January 19, 2026 by Claire 'Word by Word'

My Father’s House (2023) by Joseph O’Connor

The Rome Escape Line

My Father’s House was a spontaneous library read, an historical thriller based on a true story and the first book in the Rome Escape Line Trilogy.

The second book The Ghosts of Rome (2025) continues the story of Irish priest Father Hugh O’Flagherty and the clandestine group known as ‘The Choir’ who smuggle thousands of escapees out of Nazi-occupied Rome via a secret route known as the Rome Escape Line.

Inspired by Real People and Events in Rome WWII

The first chapter begins:

Sunday 19th December 1943

10.49pm

119 hours and 11 minutes before the mission

My Fathers House by Joseph O'Connor Book 1 Rome Escape Line Trilogy

A car is being driven in the streets of Rome with Delia Kiernan, a diplomat’s wife and an injured man in the back. The pace and elements of danger are set. The next chapter is her voice, in January 1963, from a transcipt of a BBC research interview, questions inaudible, conducted in White City, London.

In her interview, as the wife of the senior Irish diplomat to the Vatican, she answers questions about the young Irish of the city, many of them seminarians.

One or two were scarcely into long trousers and they staring down the barrel of priesthood. Some of them, you wondered had it maybe been more Mammy’s idea than their own.And, often enough, though some won’t like me saying it, a nun was the youngest daughter of a poor family, with no other prospects.

On Father Hugh O’Flagherty she said:

But this Monsignor fellow was different, down to earth. Affable. You get that with Kerry people, a sort of courtesy. Too many priests at the time saw themselves not as a sign of mercy but as grim little thin-lipped suburban magistrates. Hugh wasn’t too mad on authority.

A City of Hiding Places and Bridges

On the opening pages we also see a 1943 map of Rome and the boundaries of Vatican City, the only safe zone in the city during the war. In the narrative that continues, we observe and learn of its streets, alleys and underground tunnels and those who know them well, like a London cabbie used to know ‘The Knowledge’, crucial to the group during the event of 24 Dec 1943 that is to be carried out.

A Polyphonic Literary Thriller

Written like a literary thriller, as we read, are not exactly sure what the mission on Dec 24 is, like those involved, we too read on a need to know basis, and we begin to understand as an alternative thread of the story is told twenty years in the future in 1962 and 1963, by some of the participants in that mission. These chapters are given headings that tell us they are The Voice of… BBC transcript, research interviews, though again, we do not know what the purpose was for. But they give us another form of chorus, allowing multiple voices to perpetuate the wider moral and political considerations, each voice uniquely shaped and restrained.

So the evening unfolds and we feel the danger and the writing is a kind of lyrical realism with a sense of moral urgency. Short sentences are very descriptive, they act like a constant scan of the area every time a character moves. They must be able to detect without being detected. It creates taut, cinematic prose that at times I almost wanted to skip over, but eventually I got used to the style and it flowed better. While it is not melodramatic at all, it made me think of the shadow elements in a thriller, those not very well lit forms infused with creepy music that make the viewer uneasy. O’Connor succeeds through language to create this unease in the reader.

Father O’Flaherty writes his last will and testament that same night.

As for me, in those days, I saw all political systems as more or less the same, forms of foolishness, the prattling of apes, designed to keep the lesser chimps down. This was a shameful foolishness of my own. I have come to see that neutrality is the most extremist stance of all; without it, no tyranny can flourish.

Classic Theatrical Structure

A prolific writer of novels and Theatre/Spoken word, it is no surprise that the narrative is so propulsive, but it is done in a way that is not action oriented, as descriptive, it is written in a way that makes the reader pay attention to everything around them. The description is purposeful rather than decorative, it contributes to the sense of unease and provides cover, hiding places, makes us aware of danger.

Rome and Vatican City Map 1943 Joseph O'Connor My Father's House

The novel is structured into Act I: The Choir, Act II The Solo, Act III The Huntsman, and the final Act is Coda. So we meet all the characters, the mission is carried by one, supported by all the other characters, and then the one who really wants to capture him, has his moment.

Countdown To the Solo Act

The hours before the mission commences are narrated and then Hugh O’Flaherty is off on the night crusade, but one man is determined to catch him outside the neutral territory of Vatican city, SS Officer Paul Hauptmann, a man who rules with terror and is obsessed with stopping the one man who does not fear him. Within the walls of the Vatican no one can be touched, he is biding time, waiting for the priest to cross over into the occupied territory.

A Neutral Territory Within an Occupied City

Photo by Alexandre Moreira on Pexels.com

The way it’s written deftly portrays the dark, menacing shadow of occupation and the risk these people take and the incredible preparations they make and memorise should they be confronted. Ultimately, they are facilitating the continued funding of the Escape Line, in order that others can continue to help those whose lives are at greatest risk to find safe haven.

Written in such a propulsive and careful manner, that even as the reader, we are not entirely sure of the mission until it fully progresses, making one feel the risk of having too much knowledge and experience the tension and potential danger waiting around each corner.

Not at all my genre, I was intrigued to find out what the Rome Escape Line was all about and recalled that the sequel The Ghosts of Rome won the overall Book of The Year in all categories at the 2025 An Irish Book Awards as well as the Listener’s Choice Award.

Described by the Irish Times as an “extraordinary picture of Rome under Nazi control; brutal, chaotic, treacherous, decaying, wrecked and crumbling, and yet sometimes still bathed in glorious and unexpected light’

Highly Recommended if you are interested in WWII history of Rome and the Vatican. The third and final book in the trilogy is expected in 2027, though nothing has been announced yet.

Have you read either of the Rome Escape Line books? Share your thoughts with us below.

Author, Joseph O’Connor

Joseph O’Connor is a novelist, screenwriter, playwright and broadcaster from Dublin.

He is the author of eleven novels including ‘Star of the Sea’, ‘Ghost Light’ (Dublin One City One Book novel 2011) and ‘Shadowplay’.

Among his awards are the Prix Zepter for European Novel of the Year, France’s Prix Millepages, Italy’s Premio Acerbi, an American Library Association Award and the Irish Pen Award for Outstanding Achievement in Literature. His work has also been translated into forty languages and in 2014, he was appointed Frank McCourt Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Limerick.

January 16, 2026 by Claire 'Word by Word'

You Are Here (2024) by David Nicholls

I picked this up from the library during the festive season for a light romcom type read without looking too much into what it was about. I remember when David Nicholls wrote One Day (2009), seeing that book splashed all over red double decker buses in London as if it were a movie, and it was a book. That was a book about two people from different backgrounds, barely connecting while at university, but keeping a tenuous friendships alive over 20 years. Emotional depth, continuity, the will they, won’t they get together intrigue – readers loved it.

Perfect Arc, Terrible Title

So I know he understands the formula, he is known to adapt books into screenplays, he’s got the story arc down pat. The only thing he gets wrong in my humble opinion are the totally forgettable book titles! And this one is terrible! You Are Here? I guess it could have been worse, Here is Now, or Another Day.

I was a little unsure going in, as I realised how lonely the two main characters were being portrayed, but then I remembered, they are going to be going through a transformation, so they must start out being somewhat at a loss. I persevered.

Northern England’s Coast to Coast

You Are Here by David Nicholls romantic comedy hiking coast to coast England

The book is about this one friend Cleo, who invites her friends Michael, Marnie, Conrad and her son Alex to go on a 2 or 3 day walk from the Cumbrian west coast of England inland, only Michael plans to go all the way west to east through Yorkshire to the opposite sea.

…he thought he could make it to the east, a high belt cinched under Scotland’s arm, crossing the Lakes, over the Pennines, along the Dales and across the Moors, then descending down the Yorkshire coastline to dip his toes into the North Sea. It was the famous route devised by Alfred Wainwright, 190 miles usually covered in twelve or thirteen days, though he felt sure he could do it in ten if he didn’t stop or rest.

When Freedom Beckons

You Are Here David nicholls hiking coast to coast engliand — Photo by A. Rasool on Pexels.com

As they set off, the weather deteriorates and some of them pull out, so then it is just Marnie and Michael who continue. She continues to delay her taxi and return train to London, enjoying the challenge, though at the back of her mind is a deadline for the copy edits she’s doing for an erotica novel, and at the back of his mind is a loose arrangement he made to meet the wife he separated from eighteen months ago.

Books saw her through the pupal stage of thirteen to sixteen, frowning at Kafka and Woolf, tearing through John Irving and Maeve Binchy, widely read in the proper sense, making no distinction between Jilly Cooper and Edith Wharton.

Marnie (38) is divorced and Michael (42) nearly 2 years separated, both are childless and while they say they were good with their solitude, the pandemic had not been exactly welcome, however this walking holiday does seems to be helping, lifting both their spirits.

Being with other families sometimes felt like indoctrination, as if she were attending a symposium on what family life could be. Here’s what you might have had if you’d made better choices, here’s where you might have poured your love.

After a slow and reluctant start, with their attention elsewhere, they begin to connect and are able to talk about things in a way they have not with anyone else – so it might seem predictable – but no, there has to be a deep connection, some kind of disruption, perhaps the feeling that’s it is over, and then the will they, won’t they, before the end.

‘Well, seven days! What did you talk about?’

‘You know – life, love, death,’ she said, and Conrad laughed, though in fact this had been true. ‘There’s something about walking, things slip out. It’s like taking a truth serum or something. Also it was very beautiful. Look.’

For two private people, the open air, the focus on the walking and the terrain facilitates them being a little vulnerable with each other (they are English, so not too much), while not quite being as open as good friends. That would require taking a risk, and neither are quite there yet.

I really enjoyed it, particularly towards the end as other elements in their lives began to put pressure on them, where they were likely to make mistakes, exposing their flaws, where they had to step up and beyond, because they couldn’t be guaranteed each other’s company like they had been on those seven days.

Apart from the English weather, it would be great to see this made into a film or series, it certainly lends itself to it, with the wry English humour and the opportunity to see all that beautiful landscape.

It reminded me a little of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce, a character who walks from the south of England to the north, and interestingly she is also a playwright.

Recommended if you enjoy light, uplifting, humorous fiction that moves forward at a good pace.

Author, David Nicholls

David Nicholls is the bestselling author of Starter for Ten; The Understudy; One Day; Us, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction; Sweet Sorrow; and You Are Here.

He is also a screenwriter who has also written adaptations of Far from the Madding Crowd, When Did You Last See Your Father? and Great Expectations, as well as his own novels. His adaptation of Edward St Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, was nominated for an Emmy and won him a BAFTA for best writer. Nicholls is also the Executive Producer and a contributing screenwriter on a new Netflix adaptation of One Day.

January 14, 2026 by Claire 'Word by Word'

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox (2006) by Maggie O’Farrell

In my library picks, I picked up a Maggie O’Farrell novel from her backlist, not one of her historical fiction novels of recent years, more of a Gothic mystery set in mid 20th century Scotland, in and around Edinburgh.

With another work of historical fiction due in 2026 ‘Land‘ set in 1860’s Ireland, and now the recent success of the film ‘Hamnet‘, her star is firmly set in the ascendant.

A Gothic Mystery in Edinburgh

Set in twin timelines, early 1900’s and early 2000’s, it tells the story of a family that returns from India after a tragic loss. Two sisters who were born there are abruptly brought to Scotland, to live in the household of a strict and rigidly corseted upper-middle class family, ruled by a grandmother in an environment that free-spirited Esme Lennox neither fits nor readily accepts conforming to.

As she gets in trouble, her sister sees her own opportunity and makes decisions that will cast long shadows on the family for decades.

Modern Life, Modern Dilemmas

In the early 2000’s, Iris runs a shop and has complex relationships with her brother and an unavailable man Luke she met at a wedding. Into this already complex life, a telephone call informs that she is the next of kin of a resident of the Cauldstone Hospital, a woman they claim is her grandmother Kitty’s sister, despite Iris believing her grandmother had been an only child. She is asked to come to an appointment where all shall be revealed.

Meanwile Esme’s world is about to change, though in another sense she is returning to where it all started.

Esme takes one last look at the driveway and sees a woman who used to have the bed next to her, standing beside a brown car. An old man is stowing a suitcase in the boot. The woman is weeping and peeling off her gloves. The man doesn’t look at her. Esme turns and starts climbing the stairs.

Family Secrets and Omissions

Iris’s grandmother Kitty is in care and hardly remembers her grand-daughter. They haven’t been close since she was a child, when she seemed to turn against the child.

Iris visits the long-stay psychiatric hospital and learns more about her grandmother’s secret affairs that appear to have been signed over to her without her knowledge or consent.

‘I have here a copy of a document lodged with us by her solicitor, signed by Mrs Lockhart, naling you as the family member to be contacted about affairs pertaining to one Euphemia Esme Lennox, her sister.’

Iriss is really cross now. ‘She doesn’t have a sister.’

There is a pause in which Iris can hear the man moving his lips over his teeth. ‘I’m afraid I must contradict you,’ he says eventually.

No one in her family has heard of this woman, her mother lives abroad, her father is no longer living and her grandmother Kitty has Alzheimers. And the hospital is closing down. If arrangements aren’t made with family members the residents are to be moved to a hostel. Iris can’t possibly take on the responsibility, but she is curious about who this woman is and why she has been left in this place.

‘It’s not unusual for patients of ours to…shall we say, fall out of sight. Euphemia has been with us a long time.’

‘How long exactly?’

Lasdun consults his file, running a finger down the pages. The social worker coughs and leans forward. ‘Sixty years, I believe, Peter, give or take -‘

‘Sixty years?’ Iris almost shouts. ‘In this place? What’s wrong with her?’

The novel concurrently tells the story of those defining circumstances in Esme’s early years that lead to her being sent to the hospital, and Iris’s determination to get to the bottom of what of her grandmother did or didn’t know.

But before she can do this, she will meet and consider whether or not to take in this great Aunt and try to find something out from her grandmother, whose mind is no longer in ordinary reality.

Why Deny Sisterhood?

When Iris brings Esme to her apartment, it becomes clear that she recognises it, she too has lived there.

She cannot fathom the strangeness of all this. She has acquired a relative. A relative who knows her home better than she does.

‘Which was your room?’ she asks.

Esme turns. She points. ‘The floor below. The one overlooking the street. It was mine and Kitty’s. We shared.’

Girls’ Behaviours and Predicaments

The novel contrasts modern life in Edinburgh, depicting Iris’s unconventional but common behaviours with the rigid social norms of early-20th-century Scotland, especially around outspokenness, sexuality, consent and judgement. Any breach of these norms by girls was considered a form of madness and could result in them being committed to a psychiatric institution. The Edwardian era epitomised rigid class structures, strict gender expectations and a superficial elegance that masked deep social control.

Maggie O’Farrell imagines two girls who were not born into those social norms, but come into them later in childhood, and what happens to them after coming from a different culture, even though their parents were from that Scottish background. It seems unbelievable and yet we know it was very common for such situations to happen.

It’s an immersive page-turner and shocking portrayal of misdiagnosis, patriarchal control and the devastating lack of female solidarity, where women choose safety, respectability, compliance and/or silence over loyalty. This silence continues to be inherited in successive generations rather than challenged.

Highly Recommended.

Have you read The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox? Do you have a favourite Maggie O’Farrell novel?

Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Author Maggie O’Farrell

MAGGIE O’FARRELL was born in 1972 in Coleraine, Northern Ireland and grew up in Wales and Scotland. Currently, she lives in Edinburgh.

Her novels include Hamnet (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award), The Marriage Portrait, After You’d Gone, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, The Hand That First Held Mine (winner of the Costa Novel Award), and Instructions for a Heatwave. She has also written a memoir, I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death.

Hamnet, which imagined the untold story of Shakespeare’s son, won the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction and was Waterstones’ Book of the Year and is now feature film.

January 12, 2026 by Claire 'Word by Word'

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak

Elif Shafak is one of my favourite writers, ever since being lent The Bastard of Istanbul (2006) and then on learning she had been a Rumi scholar, was delighted to read The Forty Rules of Love (2009).

She is one of the most interesting and prolific authors of cross-cultural fiction, and made the transition in 2004 from writing in Turkish and being translated into English, to writing directly in the English language. She made the decision to write in English to have distance and freedom from political and social pressures implicated by writing in her native language, and to approach her heritage and subjects of interest from an alternative perspective.

A Profound Dedication

Her engagement in writing about social issues, multicultural and political themes and her relocation to London from Istanbul, and her deep engagement with history, identity, gender, religion and cultural themes, her regular speaking out, her weekly essays to followers and her prize nominations have all contributed to raising her profile to the point of being elected President of the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) in the UK in 2025, succeeding Bernardine Evaristo. She is a great writer and an important connector between cultures, disciplines and literary communities.

10 Minutes 38 Seconds

This book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2019, the prize that year won by Bernadine Evaristo for Girl Woman Other. I spotted this on the shelf at the library I mentioned in my last post, along with Intermezzo by Sally Rooney and The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell and You Are Here by David Nicholls. I immediately jumped to read the Elif Shafak and I am happy to see there are few more of her backlist I might be able to get to this year as well.

Shafak’s novel starts with the intriguing title, what exactly is the meaning of 10 minutes and 38 seconds? The novel starts with a seven page chapter called The End. We are confronted with the early morning discovery of the body of Leila, before any of her friends have learned of her premature death/murder.

Once the authorities had identified her, she supposed they would inform her family. Her parents lived in the historic city of Van – a thousand miles away. But she did not expect them to come and fetch her dead body, considering they had rejected her long ago

You’ve brought us shame. Everyone is talking behind our backs.

So the police would have to go to her friends instead. The five of them: Sabotage Sinan, Nostalgia Nalan, Jameelah, Zaynab122, and Hollywood Humeyra.

A Post Death Structure

The book then is structured into, Part One: The Mind, Part Two: The Body and a very short few pages, Part Three: The Soul. In Part One we learn about the significance of the 10 minutes 38 seconds and this is what the chapters pertain to.

During this period of time when the victim is dead her consciousness is replaying memories, aromas, all of the things that she has sensed and experienced and known, and it is in these chapters that we learn about her past with her family and we are introduced to the five friends. These are the flashbacks of her life passing through her consciousness. Thus forming the structure of this first half of the novel.

Researchers at various world-renowned institutions had observed persistent brain activity in people who had just died; in some cases this had lasted for only a few minutes. In others, for as much as ten minutes and thirty eight seconds. What happened during that time? Did the dead remember the past, and, if so, which parts of it, and in what order? How could the mind condense an entire life into the time it took to boil a kettle?

As each minute passes and each sense is evoked and each friend is remembered, there is then a short story about that friend and how they came to the name they now hold and what brought them to the city of Istanbul where they all resided until this moment.

Friends on a Mission

Photo by Kathryn Archibald on Pexels.com

When we get to Part Two: The Body, the consciousness has left the body and we arrive in the present moment with the five friends trying to deal with the fact that their friend is missing, is dead, and no one will allow them to visit her.

“Grief is a swallow,’ he said. ‘One day you wake up and you think it’s gone, but it’s only migrated to some other place, warming its feathers. Sooner or later, it will return and perch in your heart again.”

The want to pay their respects, to do something for her, but the city has already judged her and made decisions without the consent of family or friends, so this part of the novel becomes something of an adventure as the friends bond together to make amends for the current situation and try to do something for their dear friend. And go on a road trip in an old truck.

A Clever Structure Dulls Character Recall

The only trouble I found with the clever format of the first half, was that because it all takes place in the past and each chapter is about a different friend, by the time they all come together half way into the novel, it is not as easy to remember who they are, because they haven’t been regularly present in the text until now.

Thus it created a disconnect for this reader, who likes to imagine each character as they are introduced, but they need to stay present for that image and impression of them to last. I found that I had to refer back to the beginning to recreate that sense of the character, in order to recall who they were.

Overall I found it an enjoyable read, the characters come from all walks of life, mostly marginalised for one reason or another and in their neighbourhood they have found each other, look out for each and wish to challenge the way they and others like them are treated. By coming together to do something for Leila, they are also challenging the way their city deals with others who have been marginalised, that grief, burial, remembrance and recognition of those who have passed should be something universal that all can participate in, regardless of where life has taken them.

Nostalgia Nalan believed there were two kinds of family in this world: relatives formed the blood family; and friends, the water family. If your blood family happened to be nice and caring, you could count your lucky stars and make the most of it; and if not, there was still hope; things could take a turn for the better once you were old enough to leave your home sour home.

It’s a beautiful fable-like story, much of it inspired by real circumstances, real places and conditions and inspired by friendships lived by the author from time lived in the city of Istanbul.

Highly Recommended.

Author Elif Shafak

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British-Turkish novelist and storyteller. She has published 21 books, 13 of which are novels and her books have been translated into 58 languages.

Shafak is a Fellow and President of the Royal Society of Literature and has been chosen among BBC’s 100 most inspiring and influential women. An advocate for women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights and freedom of expression, Shafak is an inspiring public speaker and twice TED Global speaker.

January 11, 2026 by Claire 'Word by Word'

A Flash Book Sale & Library Haul

Recently I attended a flash booksale at a small local English library, donating a bag of books and picking up a few temptations, despite going with the intention of not buying.

New Daughters of Africa

I was remarkably restrained and only bought four books, one of which is more of a reference book, but one that introduces many other authors. I’m talking about the New Daughters of Africa by Margaret Busby, her second anthology of over 200 women writers of African descent, the follow up to the original landmark anthology, Daughters of Africa (1992).

This new companion volume brings together fresh and vibrant voices that have emerged more fully in the last 25 years, but looks back over all the decades of the 1900’s. It does not duplicate any of the authors from that first anthology, but updates it and included more contemporary authors.

I enjoy reading unique African women voices, whether of Africa or the Caribbean, or Francophone and it is helpful to have a repository of those voices in one collection.

It is from Margaret Busby’s earlier list of authors that I discovered and have read/reviewed authors like Buchi Emecheta (Nigeria/UK), Mariama Ba (Senegal), Ann Petry (US), Nella Larsen (Danish Caribbean/US), Zora Neale Hurston (US), Simone Schwartz Bart (Guadaloupe), Tsitsi Dangarembga (Zimbabwe), Gayl Jones (US), Audre Lorde (US), Octavia Butler (US), bell hooks (US), Wangari Maathai (Kenya) and the late, great Maryse Condé (France/Guadalupe)

Now in this second anthology, among others we find Leila Aboulela (Sudan/Scotland), Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ (Nigeria), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigeria), Edwidge Danticat (Haiti), Yvvette Edwards (UK), Nawal El Saadawi (Egypt), Aminatta Forna (Sierra Leone), Bernadine Evaristo (UK), Maaza Mengiste (Ethiopia), Afua Hirsch (UK), Andrea Levy (UK/Jamaica), Imbolo Mbue (Cameroon), Marie NDiaye (France), Chinelo Okparanta (Nigeria), Yewande Omotoso (Sth Africa/Barbadoes), Namwali Serpell (Zambia), Warsan Shire (Somali/Kenya/UK), Zadie Smith (UK), Jesmyn Ward (US).

Literary Travel and Insight

New Daughters of Africa Margaret Busby Daisy Jones and the Six Lucy By the Sea Flights Olga Tokarczuk

As well as this great find, I also picked up a copy of Flights by Olga Tokarczuk, the brilliant Polish author and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2018, the same year that she won the International Booker Prize for this fragmentary novel Flights, a book based on some of her own experiences as a traveller that she describes as a constellation novel, constructed from small fragments. The judges said:

‘We loved the voice of the narrative – it’s one that moves from wit and gleeful mischief to real emotional texture and has the ability to create character very quickly, with interesting digression and speculation.’

I recall buying it as a gift for a family member, but I did not read it myself. I did read and adored Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk tr. Antonia Lloyd-Jones and it was my One Outstanding Read of 2022, so I am keen to explore more of her work, despite knowing it can be quite complex.

Here’s a description of the novel:

Olga Tokarczuk’s unique novel interweaves reflections on travel with an exploration of human anatomy – examining life and death, motion and migration.

In the 17th century, the Dutch anatomist Philip Verheyen dissects and draws pictures of his own amputated leg. On to the 18th century, where a North African-born slave turned Austrian courtier is stuffed and put on display after his death. Next stop is the 19th century, as we follow Chopin’s heart making the covert journey from Paris to Warsaw. Final destination is the present, with the harrowing story of a young husband whose wife and child mysteriously vanish on holiday on a Croatian island.

A Comfort Read and a Musical Drama

The other two I picked up were Lucy By the Sea (2022) by Elizabeth Strout, which is a follow on novel in the Amgash, Illinois Series, to My Name is Lucy Barton (2016), Anything is Possible (2017), Oh William! (2021), and Tell Me Everything (2024). I haven’t read the third in the series, but I see they have a copy in the library. Strout is great comfort read, immersing into her characters’ lives is perfect for winter.

Atmosphere Taylor Jenkins Reid Daisy Jones and the Six

And finally I picked up Daisy Jones and the Six (2019) by Taylor Jenkins Reid, a novel about the rise and implosion of a 1970’s rock band (loosely based on Fleetwood Mac and the volatile dynamics between Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham) and now a TV series, because I like musical dramas and would like to read the book first.

I have her latest novel Atmosphere (2025), a space novel, which I might read first, because I don’t think it is as good, so I’d rather save the best for last.

She is well known for her emotionally immersive storytelling and readable plotlines, her debut historical fiction novel, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (2017) about a reclusive Hollywood icon was a runaway bestseller.

Mood Reading and Library Obligations

So that’s it, watch out for reviews of these coming in 2026, I’ve started the year somewhat randomly, but aware that library books have to be returned, so I’ll be sharing those soon, the first one I have already reviewed was Intermezzo by Sally Rooney.

Have you read any of the books or authors I shared here? Let us know what you recommend or if you enjoyed any of these three novels I picked up in the sale.

January 10, 2026 by Claire 'Word by Word'

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (2024)

After donating a bag of books at a recent book sale, I spotted a few novels on the shelves of this small English library that I was curious about, so joined the library and came home with four popular titles I thought I might read over the festive season, the first one being Intermezzo by Irish author Sally Rooney. I had heard it discussed by the Irish Times Woman’s Podcast Bookclub where thoughts on it were quite divisive.

Sally Rooney’s earlier novels Conversations With Friends (2017), Normal People (2018) and Beautiful World, Where Are You (2021) all examine how educated young people try to love each other under conditions of class inequality, political exhaustion, and intense self-consciousness, where desire is constantly constrained by these factors and the question then becomes whether love can survive these somewhat undermining conditions.

An Irish Millennial Perspective

Intermezzo by Sally Rooney Irish literature 2025

I haven’t read anything by Rooney, however knowing those novels have been a huge international success, being a writer with her literary pen poised on particular millennial characteristics, I picked up the latest, Intermezzo (2024) set in modern day Dublin, to understand what that might be all about.

I finished it in late December and overall I enjoyed it, though in the beginning I found it a little tiresome and repetitive, especially all the awkward self-conscious sex scenes between the younger brother and his newfound lover, but as the story progressed and the conflicts and mysteries become more present in the narrative, it became ever more psychologically interesting and I ended up really liking it. So it almost lost me in the beginning, but ultimately (in 442 pages) it gets there and I’m all the more appreciative of it for going back and considering it again now, from a distance.

Grief As a Turning and Growth Point

The Kindness of Enemies Leila Aboulela The Queen's Gambit Intermezzo Sally Rooney — Photo C. Solorzano Pexels.com

The novel charts the months following the father’s premature death and how it affects his two sons Ivan 22, a socially awkward, competitive chess player who has not been on form recently and is questioning whether he might be past his best, and his elder brother Peter 32, a corporate, detached Dublin lawyer juggling two relationships and medicating himself to get sleep.

You know, a lot of people told me I was letting it take up too much time, and I just thought they didn’t understand. But now I think, maybe I’ve really wasted a lot of my life.

Unresolved Mother Son Issues

The boys mother has long since moved on to a new relationship and the boys have complicated relationships with her.

I guess I would say, if you’re interested, they’re both kind of dominant personalities. Who like getting their own way. So my mother trying to be the authority figure, that never went down too well with Peter, if you get me. Because he wouldn’t be a great fan of getting bossed around.

I see, Margaret says.

Ivan is looking at her. Yeah, he says. Whereas with me, I guess, my mother can be the authority more. But with no great results, because she’s never happy with me.

The brothers have different personalities and are no longer close like they once were. In fact, they find it difficult being around each other without emotions escalating to volatility. And yet. Underneath, there’s a desire to connect.

Without their father present in their lives, they get easily derailed, falling into old destructive patterns. Something needs to shift and change if they are to arrive in a place of acceptance.

The same ritual he thinks each time. She tries to extract from him some valuably hurtful information and he tries to conceal from her any aspect of his life in which he suspects she might gain a foothold. Her fake innocuous queries and his studied evasions. Screens her calls whenever Naomi is home. Why does his mother even want to know; why does he want not to. Contest for dominance. Story of his life.

In essence, this is what the novel explores. Are these two brothers able to grow through the grieving process into a new form of relationship with each other that might sustain them in the years ahead? And can they successfully be in a relationship with another, given the stagnant place they are currently at.

Millennial Self-Consciousness and Entangled Love Lives

They are each trying to navigate romantic relationships, and here there is much interiority expressed, both anxiety and indecisiveness, but the feelings push them forward and the interactions they have with women allow them to be tested and move forward as they confront someone else they have feelings for and have to adapt to stay in relationship.

Ivan meets the older, separated Art Centre Manager, 36 year old Margaret, who struggles with how they might be perceived due to the age difference, but she can’t deny the strong connection and positive effect they have on each other. They must explore their own different perspectives and experiences to maintain that something they have together, if it is deemed worth it.

Dimly she wonders now whether she has been thinking somehow about herself, her own circumstances, and she feels her face again growing flushed. It is this, she thinks, her own sense of identification, that has thrown everything into confusion. She has lost sight of the brother Ivan has been describing, replacing him with herself, and therefore attributing to herself a greater understanding of his motives than she could possibly possess.

Peter is navigating the familiar, intellectually compatible friendship with his ex-girlfriend Sylvia, a chronically ill English literature professor he’s known since college, and a more challenging, non-committal relationship with student Naomi who sells images of herself online to help fund her studies.

Unclear whether you’re cheating on me with her, or you’re cheating on her with me, she said. Absentmindedly he considered the proposition. Either option preferable he thought. Dignity of old-fashioned faithlessness. Neither, he answered. Sylvia is a very dear friend of mine. And you’re just a homeless college student who lives in my house. That made her laugh. The actual disrespect, she said.

Using Voice Stylistically to Create Power Dynamics

Rooney explores how intimacy is negotiated under constant moral and social evaluation, both from the family and society and from one’s own self-judgement.

Peter’s thoughts are expressed in short, clipped, declarations with little depth, a voice trained to avoid vulnerability, and control interpretation, reducing the risk of him being misunderstood or judged, which doesn’t always help navigate the path of more intimate relationships.

This controlled minimal manner of speaking suits his profession and will have developed as he absorbed criticism in the maternal relationship and created a habit regarding his brother. His short sentences create discomfort, they become a form of domination by withholding forcing the other to elaborate.

They are initially disconcerting to read, but after a while you get used to the style. This manner has been said by some to be ‘Joycean’ not because it is like Ulysses in style, but because it shares with Joyce a particular attitude to consciousness, authority, and language under pressure. This way of expression gives Peter’s voice a hard, self-contained quality that Joyce often gave to male consciousness.

Meanwhile Ivan’s longer, more considered sentences allow for doubt and consideration, for exploration and confirmation in the relationship. Oh, and there is a touching storyline around the family whippet.

A Long Positional Game

Ultimately every character has a reckoning, no one is immune to the need to look at their own part in creating some of the perceived conflict and the novel travels the arc from the initial state of these relationships, through the hashing things out, blame, judgement, self pity, self consciousness, fear of what others might think, and out the other side to talking it out, owning up, allowing unconventionally without fear of judgement, settling differences through to forgiveness.

It’s not a fast paced read, it’s more of a slow, gradual navigation of challenging relationships between not particularly likeable characters, but that makes it all the more interesting to see how and whether they might overcome the exit of the one person who was their centre, and move to a healthier way of co-existing. It is an exploration of buried pain and unresolved issues meeting new opportunities and fresh hurts. A long, positional game played in mutual fear of getting it wrong.

Author Sally Rooney

Sally Rooney is an Irish novelist from Castlebar, Country Mayo. She is the author of Conversations With Friends, Normal People and Beautiful World, Where Are You.

Interesting Fact: While attending Trinity College Dublin, Rooney was a university debater and in 2013 became the top debater at the European Universities Debating Championships.

December 22, 2025 by Claire 'Word by Word'

Best Books of 2025 Top Reads in Translation

Apaprt from committing to read Women in Translation in August, I read less consciously and more by mood or whatever stood out on the shelf this year.

Though I read more books, I read from the same number of countries, but less in translation. In 2024, 33% (20 books) of the titles I read were in translation – a conscious effort. This year only 15%. It is also in part the effect of taking a subscription, I loved most of the Charco Press titles I read, but there were some I was less inclined to read; I would look at them and then choose something else.

It’s about discernment. So I remove those books from the shelf and more carefully research those I have no hesitation in wanting to read. I chose well this summer and so I here are the best seven titles I highly recommend. I’ll be making a more conscious effort to read more in translation in 2026, so please share with me your favorites from this year.

Best Reads of 2025 Top Fiction

In 2025, I read 75 books from 22 countries (the exact same number of countries as in 2024), 55 of those titles were fiction and 20 were nonfiction.

73 percent of my reads were by female authors and 27% by male authors. Of the total books read, 15% were books in translation, originally written in a language other then English.

I will be sharing my One Outstanding Read of the year, the runner up, Top 9 Fiction, tomorrow my Top 8 Non-Fiction and since there were so many excellent reads, the following day Top 7 Reads in Translation.

One Outstanding Read of 2025

My One Outstanding Read of the year for 2025 is the non-fiction memoir, Mother Mary Comes to Me (2025) by Arundhati Roy, (review to come), a phenomenal, engaging, wide-ranging book that is as much about her mother Mary Roy as it is herself. From the back cover:

‘In these pages, my mother, my gangster, shall live. She was my shelter and my storm.’

Mother Mary Come to Me by Arundhati back cover photo of author

It is about the family she was born into, the matriarch Mary Roy she was raised by, the controversy around their housing, as her mother struggled initially to raise two children on her own, the lawsuit Mary Roy would launch against her brother and mother that changed inheritance laws in their state; the school Mary Roy founded and how it was being the child of the school principal. We follow Arundhati Roy through her seven year estrangement from family, her architectural studies, her early film-making ventures, her relationships and difficulties in them due to the strong values she held.

“When it came to me, Mrs Roy taught me how to think, then raged against my thoughts. She taught me to be free and raged against my freedom. She taught me to write and resented the author I became”

It is a raw, honest account and an insight into a passionate, dedicated, creative individual, who won the Booker Prize with her debut novel, The God of Small Things (1997) a feat that had a major effect and influence on what she has been able to do in life, and enabled the support she has been able to provide to other causes, in order that they remain independent and are not compromised by the stultifying agendas of large corporate and NGO organisations.

Outstanding Read Runner Up 2025

Someone is Walking On Your Grave My Cemetery Journeys Mariana Enriquez

Somebody is Walking On Your Grave: My Cemetery Journeys (2025) by Mariana Enriquez (Argentina) tr. Megan McDowell (Spanish) – I have to mention this book as it was also an outstanding, unique and far-reaching book that kept me entranced for the most part of October, as the author travels in 13 countries visiting 21 cemeteries, (something she is passionate about) sharing cultural anecdotes about each country, history, legend and their relationship to the dead. She wrote these essays over a period of about 25 years, starting with a visit to Genoa, Italy with her mother through two and half decades of experience, learning, and journeying that no doubt continues in her life today.

It’s not so much macabre, as it is insightful to learn about some of the communities of people she comes across, like the Welsh speaking community in Patagonia, what it means to have Taphophilia syndrome, the controversy surrounding the Pietro Gualdi marble sculpture of a seated woman in New Orleans, people who have already constructed elaborate tombs for themselves ahead of time, the dilemma of the 12th century Holy Innocents Cemetery in Paris that led to the catacombs, the first date she has with her Australian boyfriend, taking him to the aristocratic Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires, where Eva Peron was finally laid to rest (after much debate, body snatching and travel). The entire book was an eye-opener and an unforgettable read and one I highly recommend.

Top Fiction

Small Worlds (2023) by Caleb Azumah Nelson (UK/Ghanaian) – a brilliant, meandering coming-of-age story set mostly in Peckham, London. A story-line that spans three years as he finishes school and decides what to do next, it is an introspective excavation of a young British-Ghanaian man’s soul, the situations he will encounter and confront, as he matures and grows into a version of himself that he likes. I read this early in the year and this one is my Number 1. Top Fiction of the Year.

Second Class Citizen Buchi Ememcheta Nigerian Literature Classic London

Second Class Citizen (1974) by Buchi Emecheta (Nigeria/UK) – I read The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta some years ago and loved it and have long wanted to read this. It’s absolutely brilliant and poignant and tells the story of a young Nigerian girl in the 1960’s, much like the author herself, determined to get herself an education and raise herself up in the world, which she does – until a marriage and in-laws start to rely on her as their income source, so she sets London in her sights, only for the challenges to increase as children begin to appear – as a woman she has no control over her reproductive rights. It is a powerful story of a woman dealing with and overcoming the odds, in her home country and as an immigrant.

Buchi Emecheta, while raising five children, published novels, obtained a degree in sociology, wrote plays for television and radio, worked as a librarian, teacher, youth worker and sociologist, and community worker. She was one of Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 1983.

Black Woods Blue sky by Eowyn Ivey book cover, the words a reference to Proust, the cover shows black tree trunks and a blue background, behind a tree a standing bear, his shadow is the shape of a man

Black Woods, Blue Sky (2025) by Eowyn Ivey (Alaska) – Eowyn Ivey remains one of my favourite authors, most known for her debut novel The Snow Child (2012). She also wrote The Bright Edge of the World (2016) and now her latest, a novel that subtly references Beauty and the Beast, is her most autobiographical novel and again set in her local region of the wilds of Alaska.

It is the story of a troubled, young mother Birdie, her six year old daughter Emaleen and a reclusive character Arthur. Ignoring the warnings of those who care about them, Birdie and Emaleen move to Arthur’s isolated cabin in the mountains on the far side of the Wolverine River, far from roads, telephones, electricity, and outside contact. At first everything is idyllic, until it is not and this sense of things not being quite right creates acute suspense while reading. Ivey has a wonderful way of capturing the magic and menace of the wilderness while creating down to earth characters and that hint of an unsettling feeling lurking beneath the narrative.

Fundamentally Nussaibah Younis shortlisted womens prize set in UN Iraq comedy in print

Fundamentally (2025) by Nussaibah Younis (UK/Iraq/Pakistan) – Not reviewed here, but one of my favourite reads of 2025, I just loved the comic narrative voice of Fundamentally and the unique setting of a UN workplace in Iraq, even if some of the characters were somewhat cliche. Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize 2025.

When academic Nadia is disowned by her puritanical mother and dumped by her lover, she decides to leave, accepting a UN job in Iraq. Tasked with rehabilitating ISIS women, Nadia observes the inside of world international aid and finds herself quickly compromised. As the tension ratchets up, as Nadia tries to make up for her mistakes, the humour fades and the danger increases, as they cross lines that can’t be reversed.

Younis is a fearless, talented writer, creating fiction from a place of knowledge that not too many authors occupy and is able to bring depth, humour and insight to serious subjects. I found it a relief to read a light version of the harsh reality of war zones and displacement, still having the imprint of Sally Hayden’s ambitious award-winning work of nonfiction, My Fourth Time We Drowned, which depicts the plight of those seeking asylum, risking their lives taking small craft across the Mediterranean.

The Marriage Portrait (2022) by Maggie O’Farrell (Ireland/UK) – In 1540 -1561 Renaissance Italy, we encounter the story of Lucrezia of Florence, who, due to the death of her older sister Maria, becomes the intended fiance of the man her sister was going to marry, Alfonso of Ferrara. It tells of her childhood in Florence, her year of wretched wifedom, her solace in creating art and the act of sitting for a portrait that she dislikes.

Told in twin timelines, childhood and marriage, beginning with a historical note in the opening pages about her alleged death, there is an underlying tension and suspicion all the way through the narrative which adds to the pace and intrigue. The character of Lucrezia is exquisitely constructed and rich in visual imagery, thanks to her artistic inclinations, despite the fact that she is often confined to quarters. The era of Renaissance Italy, the day to day lives, the close environment of these dynastic families is intricately portrayed and sumptuously imagined.

Look out for more historical fiction from Maggie O’Farrell in 2026, Land is set in 1865 Ireland.

Scottish Island literature Clear by Carys Davies Wales

Clear (2024) by Carys Davies (Wales/UK) – Clear is a short historical novella that gripped me from the opening pages and transported me to 1843 Scotland, the time of the Great Disruption, the Highland Clearances. It is about a quiet, worrisome, rebel pastor, John Ferguson, his wife Mary and Ivar, a lone islander out in the North Sea, somewhere between the Shetland Islands and the coast of Norway.

John, like other rebel ministers who signed the controversial Act of Separation and Deed of Demission, is under financial pressure to meet his new responsibilities and accepts a paid role from a landowner’s factor against his wife’s wishes. He must visit a remote island in the north and evict the last inhabitant. Evocative of its time and place. I thought this was a brilliant, atmospheric tale.

Flashlight by Susan Choi set in Japan USA and North Korea

Flashlight (2025) by Susan Choi (US) – Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, Flashlight interested me because of its portrayal of a cross-cultural marriage (American and Korean-Japanese) and family that highlights the tensions between adults with different backgrounds and expectations, coping within one culture (America), while Louisa, the child of that union navigates her own life and connection to her parents.

Also the further stretch of scope and understanding it provides, as the narrative moves from the US to Japan to North Korea, because it concerns a family exiled from Jeju Island in South Korea, living in Japan, wanting to return. Their son Serk (Louisa’s father) has grown up and been educated in Japan and values that education, resists his family’s desire, while they wish to take up an offer to return.

When Serk goes missing, the narrative splits and we follow each family member on their own timeline, observing our characters while learning something of a complicated history of Korea and Japan. While slow to begin, this became captivating, mysterious and frightening as time began to run out for a man trying to return and a daughter trying to find herself. I loved the immersion in another culture, the multiple cultural perspectives and coming to understand the complication of borders, ethnicities, allegiances, and the creepy stealth of some nations and complete (or deliberate) ignorance of others.

Cover of The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny (2025) by Kiran Desai (India) – I do love a good cross-cultural novel, and one that is in part set in India, by a known author, sounded promising. As soon as I saw the Booker longlist I knew I would be reading this, and I loved it. The story is about two young people who have just finished studying in the US, Sunny is working as a freelance journalist and Sonia is in a college library, looking for an internship. Their families have a connection but are no longer close, however a letter arrives suggesting marriage, to absolve a past discretion, but goes nowhere.

It is an interesting navigation of their young adult lives, where they struggle to cope with the freedom and direction their lives might take, now that they are living outside of their country and culture. Both must deal with challenging issues on their own, their families far away and ignorant of their dilemmas. On a trip home, the two cross paths, make a strong connection, only to diverge again. This is enough to ignite in the reader, a wish that they might meet again, though it is clear the timing had not been right.

I loved this immersive, meandering novel, the loneliness and confusion of the protagonists, the clash of cultures and past/present values, the defiance and stubbornness of each parent, the multi-generational threads as everyone is going through their transition and it’s a wild, contemporary ride to the end. Brilliant.

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (US) – Nothing like a feel good novel to wrap up the end of the year. This is a charming book of letters by a dedicated 73 year old retired law clerk and correspondent who sits at her desk every morning to write letters, emails, notes, through which we come to learn all the issues she’s currently juggling and something of her stubborn, somewhat dogmatic attitude. It’s also an unlikely word-of-mouth book that is enjoying some success thanks to readers, not marketing hype.

It’s entertaining, has multiple engaging storylines and some of the letters contain excellent book recommendations, which is always fun for readers. There’s mystery, loss, relationship troubles, mother-daughter issues, potential love interest(s) and a tribute to the lost art of letter-writing. Loved it!

* * * * *

So that’s my Top 9 Fiction Reads for 2025, tomorrow I’ll share my Top 8 Non-Fiction Reads for 2025 and after that I’ll share my Top 7 Translated Reads of 2025.

Are any of these in your Top Reads of 2025? Let us know in the comments your thoughts, or share your favourite fiction read of 2025, I would love to know.

December 16, 2025 by Claire 'Word by Word'

The Correspondent by Virginia Evans

This book is one of those word of mouth sensations that people recommend and then it takes off. I had seen it reviewed a little earlier in the year, then a friend bought a copy and devoured it over the summer telling me this was the book, we were all going to have to read, to have that collective pleasure of knowing that people close to you, but who don’t necessarily live near you, can be on the same wavelength about a book.

One of the first things I say to reader friends who do live nearby, or visit here often and know, is that the first letter is written to the protagonist’s brother and he lives in Gordes!

How often do we encounter a book written in English that features a local postcode? Almost never! Well, only the letters travel to Gordes, but before sharing more about a book, here’s a little more about Gordes.

A Letter to Gordes

The village of Gordes France in the address of a letter to her brother Felix The Correspondent Virginia Evans

So for those who don’t know Gordes is a pretty hilltop village in Provence, in the north Luberon area that is popular in summer with tourists for its summer market, restaurants and local produce, outstanding views, lovely walks and very beautiful old streets. Also a location for a few films.

When you stay longer in Provence and get to know some of its hidden aspects, its wonderful, cultural gems often arise unexpectedly, when you least expect it. As this one did.

Victor Vasarely and Gordes

A few years ago I watched a documentary (probably on ARTE) about Gordes and how it was stumbled upon in 1948 by the French-Hungarian graphic artist Victor Vasarely (1906-1997), who had a ‘coup de foudre‘ for the village, he fell under the charm of its architecture, colours and shapes, the light and luminosity.

He would spend many summers in a very basic shepherd’s cottage 2-3 kilometres from the village, reproducing some of its shapes, feeding into the inspiration for much of his abstract creative work with shape, form and optical illusion. From the inspiration of a small window in that cottage in differing light, he would produce many works, many of them suspended tapestries, little acknowledged at the time, but today housed in the Musée Vasarely, in Jas de Bouffan, Aix en Provence.

Musée Vasarely Aix en Provence graphic art optical illusion inspiration Gordes — Vasarely Musée, Aix en Provence

In effect, as his grandson Pierre Vasarely said, referring to his grandfather’s oeuvre, if there was not (the inspiration of) Gordes, there would not be (the museum of works) Aix-en-Provence.

The Correspondent, A Novel

Back to the novel, The Correspondent is a heart-warming novel told through the collection of letters, hand-written notes, emails, any and every type of correspondence that Sybil Van Antwerp (her married name thanks to her Belgian husband now living back in Brussels) writes in her seventy -third year.

Every morning at half past ten Sybil sits at her desk to deal with her correspondence, tackling it like a job, except with much more pleasure, her years as the assistant to the Judge giving her the discipline, intellectual acuity, at times a sharp tone and years of a certain type of wisdom she uses to her advantage.

So Much to Write About and Address

There are a number of threads, correspondents, favorite topics, institutions to harass, family dramas to navigate, interested or prospective men to consider or keep at a distance, an ex-husband who is not well, a best friend who likes to read, a daughter she doesn’t see eye to eye with.

Ten Years of Correspondence

The epistolary novel The Correspondent by Virginia Evans US book cover

The narrative begins in June 2012 with that letter to Felix, about whose life we also have a little drama and it does seem to be affected by Syblil’s input, and ends in January 2022.

There are also a few letters from the 1950’s when she was a child that her best friend Rosalie sends her, these two have corresponded for many years and keep each other informed about their lives and sometimes they even fall out with each other, creating periods of silence and atonement.

Authors and Book Recommendations

Sybil and Rosalie always tell each other what they are reading and I began to note down these books in a list. Sybil never hesitated to write to authors, and had a particular fondness for writing to Joan Didion, author of The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights. Her letters to Didion are the most intimate of all, showing part of her character, feeling more able to open up to a stranger with whom she feels an affinity than to her best friend, children, or either of the men she is sort of interested in.

They read Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder, Abraham Verghese’s Cutting for Stone, Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express, another classic novel of letters 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry and many more.

In the letters from the 1950’s the girls were reading C.S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy and Isaac Asimov.

Like the heroine of “The Correspondent,” Evans is a correspondent in the old-fashioned sense. For years she has been writing letters, mainly in longhand, to friends, family and writers she didn’t expect to hear back from, such as Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. After reading Ann Patchett’s 2016 novel “Commonwealth,” Evans wrote to the author to tell her how much she liked it. Patchett wrote back.

I couldn’t help noticing that I had read many of the books mentioned and laughed when I read this quote above in an interview, as a friend gave me Commonwealth a week ago. Now I’m curious, a potential Christmas read perhaps.

Intimate With Strangers

Epistolary novel The Correspondent Virginia Evans word of mouth sensation

In addition to opening up to Didion, Sybil becomes very familiar with the Admin person from the Kindred Project after receiving a not particularly wanted gift of a DNA search. She asks multiple questions, not all of them concerning herself and ignores the fact that the responses seem standardised. She can be very insistent and often gets her own way, even with complete strangers, shades of her law career, her persistence and not always keeping terribly good boundaries.

However, there is a menace present, someone perhaps from her past, a legal case that sits in the back of her mind that she can’t quite recall, something she has pushed down, but senses with a tinge of regret. That needs addressing. She hasn’t told anyone about this; it adds an element of foreboding to her otherwise, in control, life.

When I play it all back I am ashamed, and yet I cannot imagine having done any other thing. Grief shared, I think, can produce two outcomes. Either you bind yourselves together and hold on for dear life, or you let go and up goes a wall too high to be crossed. For us it was the latter.

Does Persistence Pay Off?

Sybil likes learning and has been taking a university literature class for at least nine years before they found a loophole to exclude her. Now she is hellbent on retrieving that place, because she does not like being excluded from anything she did not decide to exclude herself by choice. And so we have the back and forth correspondence, until finally something must actually be done about it.

old handwritten letters — Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Even when Sybil acts, we know about events from follow up correspondence and yet when you finish reading the novel, it almost doesn’t seem like it has all been told through letters, as the story telling is comprehensive, the characters are well rounded and even the drama brilliantly captured.

As Sybil’s sight is failing and there arrives a kind of crescendo in her life where the mundane will no longer do, it becomes time to engage with what has been ignored or suppressed and own her part in it, we witness her own transformation having seen that of those around her through her interactions with them.

This was entertaining, heartfelt, empathetic and fun while dealing with issues around friendship, sibling relationships, mother daughter dynamics, old regrets, grief and reconciliation. And the mystery of one very long unsent correspondence, a need to reckon with a loss she has kept close to her chest these past thirty years.

A beautiful, thought provoking read, especially if you’ve had to deal with any of the issues our protagonist struggles with. An ideal Christmas gift novel for anyone who loves books and letters!

Highly Recommended.

Getting to your questions about the letter writing. I’ll start by saying your note heartened me because here is a secret: my letters have been far more meaningful to me than anything I did with the law. The letters are the mainstay of my life, where I was only practicing law for thirty years or so. The clerkship was my job; the letters amount to who I am.

Author, Virginia Evans

Virginia Evans is from the East Coast of the US. After starting a family she returned to school for her Master’s of Philosophy in creative writing at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. She lives in North Carolina.

December 9, 2025 by Claire 'Word by Word'

Saltblood by Francesca de Tores

In a rented room outside Plymouth in 1685, a daughter is born as her half-brother is dying. Her mother makes a decision: Mary will become Mark, and Ma will continue to collect his inheritance money.

Girls Initially Raised as Boys

As I began to read about Mary Read in Saltblood by Tasmanian author Francesca de Tores, I had a sense of deja vu. I paused reading and revisited my review of Irish author Nuala O’Connor’s Seaborne, another work of historical fiction, but focused on Kinsale born Anne Bonny.

Stories of Real Female Pirates

rebel pirate woman adventure Irish literature

In Saltblood, we meet Mary Read (true historical figure), raised by her mother as Mark, a practical solution to poverty, inheritance laws and social restrictions.

After such a beginning, perhaps not surprisingly, Mary preferred for some years to live as Mark, due to opportunity and freedom. Working in service in a grand house as a man led to her/him enlisting in the Navy, then as the battles moved to land, joining the Army.

From the Military to Piracy

Settling for a short period as a married woman, she would then return to the sea after a tragic loss.

I went to sea a girl dressed as a boy, and I come back as something else entirely. I come back sea-seasoned: watchful of winds, and with an eye on the tides. I do not know if I have come back wiser, or better or perhaps madder. But I am not the same. What the sea takes, it does not return.

Initially working as crew for a privateer ship (authority sanctioned raiders); when they are raided by pirates, she elects to jump ship to escape the overly attentive Captain Payton and joins pirate Captain Jack Rackman. Although in her earlier years in the navy and army she was disguised, her later years at sea she presents as a woman, but is accepted as one of the crew due to her experience and abilities.

Pirating Protocols

Most pirates know the rules: go in fierce and fast, and the captains will beg for quarter, just as Payton did, and the Spaniards now do too.

One of the things the novel does well is really give you an idea of how pirating and raids work, for a start each member of the crew is made to sign a contract ‘articles of conduct’ that state policies around behaviour, pirate behavior (such as drunkenness, fighting, and interaction with women) and disciplinary action should a code be violated. Failing to honour the Articles could get a pirate marooned, whipped, even executed. It was the Captain’s way to maintain order and avoid dissent and ensure loyalty. The articles stated how gains would be shared.

There was a lot less fighting than we might imagine. Pirates preferred their target acquiesce. A black flag signaled to a vessel that they were about to be attacked, but that “quarter” would be given. This meant the pirates would not kill everyone on board if they cooperated and handed over any cargo. Seeing the black flag instilled fear and alerted ships to what was about to happen. If crew members did not fight, they might save their lives, but not their cargo. Crew sometimes elected to join the pirate ship as Mary did.

A Companion Crow

One of the interesting fictional elements in de Tore’s version of Mary Read’s life is the appearance of a crow that follows Mary on land and out to sea. The crows presence acts as a warning to the men, it is not a good sign to them, but for Mary, it’s presence is reassuring.

A bird that can pounce from the top of the mainmast to skewer a sardine in the water, or snatch a crab from under rock and find out its soft parts, is a bird that sees well, and clear. It counts, this witnessing. To live your life under the vigilance of a crow is a kind of covenant.

A Pirate Nest in the Bahamas

Nassau became the base for English privateers, many of whom became lawless pirates over time. The Bahamas were ideal as a base for pirates as its waters were too shallow for a large man-of-war but deep enough for the fast, shallow vessels favoured by pirates.

It was here that Mary Read eventually met and befriended the much younger (by 15 years), emboldened Anne Bonny, encountered in Seaborne by Nuala O’Connor. The two women became fast friends, though opposite personalities.

Anne falls for Captain Jack and decides to join the crew, deepening her relationship with Mary simultaneously.

Next to Anne Bonny, so bold and notorious, I had thought myself meek and colourless, and my story of little note. Yet she never tires of asking me about my years in the navy, and the army. Even my years on the Walcheren, which to me seem largely drab, fascinate Anne.

A Governor on a Mission

Saltblood continues to narrate the scrapes and adventures these two embark on and the efforts of Captain Rackham to avoid Governor Rogers, an English sea captain, privateer and colonial administrator who governed the Bahamas from 1718 to 1721 and again from 1728 to 1732. He aimed to rid the colony of pirates.

Initially I started then put this aside due to that feeling of having read something too similar, it starts off slowly and didn’t really pull me in, but more recently I picked it up again and continued only to find it much more engaging, as Mary is indeed quite a different character to Anne, and I enjoyed her land adventures as much as those at sea and the way their piracy days end is unforgettable.

After reading this I noticed I had another pirate book on my shelf, a work of history, The Stolen Village: Baltimore and the Barbary Pirates by Des Ekin, review coming soon.

Author, Francesca de Tores

Francesca de Tores is a novelist, poet and academic. She is the author of five previous novels, published in over 20 languages, including Saltblood, which won the 2024 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize.

In addition to a collection of poems, her poetry is published widely in journals and anthologies. She grew up in Lutruwita/Tasmania and, after fifteen years in England, is now living in Naarm/Melbourne.

The Rome Escape Line

Inspired by Real People and Events in Rome WWII

A City of Hiding Places and Bridges

A Polyphonic Literary Thriller

Classic Theatrical Structure

Countdown To the Solo Act

A Neutral Territory Within an Occupied City

Further Reading

Author, Joseph O’Connor

Perfect Arc, Terrible Title

Northern England’s Coast to Coast

When Freedom Beckons

Further Reading

Author, David Nicholls

A Gothic Mystery in Edinburgh

Modern Life, Modern Dilemmas

Family Secrets and Omissions

Why Deny Sisterhood?

Girls’ Behaviours and Predicaments

Further Reading

Author Maggie O’Farrell

A Profound Dedication

10 Minutes 38 Seconds

A Post Death Structure

Friends on a Mission

A Clever Structure Dulls Character Recall

Further Reading

Author Elif Shafak

New Daughters of Africa

Literary Travel and Insight

A Comfort Read and a Musical Drama

Mood Reading and Library Obligations

An Irish Millennial Perspective

Grief As a Turning and Growth Point

Unresolved Mother Son Issues

Millennial Self-Consciousness and Entangled Love Lives

Using Voice Stylistically to Create Power Dynamics

A Long Positional Game

Further Reading

Author Sally Rooney

Top 7 Reads in Translation

The Runner Up Outstanding Read of 2025

Somebody is Walking On Your Grave: My Cemetery Journeys, Mariana Enriquez (Argentina) tr. Megan McDowell

Far by Rosa Riba (Spain) tr. Charlotte Coombe

The Body Where I Was Born by Guadalupe Nettel (Mexico) tr. J.T. Lichenstein

All That Remains by Virginie Grimaldi (France) tr. by Hildegarde Serle (French)

The Brittle Age (L’età fragile) by Donatella Di Pietrantonio (Italy) tr. Ann Goldstein

All Our Yesterdays, Natalia Ginzburg (Italy) tr. Angus Davidson, Intro Sally Rooney

Brandy Sour by Constantia Soteriou (Cyprus) tr. Lina Protopapa (Greek)

Further Reading

One Outstanding Read of 2025

Outstanding Read Runner Up 2025

Top Fiction

A Letter to Gordes

Victor Vasarely and Gordes

The Correspondent, A Novel

So Much to Write About and Address

Ten Years of Correspondence

Authors and Book Recommendations

Intimate With Strangers

Does Persistence Pay Off?

Further Reading

Author, Virginia Evans

Girls Initially Raised as Boys

Stories of Real Female Pirates

From the Military to Piracy

Pirating Protocols

A Companion Crow

A Pirate Nest in the Bahamas

A Governor on a Mission

Further Reading

Author, Francesca de Tores

***All Our Yesterdays*, Natalia Ginzburg (Italy) tr. Angus Davidson, Intro Sally Rooney**