Reading Groups Collection
The Magician |
A Man Called Ove |
The Map of Love |
The Marriage Portrait |
Milkman |
Miss Carter's War|
The Murders at Fleat House |
The Muse |
The New Mrs Clifton|
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The Magician by Colm Toibin
'The Magician' tells the story of
Thomas Mann, whose life was filled with great acclaim and contradiction. He would find himself on the wrong side of history in the First World War, cheerleading the German army, but have
a clear vision of the future in the second, anticipating the horrors of Nazism. He would have six children and keep his homosexuality hidden; he was a man forever connected to his family
and yet bore witness to the ravages of suicide. He would write some of the greatest works of European literature, and win the Nobel Prize, but would never return to the country that
inspired his creativity.
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A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
There is something
about Ove. At first sight, he is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots - neighbours who can't reverse a trailer properly, joggers, shop
assistants who talk in code, and the perpetrators of the vicious coup d'etat that ousted him as Chairman of the Residents' Association. He will persist in making his daily inspection rounds of
the local streets. But isn't it rare, these days, to find such old-fashioned clarity of belief and deed? Such unswerving conviction about what the world should be, and a lifelong dedication
to making it just so?
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The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif
In 1900 Lady Anna Winterbourne travels to an Egypt under
British occupation. There she falls in love with Sharif al-Baroudi, an Egyptian
patriot utterly committed to the cause of his country's freedom. A hundred years
later, Isabel Parkman, an American divorcee and a descendant of Anna and Sharif,
goes to Egypt, taking with her and old family trunk. The notebooks and journals
she finds in the trunk will reveal her ancestors' lives and will profoundly
affect her own.
'Soueif has a talent for blending the personal and
political and getting under the skin of each one of her characters.'
Independent on Sunday
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The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
Winter,
1561. Lucrezia, Duchess of Ferrara, is taken on an unexpected visit to a country villa by her husband, Alfonso. As they sit down to dinner it occurs to Lucrezia that Alfonso has a sinister
purpose in bringing her here. He intends to kill her. Lucrezia is sixteen years old, and has led a sheltered life locked away inside Florence's grandest palazzo. Here, in this remote villa,
she is entirely at the mercy of her increasingly erratic husband. What is Lucrezia to do with this sudden knowledge? What chance does she have against Alfonso, ruler of a province, and a
trained soldier? How can she ensure her survival. 'The Marriage Portrait' is an unforgettable reimagining of the life of a young woman whose proximity to power places her in mortal danger.
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Milkman by Anna Burns
In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous.
Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first
brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes 'interesting'. The last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed and to be
noticed is dangerous.
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Miss Carter's War by Sheila Hancock
It is 1948
and Britain is struggling to recover from the Second World War. Half French, half English, Marguerite Carter, young and beautiful, has lost her parents and survived
a terrifying war, working for the SOE behind enemy lines. Leaving her partisan lover she returns to England to be one of the first women to receive a degree from the
University of Cambridge.
Now she pins back her unruly auburn curls, draws a pencil seam up her legs, ties the laces on her sensible black shoes, belts her grey gabardine mac and sets out
towards her future as an English teacher in a girls’ grammar school. For Miss Carter has a mission – to fight social injustice, to prevent war and to educate her girls.
Through deep friendships and love lost and found, from the peace marches of the fifties and the flowering of the Swinging Sixties, to the rise of Thatcher and the battle
for gay rights, to the spectre of a new war, Sheila Hancock has created a powerful, panoramic portrait of Britain through the life of one very singular woman.
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The Murders at Fleat House by Lucinda Riley
The
sudden death of a pupil in Fleat House at St Stephen's - a small private boarding school in deepest Norfolk - is a shocking event that the headmaster is very keen to call a tragic accident.
But the local police cannot rule out foul play and the case prompts the return of high-flying Detective Inspector Jazmine 'Jazz' Hunter to the force. Jazz has her own private reasons for
stepping away from her police career in London, and reluctantly agrees to front the investigation as a favour to her old boss. Reunited with her loyal sergeant Alastair Miles, she enters
the closed world of the school, and as Jazz begins to probe the circumstances surrounding Charlie Cavendish's tragic death, events are soon to take another troubling turn. Charlie is exposed
as an arrogant bully, and those around him had both motive and opportunity to switch the drugs he took daily to control his epilepsy.
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The Muse by Jessie Burton
A picture hides a thousand
words...
On a hot July day in 1967, Odelle Bastein climbs the stone steps of the Skelton gallery in London, ready for her luck to change. She has been employed as a
typist by the glamorous and enigmatic Marjorie Quick, who unlocks a potential Odelle didn’t realize she had. When a lost masterpiece arrives at the gallery,
Quick seems to know more than she is prepared to reveal and Odelle is determined to unravel the truth.
The painting’s secret history lies in 1936 and a large house in rural Spain, where Olive Schloss, the daughter of a renowned art dealer, is harbouring ambitions
of her own.
Into this fragile paradise come two strangers, who overturn the Schloss family with explosive and devastating consequences...
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The New Mrs Clifton by Elizabeth Buchan
As the
Second World War draws to a close, Gus Clifton, feared lost in Germany, surprises his sisters at their family home. But an even greater shock is the woman he brings home, Krista - the German
wife whom he has married secretly in Berlin. Gus's sisters can only see the enemy their brother has brought under their roof. And their friend Nella, Gus's beautiful, loyal fiancee, cannot
understand what made Gus change his mind about their marriage. What hold does Krista have over their honourable and upright Gus? And how can the three women get her out of their home,
their future, their England?
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Page last updated: 1st November 2023