This book is quite outrageous and won’t be for everyone, seeing as it is about a female teacher grooming young male students for her sexual pleasure. While there’s a lovely aching quality to the overall storyline, there’s also an unspoken tension and unease, a kind of creepiness that pervades the woman’s motivations, which makes the book difficult to put down.Īnother book about a woman who develops an unhealthy relationship and is similarly creepy is… One of the nannies he rejects develops an unhealthy obsession with him: she essentially becomes his stalker. In this rather dark story by one of my favourite writers, a widower interviews several young women in his search for a nanny to look after his baby daughter. ‘Death in Summer’ by William Trevor (1999)
The book opens on the day of Emmett’s funeral. Another book that begins with a funeral is… The central figure in the novel is Emmett Brown, an abusive, alcoholic father of four children, whose violent behaviour has long-lasting repercussions on his family. Set in working-class Melbourne, this story follows the lives of one family between the late 1960s and the present day. ‘The Book of Emmett’ by Deborah Forster (2010) It’s a wonderfully realised portrait of an Irish Catholic family headed by a widower who manipulates his children using violence, emotional blackmail and an obstinate refusal to do anything that is not on his own terms.Īnother book about a domineering, brutal father is… McGahern depicts Moran as all-too-human, someone who is so emotionally starved that you can feel nothing but pity for him. Shortlisted for the 1990 Booker Prize, this is about an Irishman holed up at home in his dying days, surrounded by his three adult daughters who want him to get better despite the fact the relationship between them all is very strained. But her heart is in the right place.Īnother book featuring a main character who is cantankerous and difficult is… Annie is not an easy person to like: she struggles with jealousy and rage, and is cantankerous and difficult. That aunt, Annie Dunne, is actually Sebastian Barry’s own aunt - and Barry, himself, is the four-year-old boy in the story. This eloquent, heartfelt novel is about two children who go to stay with their aunt one summer in the late 1950s. You don’t need to be a Beatles fan to enjoy it, because it’s a glorious adventure tale and the 37-year-old man at the heart of it could be almost anyone going through a personal and creative crisis.Īnother book that is based on a real person, albeit someone who isn’t famous, is… This brilliantly inventive, funny, sad and wise novel fictionalises a short period in John Lennon’s life.
Another book that takes a real person and fictionalises their life is… I haven’t read Rodham, but I know it’s based on Hilary Clinton and imagines what might have happened to the trajectory of her life had she not met and married Bill Clinton.
It’s the first Saturday of the month, which means it’s time to participate in Six Degrees of Separation, a book meme that is hosted by Kate from booksaremyfavouriteandbest.
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