Three Best Fiction Books to Read Now
With so many novels and works of fiction to choose from these days, where do you start? We’ve rounded up our selection of the very best fiction books to give you some pointers if you’re looking to escape for a few hours.
The Magician (Colm Toibin)
The Magician tells the story of Thomas Mann, whose life was filled with great acclaim and contradiction. He would find himself on the wrong side of history in the First World War, cheerleading the German army, but have a clear vision of the future in the second, anticipating the horrors of Nazism.
He would have six children and keep his homosexuality hidden; he was a man forever connected to his family and yet bore witness to the ravages of suicide. He would write some of the greatest works of European literature, and win the Nobel Prize, but would never return to the country that inspired his creativity.
Through one life, Colm Toibin tells the breathtaking story of the twentieth century.
Six Tudor Queens (Alison Weir)
The culmination of Weir’s sweeping Tudor saga focuses on the last of Henry VIII’s sextet of wives, Katharine Parr, and tells a compelling tale of religious suppression, unrequited love and regal duty.
The ageing King's eye falls upon her. She cannot refuse him... or betray that she wanted another. She becomes the sixth wife - a queen and a friend. Henry loves and trusts her. But Katharine is hiding another secret in her heart, a deeply held faith that could see her burn...
Renowned historian Alison Weir, author of the Sunday Times bestselling Six Tudor Queens series, reveals a warm, clever woman of great fortitude who rose boldly to every turn her life took: Henry VIII's last wife - Katharine Parr, the queen who survived him.
Beautiful World, Where Are You (Sally Rooney)
Alice, a novelist, meets Felix, who works in a distribution warehouse, and asks him if he’d like to travel to Rome with her. In Dublin, her best friend Eileen is getting over a break-up, and slips back into flirting with Simon, a man she has known since childhood.
Alice, Felix, Eileen and Simon are still young—but life is catching up with them. They desire each other, they delude each other, they get together, they break apart. They have sex, they worry about sex, they worry about their friendships and the world they live in. Are they standing in the last lighted room before the darkness, bearing witness to something? Will they find a way to believe in a beautiful world?
Find the above books at www.waterstones.com
Photos: TLMB