Seven titles about women who lose the plot

Sara Levine is the author of the novels The Hitch and Treasure Island!!! and the short story collection Short Dark Oracles. She earned a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from Brown University and was awarded a Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities.

Levine teaches creative writing at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and on Substack at Delusions of Grammar.

At Electric Lit she tagged seven novels that "celebrate reckless speed, dizzying intensity, audacious rudeness, and the abandonment of social norms." One title on the list:

Revenge of the Scapegoat by Caren Beilin

One day Iris, a writing instructor, receives a package containing documents from her teenage years: a play she wrote and two letters from her father, blaming her for the family’s ruin. After complaining to her friend Ray, who is about to have top surgery, Iris swaps her mildewy house for Ray’s doddering Subaru and drives off to the countryside. Did I mention the trip is poorly planned? Iris suffers from an autoimmune disease, and the funniest parts of this funny American book are the dialogues between Iris’s aching feet, whom she has named Bouvard and Pécuchet (after two characters in an unfinished Flaubert novel). The Subaru dies, and Iris lands in a field where she is stepped on by a herd of cows, then winds up working as a cowherd for a sexy lady who probably murdered her own husband and now operates a museum that’s only open one month a year. Then the story really goes off the rails.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven top Southern Gothic novels

Mark Murphy is a native of Savannah, Georgia. He's worked as a fast-food worker, marine biologist, orderly, ordained minister, and gastroenterologist, his current "day job." When he's not healing the sick, he writes anything he can-newspaper columns, short stories, magazine articles, and textbook chapters.

Rose Dhu is his third novel.

At The Nerd Daily Murphy tagged seven novels in the Southern Gothic tradition that inspired hi. One entry on the list:

Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner (1936)

Thomas Sutpen, a white man born into poverty in western Virginia, moves to Mississippi in the 1830s. Ruthlessly pragmatic, he wishes to rise above his nondescript beginnings through the product of his own formula, which he terms his “design.” He builds an ostentatious plantation (Sutpen’s Hundred), takes a wife and embarks on a quest for an heir. His obsessive search for power, status and immortality, driven by pride and scarred by past humiliation, is ultimately undermined by his lack of empathy and inherent blindness to the human costs of his own design. Presented in fragmented fashion, largely through other characters’ recollections and with conflicting, sometimes unreliable narratives, this is a challenging read, but Faulkner himself said it was “the greatest novel of the 20th Century.” Many critics agree.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Absalom, Absalom! also appears Nicola DeRobertis-Theye's list of five notable novels of biographical detection, Brenda Wineapple's six favorite books list, Jacket Copy's list of sixty-one essential postmodern reads, Sarah Churchwell's list of six books on the American Deep South, and Thomas Perry's favorite books list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five titles to read in the early days of parenting

Catherine Pierce served as the Poet Laureate of Mississippi from 2021-2025, and is the author of four books of poems: Danger Days (2020), The Tornado Is the World (2016), The Girls of Peculiar (2012), and Famous Last Words (2008), all from Saturnalia Books. Each of her most recent three books won the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Poetry Prize; Famous Last Words won the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize. Two new books arrive in 2026: a memoir, Foxes for Everybody, from Northwestern University Press, and a poetry collection, Dear Beast, from Saturnalia.

At Lit Hub Pierce tagged "five books that I would have gratefully devoured as a new mother (and did gratefully devour as a not-quite-as-new one)." One title on the list:

Good Talk by Mira Jacob

Good Talk deftly navigates the complexities of race, family dynamics, politics, micro- and macroaggressions in the wake of the 2016 election, and the surprises that come along with a child’s inevitable questions. In addition to being thought-provoking and moving and cathartic, Good Talk is genuinely funny and utterly engrossing. There’s a reason why graphic novels have become such a successful “gateway” medium for parents trying to get their kids into reading—and it’s not because a graphic novel is watered-down version of a traditional novel. The conciseness, the visual satisfaction, and the crucial interplay between image and word makes reading a good graphic novel—or, in this case, graphic memoir—an electrifying, transporting experience. That was the experience I had when I read Jacob’s Good Talk when my own children were five and eight. This was one of the first books I was able to lose myself in even while my kids were running around the house being the opposite of quiet, and it’s one I haven’t stopped thinking about since.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Good Talk is among Amy Butcher's eight defiant books by women.

--Marshal Zeringue

The best mysteries and thrillers of 2025 -- "Elle"

One title on Elle magazine's 2025 list of the best mysteries and thrillers:

Fair Play by Louise Hegarty

Hegarty follows the conventions of all the great traditional mysteries...and then twists them. Fair Play is set in a rural Irish country home, an Airbnb rented by a group of friends to celebrate New Year’s Eve with a murder-mystery theme party. When a guest is found dead the next morning, the friends are thrown into an investigation that references all the classic detective plot devices in such a twisty way that you’ll discover there are many more questions (and, eventually, answers) than you first realized.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Fair Play is among CrimeReads' best traditional mysteries released in 2025.

The Page 69 Test: Fair Play.

Q&A with Louise Hegarty.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles that delve into the great mysteries of Oxford

A. D. Bell lives in Oxford, haunting the city’s bookshops of a weekend, writing in their cafes and walking the winding paths of her characters.

Their debut, The Bookbinder’s Secret, features Lilian ("Lily") Delaney, apprentice to a master bookbinder in Oxford in 1901, who chafes at the confines of her life.

At CrimeReads Bell tagged seven novels that delve into the great mysteries of Oxford. One title on the list:

Simon Mason, A Killing in November

Rounding out this list is a modern crime novel published in 2022, first in the DI Wilkins series. In Mason’s series, two detectives share a surname and little else. One is from the wrong side of the tracks and the other immaculately groomed and privileged Oxford graduate. When a woman is found strangled in St Barnabas Church in Jericho, the unlikely duo investigate.

Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

--Marshal Zeringue

Nine true crime memoirs that explore why we're so obsessed with darkness

Rebecca Hannigan has an MA in Creative Writing Crime Fiction from UEA, graduating in 2023. She won the UEA/Little Brown Crime Prize for her dissertation. She has also been shortlisted for Virago/The Pool’s Best New Crime Writer.

Her first novel, Darkrooms, is a fictional work in which she explores the "feeling of betrayal and injustice" stemming from "a murder in [her] mother’s small Irish hometown" for which "no one was ever sentenced."

For People magazine Hannigan tagged nine "gripping true crime memoirs that explore why we're all so obsessed with darkness." One title on the list:

We Keep the Dead Close by Becky Cooper

While at Harvard, Cooper learned about the decades-old unsolved murder of Jane Britton, a young archaeology student, and is haunted by it long after graduation. Cooper describes Britton as a big personality, a target for both envy and admiration, and finds a growing kinship that pushes her to investigate. Her obsession animates the exhaustive — and sometimes exhausting — investigation she undertakes, but ultimately leaves the reader wondering what Cooper’s life will look like when the case is finally solved.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six sad books by funny women

Sydney Rende is a writer and editor. You can read her work in The New York Times Style Magazine, Carve Magazine, Joyland, and elsewhere. She has an MFA in fiction from Syracuse University.

Rende's debut short story collection is I Could Be Famous.

At Lit Hub she tagged six sad books by funny women "who give grief and humor the equal respect they deserve." One title on the list:

Lorrie Moore, Who Will Run the Frog Hospital?

Nobody has as much fun with words as Lorrie Moore does. This little coming-of-age novel, published in 1994, follows Berie Carr and her best friend Sils as they navigate adolescence while working at Storyland, a fairytale-themed amusement park, for the summer. The book jumps between the past and present, where adult Berie is arguably depressed while visiting Paris with her husband, whom she probably doesn’t love anymore. Lorrie Moore’s comedy is always right on time. Her word play is unmatched. And this story of adolescent friendship, love, and loss is both relatable and original. We have Lorrie Moore’s language and humor to thank for that.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? is among Brittany Ackerman's seven books about teen friendships.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books that grapple with the gig economy

Anandi Mishra is a Sweden-based critic and communications professional. She has worked as a reporter for The Times of India and The Hindu. One of her essays has been translated to Italian and published in the Internazionale magazine. Her essays and reviews have appeared in the Public Books, The Atlantic, Los Angeles Review of Books, Virginia Quarterly Review, Popula, The Brooklyn Rail, Al Jazeera, among others.

At Electric Lit Mishra tagged seven books that "show us the varied relationships people have with money, who gets to make it, and at what cost to themselves." One title on the list:

Flesh by David Szalay (2025)

Istavan, Flesh’s shy, reticent protagonist, moves through life in search of nothing much. He’s introverted but never not working, often in conversations with others, but never speaks much himself. Instead of looking for his next assignment, work finds him and delivers him to the next stage in life. Through a series of jobs starting from a drug delivery agent to a war soldier to a pub bouncer to a driver to a business owner and back to being a pub bouncer again, Istavan’s life is shown through vignettes of various jobs he holds in different stages of life and how it impacts him. No matter what the life situation, he is forever that lonesome outsider trying to make ends meet. Szalay’s portrait of Istavan’s rags-to-riches life is singular in the way it is told. Szalay often skips the more intense parts of Istavan’s experiences, leaving them to the reader’s imagination. The resultant book is racy, remote, and roiling, capturing the way work dominates the lives of those of us who have nothing to lose because we come from nothing.

Read about the other entries on the list at Electric Lit.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five books & plays that take you deep inside the ivory tower

Screenwriter Nora Garrett’s debut film, After the Hunt -- directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny -- is set on the campus of Yale University.

At Bustle Garrett tagged "five college-set works that informed After the Hunt." One title on the list:

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

What this novel really captures is that awkward, early phase of college where you've gotten into an elite institution that you thought would give you the sense of identity you wanted — and you're still finding yourself awkward, bumbling, and estranged from the ability to feel yourself at the apex of your intelligence, even in these rarefied spaces. I think that the shame of that and the attempt to work through it is a reference for Maggie, but just generally a reference for that tender identity point.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Idiot is among Isabelle McConville's ten notable campus novels, Christine Ma-Kellams's seven books about unconventional situationships, Lauren Hutton's ten books about young women in (and out) of love, and Katherine Heiny's eight best books about modern dating.

Also see Elise Juska’s list of eight of the greatest campus novels ever written, Ali Lowe's list of six of the best campus crime novels, Kate McCusker's five top campus novels, Michael Woodson's ten top campus novels, and K.D. Walker's eight top campus novels set in grad school.

--Marshal Zeringue

"CrimeReads" -- best traditional mysteries of 2025

One novel on the CrimeReads list of the best traditional mysteries released in 2025:

Murder Takes a Vacation, Laura Lippman

Stalwart mystery author Lippman takes up the Agatha Christie mantle in her newest novel, Murder Takes a Vacation, in which Tess Monaghan’s longtime sidekick, Mrs. Blossom, gets her turn in the spotlight. The action sees Blossom head to France for a once-in-a-lifetime cruise; her interest is sparked by a man on board, but, naturally, the man soon turns up dead in Paris, and the ship begins looking more like a vipers’ nest, as Blossom unspools a mystery among the passengers. The new novel adds a welcome layer of depth to the character and constructs a worthy mystery for her to solve, all set against the splendors of a voyager’s France.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Murder Takes a Vacation is among CrimeReads's top twenty crime novels, mysteries, and thrillers of 2025 and Sue Hincenbergs's eight mysteries and thrillers featuring older sleuths and criminals.

The Page 69 Test: Murder Takes a Vacation.

--Marshal Zeringue

The 15 best locked room murder mysteries

Emily Burack is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site.

At Town & Country she tagged fifteen of the best locked room murder mysteries, including:

One By One by Ruth Ware

The cofounder of a trendy London-based tech start-up organizes a weeklong trip for the team in the French Alps, but soon they’re snowed in the rustic ski chalet—sans one coworker, who hadn’t returned from the slopes. One by one, the group dwindles further.

Read about the other entries on the list.

One by One is among Alexa Donne's six chilly And Then There Were None inspired thrillers, Carolyne Topdjian's five top hotel thrillers and mysteries, Bonnie Kistler's six best office thrillers, Sandie Jones's six mysteries with large casts of characters, Allie Reynolds's seven chilling winter thrillers, and Louise Candlish's ten hardest characters in literature to love.

--Marshal Zeringue

Eleven top titles about road trips

At PopSugar Helen Carefoot tagged eleven great books about road trips, including:

The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise by Colleen Oakley

For most books about road trips, you can almost always find a pair of unexpected characters setting off together. In "The Mostly True Story of Tanner & Louise," a 21-year-old works as a live-in caregiver for an elderly woman who insists she doesn't want help, but quickly reveals herself to be more than her young charge bargained for when she announces they're leaving town in the middle of the night. Promise, the unlikely duo have an easy chemistry that makes this buddy story a breezy read.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five top books for K-Pop fans

Giaae Kwon is the author of I’ll Love You Forever: Notes From a K-Pop Fan. In the essay collection, she

explores her personal history as a bbasooni (K-pop stan) alongside the evolution of the K-pop industry. In doing so, she uncovers the cultural and political forces that birthed the K-pop idol and paints a compassionate portrait of fandom — a much-needed counterweight to all the ink spilled about its harmful excesses.

At Bustle Kwon tagged "five books that every bbasooni should read," including:

Flowers of Fire by Hawon Jung

Korea is still a patriarchal society with rigid gendered standards, and we see this play out through K-pop and fandom constantly. Flowers of Fire is a look at the #MeToo movement that, to my surprise, got pretty good traction in Korea starting in 2018. This isn’t an easy read, but I think it’s vital — Jung’s writing is accessible, and she doesn’t sensationalize or try to appeal to emotions, simply telling the stories of Korean women and telling the truth of what women go through. For example, I’d known for a while how bad the problem of molkas (hidden cameras) were in Korea, but I had no idea how bad. Jung doesn’t shy away from portraying reality, but Flowers of Fire avoids veering into totally hopeless and bleak territory, as Jung highlights the work that women activists have done and continue to do.

Read about the other books on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven fantasy titles with dangerous alliances and deadly pacts

The son of a librarian, Chris M. Arnone's love of books was as inevitable as gravity. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri - Kansas City. His cyberpunk series, The Jayu City Chronicles, is available everywhere books are sold.

His work can also be found in Adelaide Literary Magazine and FEED Lit Mag. You can find him writing more books, poetry, and acting in Kansas City.

At Book Riot Arnone tagged seven top fantasy books with dangerous alliances and deadly pacts. One title on the list:

City of Last Chances by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This epic fantasy novel is grand in scale while small in geography, focusing on a single city under harrowing occupation. Every aspect of culture in Ilmar is under the thumb of the occupying force and is being pushed aside. When one of their high officials is killed while venturing into a magical portal, the entire city is upended. Someone is responsible, and a hunt for the killer soon becomes full civil unrest. Alliances shift and break in mere moments throughout this politically complicated

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven books for fans of "The Pitt"

At People magazine senior books editor Lizz Schumer tagged seven books for fans of the HBO medical drama, The Pitt. One title on the list:

While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams

Between her job as a law clerk for Justice Howard Wynn and a difficult family life, Avery Keene is balancing a lot. Things get even more intense once Justice Wynn falls into a coma and Avery discovers that he left specific instructions for her to serve his legal guardian and power of attorney.

As she dives into her role, she finds Wynn’s research on a high-profile merger between a Biotech company and genetics firm that would change medicine completely. As she continues to uncover more secrets, Avery must use Wynn’s research to bring justice to light.

Read about the other titles on the list.

While Justice Sleeps is among Otho Eskin's five novels about the end of democracy and Brittany Bunzey's eight best legal thrillers.

--Marshal Zeringue

Seven titles that complicate stories about the South

Grace Gaynor is a writer from Louisville, Kentucky. She is a Feminist Press apprentice, an editorial intern at Electric Literature, and a reader for Bicoastal Review. She studied English and GWS at Hollins University and earned an MFA in creative writing from Virginia Tech.

At Electric Lit Gaynor tagged seven "books, each of which adds a new texture, layer, and contradiction to the story of what the South really is, will resonate with readers who love and live in deeply complex, complicated places." One title on the list:

Southernmost by Silas House

Garth Greenwell calls Southernmost a “novel of painful, finally revelatory awakening, of fierce love and necessary disaster.” Opening in the midst of a flood of biblical proportions, Southernmost is a story about destruction, prejudice, and forgiveness that follows Asher, an evangelical preacher, as he endures a crisis of faith. As the narrative unfolds, it demonstrates the propensity for change that is possible in the South, how it has the potential to become a place that celebrates and protects its most vulnerable populations.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

The 25 best historical fiction titles of all time

At Oprah Daily Charley Burlock and Bethanne Patrick tagged the twenty-five "most transportive historical novels across eras and continents, from ancient Greece to 1960s Saigon." One title on the list:

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Díaz

Junot Díaz’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel might begin in the early 2000s—an era that’s alarmingly close to qualifying as historical—but it earns its place here through its sweeping portrait of the Dominican Republic in the 1940s and the ghastly Trujillo dictatorship. The de León family is doubly cursed: by the supernatural fukú that stalks their bloodline and by the more concrete horrors of colonialism and tyranny. At its center is Oscar, an endearingly awkward, sci-fi-obsessed dreamer from New Jersey, longing for love and a story of his own. Díaz tells it all in an electrifying voice that crackles with street slang, comic-book bravado, and academic footnotes. You’ll fall in love with the characters and come away knowing more about Dominican history—as well as the intricate rules of Dungeons & Dragons.

Read about the other entries on the list.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao appears among Renée Branum's seven top novels about family curses, Wajahat Ali's eleven books on loving a country that doesn’t love you back, Carrie V Mullins's eleven favorite unreliable narrators, Saskia Lacey's fifty incredible literary works destined to become classics, Samantha Mabry's five books that carry curses, Susan Barker's top ten novels with multiple narratives, BBC Culture's twelve greatest novels of the 21st century, Emily Temple's fifty greatest debut novels since 1950, Niall Williams's top ten bookworms' tales, Chrissie Gruebel's nine best last lines in literature, Alexia Nader's nine favorite books about unhappy families, Jami Attenberg's top six books with overweight protagonists, Brooke Hauser's six top books about immigrants, Sara Gruen's six favorite books, Paste magazine's list of the ten best debut novels of the decade (2000-2009), and The Millions' best books of fiction of the millenium. The novel is one of Matthew Kaminski's five favorite novels about immigrants in America and is a book that made a difference to Zoë Saldana.

The Page 99 Test: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five dark academia classics

Christopher J. Yates is the author of the novels Black Chalk, Grist Mill Road, and The Rabbit Club.

Black Chalk was an Indie Next Pick that was also named a best book of the year by NPR, and a “must read” by the Boston Globe, BBC.com, and the New York Post.

Grist Mill Road was an Entertainment Weekly "Must Read" and one of the NPR Book Concierge's "Best Books of the Year."

At Bustle Yates tagged his "five favorite books set in dark, dusty campus corridors. They’re the original dark academia tales...." One title on the list:

Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov

If I could convince just one reader to dive into this remarkable, mazelike novel, I would consider my time on Earth well spent. The story is structured around a poem, named Pale Fire, written by a professor at the fictional Wordsmith College. It contains 999 lines — its author, John Shade, was murdered before he could pen the final sentence. Shade’s neighbor, a fellow Wordsmith professor named Charles Kinbote, is our narrator, having taken it upon himself to interpret the poem on the reader’s behalf. Kinbote is the most fascinating unreliable narrator in the history of literature — a lunatic, a narcissist, and perhaps an exiled king from a land named Zembla. He is also absurdly funny as, page by page, he manages to make Shade’s last poem all about himself.

Read about the other entries on the list.

Pale Fire's John Shade is among John Mullan's ten best fictional poets. The novel appears among Brian Boyd's ten best Vladimir Nabokov books, David J. Peterson 's five best books with invented languages, Jane Harris's five best psychological mysteries and Edward Docx's top ten deranged characters. It is one of Tracy Kidder's six best books as well as the novel Charles Storch would save for last. It is one of "Six Memorable Books About Writers Writing" yet it disappointed Ha Jin upon rereading.

--Marshal Zeringue

"CrimeReads" -- best gothic fiction of 2025

At CrimeReads Molly Odintz tagged the best gothic fiction titles of 2025, including:

The Haunting of William Thorn, Ben Alderson

After the titular main character catches his fiance cheating on him, only to immediately lose him to a car accident, that’s whiplash enough—he certainly doesn’t need the problems of a haunted country estate to add to his plate. But his fiance has indeed left William Thorne a haunted estate, and there he must go, to process his grief and guilt, and shut himself away from society. The only problem? The estate is really, truly, haunted, and he must team up with a mysterious and handsome visitor to lay the ghosts of the manor to rest, or face the deadly consequences of their fury.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue

Six Regency-era titles that aren’t romances

Katie Moench is a librarian, runner, and lover of baked goods. A school librarian in the Upper Midwest, Moench lives with her husband and dog and spends her free time drinking coffee, trying new recipes, and adding to her TBR list.

At Book Riot she tagged six Regency-era novels that aren’t romances, including:

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho

If you like your historical fiction mixed with fantasy, pick up the first book in Cho’s Sorcerer Royale series. Zacharias Wythe is a magician and formerly enslaved person who is the respected Sorcerer Royal of the Unnatural Philosophers, a position he inherited from his adoptive father. England’s magic is beginning to wane, and those who conspire against Zacharias blame him, forcing him on a quest to find the reason for the decreased stocks of magic. On his journey, Zacharias will encounter gentle witches, magical schools, and a fantastical world that fuses fantasy and Regency-era customs.

Read about the other novels on the list.

Also see Celeste Connally's six Regency-era historical mysteries with headstrong heroines and Tara Sonin's fifty best regency romances.

--Marshal Zeringue

A Jane Austen reading list

One title from Tertulia's list of books that offer "multiple ways into Jane Austen’s enduring world:"

What Matters in Jane Austen?: Twenty Essential Questions Answered
John Mullan

“A box of 20 literary chocolates for Austen fans to savor,” wrote Kirkus Reviews, while The Atlantic called this “the next best thing” to having more Austen novels. Guardian Book Club columnist John Mullan builds each brief chapter around a deceptively simple question, from sex before marriage to characters who never speak, using curiosity and close reading to reveal the pr

Read about the other entries on the list.

Also see Rebecca Romney's list of six books that owe a debt to Jane Austen’s work, Melissa Albert's list of the top fifteen male characters in Jane Austen's novels, and Paula Byrne's list of the ten best Jane Austen characters.

--Marshal Zeringue

Five titles that embody resilience

William Boyd was born in 1952 in Accra, Ghana, and grew up there and in Nigeria. He is the author of sixteen highly acclaimed, bestselling novels and five collections of stories. Any Human Heart was longlisted for the Booker Prize and adapted into a TV series. His books have won many literary awards, including the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Fiction, and the Costa Book Award. He was named a Granta Best Young Novelist in 1983, and in 2005, he was awarded the CBE. Boyd's newest novel is The Predicament.

In 2020 at GQ (UK) he tagged "five books that, for him, embody and inspire resilience like no others," including:

A Far Cry From Kensington by Muriel Spark

Muriel Spark was a survivor. Born into a Scottish, Jewish family in Edinburgh she sought, like many Scots, a form of early exile abroad. But life was hard initially, before her novels eventually brought her fame and financial security. This novel (published in 1988) is particularly autobiographical, set in London in the 1950s. Its central character, Mrs Hawkins, is a mesmerising self-portrait of the author at this particular juncture in her life. Scraping a living on the fringes of the literary world, Mrs Hawkins (a young widow) is very overweight, supremely confident and a life force. People are drawn to her; her judgements rival Solomon’s; she is indomitable. The book is a kind of hymn to self-sufficiency – or resilience – and a model handbook of how to overcome what look like adverse situations. And it is written in Spark’s unique tone of voice: terse, funny, adamantine.

Read about the other entries on the list.

A Far Cry From Kensington is among Joanna Biggs's top ten books about working life.

--Marshal Zeringue