A GOOD READ

By Tash Donovan

My Name Is Lucy Barton

by Elizabeth Strout

Lucy Barton is both a mother and a daughter. She has a floundering marriage and is in hospital with complications following what should have been a routine operation. Her husband who dislikes hospitals and declines to visit, arranges instead for her estranged mother to sit with her.

Strout’s novel is about a mother and daughter relationship steeped in sadness. Lucy spent her childhood craving maternal love, while her mother seemed incapable of providing it.

This poignant and deeply moving novel explores the complexities of family, love, and forgiveness. Told from Lucy’s viewpoint, the story takes us on a journey through her childhood and into adult life, as she reflects on events in her past and her relationship with her mother.

The novel is written in a simple and straightforward style that somehow belies the emotional depth of the story. Strout’s writing is evocative and powerful; she’s a master of capturing the nuances of human emotion. The characters and their relationships are richly drawn, and relatable. Lucy’s relationship with her mother is at the core of the novel, and Strout explores its dynamics with sensitivity and insight.

Themes of family, love, and forgiveness are woven throughout and Strout’s writing reflects on the passage of time, the power of memory and the strength of the human spirit. There is much in this novel that is not stated explicitly. The reader is left to do some work and the result is a wise, thought-provoking book.

THE GIRL OF INK & STARS

by Kiran

Millwood Hargrave

Isabella Riosse (Isa) is a teen trapped on the island of Joya, a land full of myths; forbidden to travel further than the forest that flanks her village by the Governor, and all the while dreaming of the faraway lands her cartographer father once mapped.

When a string of unsettling events and the disappearance of her closest friend Lupa make it necessary to journey beyond the forest in search of answers, Isa joins a team of explorers on an adventure that will test her map-making skills and her courage.

As she follows her map, her heart and an ancient myth,

Isa discovers the true purpose of her quest: to save the island itself.

The story is a fantasy set in a parallel magical world. The author draws on mythology and folklore and blends these with themes of friendship, adventure and courage. As a bonus, the text is enhanced with beautiful illustrations and maps.

The Girl of Ink and Stars is officially a children’s novel, but I suspect there are many adults who will also enjoy this richly drawn world and its characters.

Normal People

by Sally Rooney

While this is a book written for adults I think older teens will find a lot to relate to.

The book follows Marianne and Connell through their angsty, often quite pretentious adolescent years (and who among us wasn’t at least a bit pretentious or obnoxious in their teens?) into the complications of early adulthood.

Rooney treads a fine line between evoking irritation at two flawed, slightly unlikeable people, while making those flaws and the angst seem so raw and real that as a reader we begin to care about them.

The novel is one about relationships and how they are affected by both class and social status. Marianne is a smart girl from an affluent family, but this does not protect her from being socially ostracized at school and emotionally abused at home. Connell on the other hand is from a working-class family and enjoys an easy popularity. Connell’s mother works as a cleaner for Marianne’s family, and the teens are drawn to each other and begin a secret sexual relationship, but it falls apart because Connell does not want his friends to find out.

By the time they meet again at university, Marianne is the popular one, and Connell is feeling increasingly depressed and isolated. They are once more drawn to each other as they navigate through a world filled with social expectations. Through Marianne and Connell, Rooney examines our need to impress and perform for others in a world that seems to grow ever more connected online, with so many things left unsaid faceto-face.

Rooney has created a weird, awkward, compelling novel about weird, awkward, compelling people, who find what they really need, and a lot they don’t, in each other. As Marianne spirals into self-destruction and Connell looks for meaning in his life, how far will each of them go to save the other.

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