend for themselves.Three years later, a stranger arrives on their shore. Absalom Cornet comes from Scotland, where he burned witches in the northern isles. He brings with him his young Norwegian wife, Ursa, who is both heady with her husband's authority and terrified by it. In Vardø, and in Maren, Ursa sees something she has never seen before: independent women. But Absalom sees only a place untouched by God, and flooded with a mighty evil. As Maren and Ursa are drawn to one another in ways that surprise them both, the island begins to close in on them, with Absalom's iron rule threatening Vardø's very existence.Inspired by the real events of the Vardø storm and the 1621 witch trials, The Mercies is a story of love, evil, and obsession, set at the edge of civilization.One of the Best Books of the YearUSA TodayGood Housekeeping

THE BLOCKBUSTER HIT—Over two million copies sold! A New York Times, USA Today,Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller“Poignant, engrossing.”—People • “Lisa Wingate takes an almost unthinkable chapter in our nation’s history and weaves a tale of enduring power.”—Paula McLainLook for Lisa Wingate’s powerful new historical novel, The Book of Lost Friends, available now!Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty.Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family’s long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption.Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.Publishers Weekly’s #3 Longest-Running Bestseller of 2017 • Winner of the Southern Book Prize • If All Arkansas Read the Same Book Selection

Winner of the Dublin Literary AwardA Best Historical Novel of the Year at The New York Times Book Review"[An] extraordinary achievement." ―Liesl Schillinger, The Wall Street JournalAcross three generations, three wars, two continents, and the mythic waters of the Mediterranean, one family’s history leads to an inevitable question: What price do our descendants pay for the choices that we make?Naïma knows Algeria only by the artifacts she encounters in her grandparents’ tiny apartment in Normandy: the language her grandmother speaks but Naïma can’t understand, the food her grandmother cooks, and the precious things her grandmother carried when they fled. Naïma’s father claims to remember nothing; he has made himself French. Her grandfather died before he could tell her his side of the story. But now Naïma will travel to Algeria to see for herself what was left behind―including their secrets.The Algerian War for Independence sent Naïma’s grandfather on a journey of his own, from wealthy olive grove owner and respected veteran of the First World War, to refugee spurned as a harki by his fellow Algerians in the transit camps of southern France, to immigrant barely scratching out a living in the north. The long battle against colonial rule broke apart communities, opened deep rifts within families, and saw the whims of those in even temporary power instantly overturn the lives of ordinary people. Where does Naïma’s family fit into this history? How do they fit into France’s future?Alice Zeniter’s The Art of Losing is a powerful, moving family novel that spans three generations across seventy years and two shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is a resonant people’s history of Algeria and its diaspora. It is a story of how we carry on in the face of loss: loss of country, identity, language, connection. Most of all, it is an immersive, riveting excavation of the inescapable legacies of colonialism, immigration, family, and war.

In this stunning debut novel, four generations of complex Black women contend with motherhood and daughterhood, generational trauma and the deeply ingrained tensions and wounds that divide them as they redefine happiness and healing for themselves.Erudite Evelyn, her cynical daughter Charlotte, and Charlotte's optimistic daughter Corinna see the world very differently. Though they love each other deeply, it's no wonder that their personalities often clash. But their conflicts go deeper than run-of-the-mill disagreements. Here, there is deep, dark resentment for past and present hurt.When Corinna gives birth to her own daughter, Camille, the beautiful, intelligent little girl offers this trio of mothers something they all need: hope, joy, and an opportunity to reconcile. They decide to work together to raise their collective daughter with the tenderness and empathy they missed in their own relationships. Yet despite their best intentions, they cannot agree on what that means.After Camille eventually leaves her mother and grandmother in rural Tennessee for a more cosmopolitan life in Washington, DC with her great-grandmother, it's unclear whether this complex and self-contained girl will thrive or be overwhelmed by the fears and dreams of three generations she carries. As she grows into a gutsy young woman, Camille must decide for herself what happiness will look like.In masterful, elegant prose, debut novelist Sarai Johnson has created a rich and moving portrait of Black women's lives today.

'The women in this family, we're different . . .'Blythe Connor doesn't want history to repeat itself.Violet is her first child and she will give her daughter all the love she deserves. All the love that her own mother withheld.But firstborns are never easy. And Violet is demanding and fretful. She never smiles. Soon Blythe believes she can do no right - that something's very wrong. Either with her daughter, or herself.Her husband, Fox, says she's imagining it. But Violet's different with him. And he can't understand what Blythe suffered as a child. No one can.Blythe wants to be a good mother. But what if that's not enough for Violet? Or her marriage? What if she can't see the darkness coming?Mother and daughter. Angel or monster?We don't get to choose our inheritance - or who we are . . .The Push is an addictive, gripping and compulsive read that asks what happens when women are not believed - and what if motherhood isn't everything you hoped for but everything you always feared?

THE INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER FROM THE PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING, BOOKER-SHORTLISTED AUTHORSHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2025'Stunning, deeply felt and profoundly intelligent' Guardian It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer, Lucy Barton, who lives nearby in a house next to the sea. Together, Lucy and Bob talk about their lives, their hopes and regrets, and what might have been.Lucy, meanwhile, befriends one of Crosby’s longest inhabitants, Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known – “unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them – reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.Brimming with empathy and pathos, TELL ME EVERYTHING is Elizabeth Strout operating at the height of her powers, illuminating the ways in which our relationships keep us afloat. As Lucy says, “Love comes in so many different forms, but it is always love.”'A superbly gifted storyteller and a craftswoman in a league of her own' Hilary Mantel'A terrific writer' Zadie Smith'Strout’s ability to reveal the wonder in unrecorded lives continues to astonish' TelegraphOPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK: 'A beautiful read reminding us that there is extraordinary love in ordinary actions' Oprah Winfrey Elizabeth Strout, Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, 2022

The beautiful family drama from the international bestselling author of THE MURDERS AT FLEAT HOOUSE and The Seven Sisters series'A beautiful story, brilliantly woven through generations' 5***** Reader Review'Stunning, enchanting, evocative . . . You can feel the wind in your hair' 5***** Reader Review'Takes you on a journey . . . Beautifully written' 5***** Reader Review________ How did a secret from 1914 cause a century of heartache? . . . After a devastating loss, Grania Ryan returns home to Ireland and the arms of her loving family. There, she meets young Aurora while walking along the cliffs. Mysteriously drawn to her, Grania discovers that the histories of their families are strangely and deeply entwined. From a bittersweet romance in wartime London, to a troubled relationship in contemporary New York, the two families, past and present, have been entangled for a century. Can Aurora help Grania understand the past, and change her future? Haunting, intriguing and deeply moving, The Girl on the Cliff tells of the triumph of hope over loss.________ Praise for Lucinda Riley 'Thoroughly addictive storytelling with a moving, emotional heart' Dinah Jefferies 'A brilliant page-turner' Daily Mail 'An absolutely fantastic storyteller' Katherine Webb 'Brilliant escapism' Red