Here are 100 books that What We Can Know fans have personally recommended if you like
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Elif Shafak has done it again! A consummate storyteller, she immerses us in the very different stories of three individuals across time and place, their experiences linked by the part played in their respective fates through two of the great rivers of the world. This compassionate, profound novel, beautifully articulated, makes us think about the significance of belonging, displacement and much else. It makes for a compelling read and I see it as a joint first choice rather than a second favourite!
This is the story of one lost poem, two great rivers, and three remarkable lives - all connected by a single drop of water.
*****
In the ruins of Nineveh, that ancient city of Mesopotamia, there lies hidden in the sand fragments of a long-forgotten poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh.
In Victorian London, an extraordinary child is born at the edge of the dirt-black Thames. When his brilliant memory earns him a spot as an apprentice at a printing press, the world opens up far beyond the slums and across the seas.
After a reclusive childhood within the dank walls of Haggard House, Adam Bolton, at the age of eleven, is finally allowed to attend the village school, providing he obeys his mother, Sarai's, injunction. Against all outward influence, he must: “Keep to the straight and…
As a biographer and historian, I had been deeply impressed by Charles King's study of the origins of modern Istanbul, 'Midnight at the Pera Palace'. So I was thrilled to discover that his latest book 'Every Valley' explores the eighteenth century English society that helped make possible Handel's 'Messiah'. I was not disappointed. Here is a writer whose research is impeccable but who wears his scholarship lightly and writes with conviction and verve. The clever structure peoples the story with not only the brilliant composer himself but also figures such as the librettist Charles Jennens and the philanthropist Thomas Coram, showing us how crucial they were to Handel and the great oratorio. We learn about slavery, wars, sex scandal and much else before a triumphant crescendo brings all the pieces together with the musical masterpiece itself.
Every Valley is a glittering narrative history of intertwined lives that tells the story behind one of the greatest pieces of music ever written, Handel's Messiah.
'A delicious history of music, power, love, genius, royalty and adventure. Unforgettable.' SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE
London - Dublin, 1741-42. An actress mired in scandal plans her escape from an abusive husband. A penniless sea captain sets out to rescue the city's abandoned infants. An African Muslim and former captive in the colonies becomes a celebrity. A grieving political dissident seeks release from his torment. And a great composer to kings - George Frideric Handel…
A heartrending and beautiful memoir of sudden loss and a journey to peace, from the bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Horse.
Many cultural and religious traditions expect those who are grieving to step away from the world. In contemporary life, we are more often met with red tape and to-do lists. This is exactly what happened to Geraldine Brooks when her partner of more than three decades, Tony Horwitz - just sixty years old and, to her knowledge, vigorous and healthy - collapsed and died on a Washington, D. C. sidewalk.
After spending their early years together in conflict zones…
This is a novel about choices. How would you have chosen to act during the Second World War if your country had been invaded and occupied by a brutal enemy determined to isolate and murder a whole community?
That’s the situation facing an ordinary family man with two children, a…
Building on the classics, the author takes the reader into a fabulous new direction, and makes you wonder if we've been there all along. Tremendously original, beautifully written.
It is a deeply researched look at what Josephine Baker actually did during WWII and how she dedicated her time to helping the Allies. The author takes you beyond the banana-skirted dancer into a person of convictions with the courage to act on them.
The full story of Josephine Baker's wartime and intelligence work in France and North Africa
Before the Second World War, Josephine Baker (1906-1975) was one of the most famous performers in the world. She made her name dancing on the Parisian stage, but when war broke out she decided not to return to America. Instead, Baker turned spy for the French Secret Services.
In this engaging, deeply researched study, Hanna Diamond tells the full story of Baker's actions for the French and Allied powers in World War Two. Drawing on previously unseen material, Diamond reveals the vital role Baker played…
'This imaginative and empathetic book will probably not guide you to better sleep, but it will be a fine companion for the wakeful hours' GUARDIAN
'A rich kaleidoscope of a book in which a series of visions emerge from the shadows' FINANCIAL TIMES
'A celebration of the exuberance of night-time and a moving portrait of the dangers of the dark' THE TIMES
'A beautifully written combination of personal reflection and broader thought . . . at once atmospheric and touching' Louise Doughty, author of Apple Tree Yard
The night is a time of darkness and nightmares, fear and vulnerability, especially…
A quiet, unsettling literary fiction novel about damaged outsiders finding each other. Ideal for fans of Never Let Me Go, Atonement, or The Virgin Suicides. From a BAFTA-winning screenwriter, now returning to novel writing.
In 1986, with Chernobyl smouldering on the news and the Cold War casting a…
In this witty fantasy horror from New York Times bestselling, Nebula and Hugo award-winning author T. Kingfisher, a young woman seeking a fresh start is confronted by ancient gods, malevolent supernatural forces, and eccentric neighbours in an isolated desert town.
Perfect for fans of Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Chuck Tingle, and Rachel Harrison.
With only a few dollars to her name and her beloved dog Copper by her side, Selena flees her past in the city to claim her late aunt's house in the desert town of Quartz Creek.
Selena loves the strange beauty of the desert. But the people of Quartz…
Writing is about the metaphysical as well as the rational if it’s any good. As an author, I am always more interested in the wreckage of a crisis than the crisis itself—in the aftermath. Survivors search for purpose above all else. They undertake long sojourns, seek spiritual counsel, or find solace in art or politics. As a writer who has dealt with illness for most of my adult life, I think one path that is shared by all these novels is the discovery of agency—over one’s body, one’s choices, and one’s own life and death. There lies meaning.
This is a meta-fictional novel about the fragile state of memory and interpretation.
Stories can save us, and in the case of 13-year-old Briony Tallis, stories can ruin us. A single accusation is enough to destroy her sister, a young man’s life, and their future together. It shows us that the art of writing can be both sacred and profane.
It is a novel inhabited by ghosts, one that taught me the importance of absence in storytelling, of the silences and liminal spaces when writing about epic events. The style obfuscates the plot, then later renders it in vivid detail.
What lives between the lines is critical. It asks if forgiveness and acts of retribution can counter the death that eventually comes for all of us.
On the hottest day of the summer of 1934, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching her is Robbie Turner, her childhood friend who, like Cecilia, has recently come down from Cambridge. By the end of that day, the lives of all three will have been changed for ever. Robbie and Cecilia will have crossed a boundary they had not even imagined at its start, and will have become victims of the younger girl's imagination. Briony will have witnessed mysteries, and committed a…
Like all trauma, healing happens on its own timetable, often in surprising ways.
Paralyzed by grief ten years after witnessing the violent death of her six-year-old daughter, Teresa Calvano turns to Chaucer, Janis Joplin, and a monthly book group to cope.
What did six-year-old Serena Calvano see that caused her…
What struck me most about this book is the first person narration of Mr Stevens, a butler who, while encouraged to take a holiday in the form of a road trip, realises how inept he is in social situations.
He then reflects on his commitment to his job, and as the reader, we see how his sense of duty has kept him from leading a full and satisfying life.
This is a beautiful character study, and a book I couldn't put down.
*Kazuo Ishiguro's new novel Klara and the Sun is now available to preorder*
The Remains of the Day won the 1989 Booker Prize and cemented Kazuo Ishiguro's place as one of the world's greatest writers. David Lodge, chairman of the judges in 1989, said, it's "a cunningly structured and beautifully paced performance". This is a haunting evocation of lost causes and lost love, and an elegy for England at a time of acute change. Ishiguro's work has been translated into more than forty languages and has sold millions of copies worldwide.
Stevens, the long-serving butler of Darlington Hall, embarks on…
