Twelve for the Twelfth
I’m stuck in my house today listening to my neighbours grow increasingly more drunk as they prepare for their annual post-parade barbecue and Garth Brooks sing-along. I have decided to use my time profitably. I have washed the bin and waded my way through a fortnight’s worth of laundry, tackled the admin mountain and am now compiling a list of twelve novels which you might have missed the first time round.
If you know me at all, you’ve probably had at least one of these books thrust upon you with tremendous enthusiasm, (apologies for that). I tend to buy them as presents on a regular basis. These aren’t necessarily my favourite novels of all time, but they are books which I feel deserve a lot more attention than they’ve received. You probably won’t find them in the bestsellers or on the shortlist for major prizes but there are some absolute gems in here.
They’re an eclectic bunch. Some old. Some new. Some by author's you’ll have heard of. Others, by writers you won’t be familiar with. I hope there’s something here for everyone. I thoroughly recommend all twelve. I’ve tried to avoid books which I’ve blogged about before and, to keep my selection from spiralling out of control, have stuck to English language novels.
I hope you enjoy this selection. Let me know what you’d add to the list.
Megan Hunter - The End We Start From. London’s been submerged by a flood. A woman escapes the city having just given birth. She raises the baby in a dangerous, edge of the world dystopia. I particularly loved the sparse but incredibly provocative use of language. It’s a novel where the story’s given room to breathe.
Marianne Lee - A Quiet Tide. A stunningly written and thoroughly researched historical novel based on the life of Irish botanist Ellen Hutchens who lived in Bantry in County Cork. One of those books you can easily lose a weekend to.
Kurt Vonnegut - Timequake. The universe takes an involuntary pause in 2001. Everyone loses their capacity to think and act with autonomy. The real problems start when freewill kicks back in. Probably my favourite Vonnegut novel.
Magnus Mills - The Restraint of Beasts. Two Scottish men travel to rural England to construct a cattle fence and accidentally kill a man. Much hilarity ensues and some of the best caravan-based scenes I’ve ever read. It’s basically a funnier version of a Beckett play, in a caravan.
Cynan Jones - The Dig. Concise, dark and absolutely perfectly written, this was my first Cynan Jones book. I’ve now read them all. I still think this is the best. A double hander of a novel which focuses on a badger baiter and a farmer struggling during lambing season in rural Wales. It is just as bleak as this sounds but in a truly marvellous way.
Rachel Khong - Goodbye, Vitamin. A genuinely funny book about Alzheimer’s which is really clever, witty and also full of heart. After reading so many deeply earnest dementia narratives, this one felt like a breath of fresh air.
Will Eaves - The Absent Therapist. I’m not sure I’d call this a novel. I’m not sure what it is, aside from genius. It’s basically a collection of vignettes, musings and tiny snippets of beautifully crafted humanity. Everything Will Eaves writes is fabulous. This one is a great place to start.
Donald Antrim - The Hundred Brothers. Ninety-nine men who have little in common except the fact that they were all fathered by the same, now-deceased man, gather in the library of their crumbling ancestral mansion. Very strange. Very brilliant. A gateway to even stranger Antrim books.
Dexter Palmer- Mary Toft; or The Rabbit Queen. You may not yet know it but the thing that’s missing in your life is an absolutely brilliant historical fiction novel set in 1726, which features an English woman giving birth to rakes of rabbits. Funny, ballsy and captivating.
Bonnie Nadzeem - Lions. A straight up, gorgeously written wee novel about a young American couple facing the choice between making a life for themselves elsewhere or hunkering down in the failed ghost town which they call home. Not to be too punny, but this novel haunted me for ages after I read it.
Truman Capote; Other Voices, Other Rooms. Capote’s first novel is semi-autobiographical and follows a young boy who moves from the city to his father’s dilapidated mansion in the swamp. A novel about childhood, sexual awakening and the haunted American South.
Will Wiles; Care of Wooden Floors. A man is left to housesit whilst his friend is out of town. One small disaster leads to another and by the end of the novel the flat is barely standing and the man’s life has fallen apart. It is like the novel equivalent of an episode of Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em.
My sneaky extra bonus novel was going to be Karl Geary’s Montpelier Parade but I appear to have leant my copy to someone else. Take my word, it is brilliant though.