My favourite books this year in no particular order:
The extraordinary story of Marie-Madeleine Méric, the beautiful Parisian mother, who became head of one of the most successful resistance networks in France during WWII and top of the Gestapo’s most wanted list.
While still in college, Sam and Sadie create a wildly successful video game, becoming both wealthy and famous in the process. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is an exploration of love, fame, disability, identity and the complexities of friendship – love, jealousy, ambition and resilience.
This meticulously researched historical fiction novel tells the almost-forgotten story of the American GIs stationed in Wellington, New Zealand, during WWII. The Kiwis were welcoming to a point, with many feeling that their boys should have been sent home from Africa and Europe to defend the nation, rather than these strangers, with their strange ways, from the other side of the world. The local women were intrigued by the newcomers, but many budding romances were cut short by the harsh realities of the war in the Pacific. When Lorna’s family befriends brothers, first Stan, then Alfie, no one foresees the long-lasting and far-reaching consequences.
When Frankie’s brother ships out to fight in Vietnam, she follows him as an Army nurse. Thrown into a war zone with no experience, she is overwhelmed by the chaos, forming deep friendships and suffering devastating heartbreaks. But the return to America is only the beginning of the betrayal faced by the returning service personnel as the nation seeks to forget the war, almost succeeding in forgetting the role of the women who served.
I first encountered Dervla McTiernan at the Auckland Writers’ Festival earlier this year and couldn’t believe that I hadn’t read anything by her. So, I quickly rectified that with What Happened to Nina? Nina disappears after a weekend away with her boyfriend, Simon. As Nina’s family searches for answers, they are quickly outgunned by Simon’s wealthy parents, who call in the lawyers and PR people, in this twisty thriller.
This clever novel is set in an alternate version of England in the 1970s. Three brothers are the only boys left at an orphanage because of a mysterious illness that they’ve been unable to overcome. They have watched many lucky boys before them leave for Margate, a place which has taken on almost mythical proportions. Nearby, Nancy lives with her doting parents, who never let her leave the house because it is too dangerous. But when the boys’ and Nancy’s lives intersect, the truth of their existence is revealed in this chilling novel. Fans of Kazuo Ishiguro will enjoy this.