Lily Clapshaw
Lily has been with us at the bookshop since mid-August having graduated from university back in the Spring. As her parents are new Aldeburgh locals she has been loving working so close by and gaining hands-on experience in the book-selling world! This has been particularly useful as she is interested in a career in publishing. She will be off in late November to go traveling through Australasia and Southeast Asia but hopefully will be back next summer before continuing her studies.
Sally Rooney
Normal People
Paperback £9.99
Fittingly entitled, it is Sally Rooney’s gut wrenching portrayal of ‘normality’ in this novel that has resulted in such a seemingly mundane love story connecting with so many. Set against the backdrop of the 2008 recession in County Sligo Ireland, Connell and Marianne’s initial union is presented as being almost as doomed as their surroundings. Despite this unusual beginning, their sensitivity and inexplicable care for the other prevents a separation from ever lasting long. Throughout their story, Rooney articulates their self conscious inner dialogue with infuriating detail as their inability to fully divulge their insecurities brings re occurring complexity to the relationship. Although there is an inevitable impossibility to their partnership it is equally impossible to envisage them apart. Expressed with undeniable warmth and compassion and familiarity it is both a joy and a painful pleasure to live alongside Connell and Marianne in these pages.
Nina Stibbe
Reasons to be Cheerful
Paperback £8.99
Reasons to be Cheerful is the comically told and heart-warmingly insightful story of a young woman in 1980s Leicester who recently departed her family home to embark on work as a dental assistant. With no previous training or particular ambition for this line of work, Lizzie is thrust into the center of an endlessly chaotic workplace. Suddenly taking orders from an eccentric boss, navigating her puzzling new status of ‘girlfriend’, and experiencing independence from her unhinged, alcoholic mother for the first time, Stibbe narrates Lizzie’s excessive struggles in everyday life with tender hilarity. The juxtaposition of such exaggerated characters against the crushing normality of working-class Leicester enables this coming-of-age novel to innocently depict first-time occurrences with a tone that is both familiar and sensitive. And really funny.
Audrey Niffenegger
The Time Traveler's Wife
Paperback £9.99
The Time Traveler’s Wife digresses from that of a traditional love story. This is almost entirely as a result of Henry and Clare, the two central characters’, relationship being characterised by Henry’s ability to involuntarily travel in time to different moments in his life. Whilst their initial meeting introduces Clare as only a small child, their lives continually intersect with a frustrating confusion until they are temporally synced for a period. As a reader, this story was far deeper than an escapist fantasy. On the contrary, it was utterly convincing in its exploration of how our time to experience the deep roots of familial love is limited, all from the perspective of a man who sees his life through every lens and age imaginable.
Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar
Parperback £9.99
This story commences in the buzzing environs of 1950s New York as a summer of work experience draws to a close for the protagonist, Esther. Far from signifying a dwindling of her opportunities however, Esther’s career prospects and intelligence are conveyed with a dazzling certainty. Irrespective of this, the plot follows a rapid unravelling of her mental state. Mirroring Plath’s real-life struggles in her own early-20s, there is an honesty imparted on this novel that forces the reader to reflect on each painful revelation that is divulged. Frequently compared to poetry for the effortlessly beautiful metaphors employed to describe the ugly entrapment of severe mental health issues, Esther is heart wrenchingly far away and yet dangerously close to familiarity. It is exciting, crushingly sad, lost and at points bizarrely uplifting. In spite of it all, there is something oddly optimistic and beautiful about Plath’s only novel.
Elena Ferrante
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
Paperback £9.99
Written under the pseudonym Elena Ferrante, ‘Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay’ is the third out of a quartet of novels set in 20th century Naples. Whilst the plot line tends to diverge in a multitude of directions, each story ultimately centres around the complex friendship between two women, Elena and Lila. This begins with their unlikely union in childhood and draws to a close in their old age. From the first novel, ‘My Brilliant Friend’ to the last ‘The Story of the Lost Child’, Elena, a fictional character although suspected of resembling the author’s own upbringing, narrates the trials and tribulations of existing alongside her closest friend in the politically turbulent Neapolitan environs. ‘Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay’ sees Elena and Lila graduate into middle age and grapples with themes of jealousy, abandonment and motherhood through a brutal and unforgiving lens. The severity of the encounters that they endure is executed through the bleak writing style that Ferrante employs. At times depressing, and often infuriating, one cannot help but admire the shear relentlessness of their unique and involuntary bond.
To Look Forward To
Dolly Alderton
Good Material
Hardback £16.99 (published 9th November)
The highly anticipated new Dolly novel spans the turbulent months following a 35-year-old stand-up comedian’s break up with his long-term girlfriend. Dumped and bemused by the love of his life’s recent exit from their partnership, Andy endeavours to discover why she fell out of love with him. Told with equal parts humour and sensitivity, ‘Good Material’ is littered with profound insights that simultaneously expose and connect with any reader. It observantly captures the typical (and a typical) dynamics of male friendship, reviews problematic compromises in a long-term relationship and revisits what a fulfilling life could look like for a modern woman with a refreshing degree of honesty. Alderton’s pitch-perfect tone ensures that her readership feels continuously understood.