MUST READS

September 21, 2023

MUST READS

Really Good, Actually

by Monica Heisey

(4th Estate £9.99, 384pp)

Maggie is 28 and has been married to her university sweetheart, Jon, for 608 days when she suggests he leave and he goes, taking their beloved cat with him. ‘In many ways,’ Maggie reflects, ‘it was the last thing we agreed on.’

Luckily, she is surrounded by a supportive group of friends, willing to indulge her post-breakup melt-downs. At the university English department where she works, her older and wiser colleague, Merris, is sympathetic to the extent of letting Maggie move into her basement flat.

But all this support still leaves Maggie with plenty of time for the traditional diversions of millennial heartbreak: wild online ordering, stalking her ex on social media and going on disastrous dates.

Heisey’s bittersweet comedy will resonate with anyone who has ever lived through heartbreak and (sort of) healing.

Woodston

by John Lewis-Stempel

(Penguin £10.99, 352pp)

Woodston Farm, on the borders of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Shropshire, was part of Lewis-Stempel’s childhood.

His grandfather, Joe Amos, was the farm manager for 30 years. But the land that became Woodston’s fertile fields is far older than human history, and in his latest book Lewis-Stempel tells its story, from its pre-human origins as a fiery desert, then a dinosaur-haunted swamp, to the gentle, temperate landscape that has sheltered humans from the Stone Age to the present day.

Farming began early at Woodston: sheep came to Britain around 4,000 BC, oxen drew primitive ploughs, while pigs turned the soil.

In his lyrical account of the traditions that followed the seasons, Lewis-Stempel argues that the wisdom of the old ways is as timely now as it ever was.

The Hike

by Lucy Clarke

(Harper Collins £8.99, 384pp)

Each year Liz, Helena, Maggie and Joni go on holiday together. Although they are now at very different places in their lives — Liz a super-organised GP and mother, Helena a sophisticated career woman, Maggie an artistic single parent and Joni a rock star — their close bond has endured since their school days.

Whether it will survive Liz’s choice of holiday destination is another matter. Her idea of a good time is a week’s wild camping in Norway, during which they will hike through forests and climb a mountain.

Arriving at their base, a cosy lodge, they sense a disquieting atmosphere: a young woman has vanished and suspicion hangs around the lodge owner’s brother, Erik. Dark secrets emerge like trolls from the wilderness in Clarke’s intricately plotted thriller.

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