As we shake off the last of the winter chill and relish in the slowly rising temperatures, there’s a renewed sense of optimism in the air. We associate spring with new beginnings: not only in nature, but in ourselves – an opportunity for reflection, renewal and re-alignment. In literature, spring is rarely just a backdrop, it’s a metaphor.
With this in mind, we asked literary muse Rachel Soo Thow (of The Lit List) to share a few of her top reads that capture the essence of the new season. Whether through characters seeking redemption or lives rebuilt from loss, each book on this list touches on the idea what it means to begin again.
The Sense of an Ending – Julian Barnes
The novel follows a middle-aged man who is confronted with dark events from his past and as a result must reconsider his complicity in hurting another when he was much younger. It’s a reflective read and a short one but one that packs a powerful punch as it seeks to question the subjectivity of memory and the role of regret and how it’s never too late to make amends.
Writers & Lovers – Lily King
31-year-old Casey mourning the death of her mother and a messy break up, is directionless and trying to meet ends meet in Massachusetts. She still yearns to live out her creative dreams and relive her youth all whilst somehow being in the midst of a love triangle – her friends have given up on their own creative ambitions in favor of stability and so she continues trying to juggle art with ‘real life’ and that terrifying leap between the end of one phase of life and the beginning of another.
The Summer Without Men – Siri Hustvedt
A woman named Mia retreats to a prairie town from her childhood after her husband of 30 years asks her for a pause in the marriage while he indulges his infatuation with a young infatuation. Amongst the rage that follows, Mia starts to realise that this is a fight she needs to face on her own terms and begins to find a clearer sense of own wants and how she wants to pursue them.
Sorrow and Bliss – Meg Mason
Forty-year-old Martha used to be on top of the world, working at Vogue and living in Paris. Now, she’s about to move out of the home she once shared with her estranged husband Patrick to move back in with her dysfunctional family. But Martha has been suffering from her own issues since she was seventeen. From one doctor’s appointment to another, she was desperate to find out why nothing made her happy and how she could suddenly alienate those closest to her. Now she has no other choice than to go back to where all the chaos started, hoping to find some answers and write a new ending.
Think Again – Jacqueline Wilson
Revisiting the girls we loved as kids, Jacqueline Wilson brings back the icons, now aged 40 trying to navigate life and love. With a love life that is non-existent and a life on autopilot, Ellie feels she wasn’t quite where she thought she would be by her late thirties and as she turns 40, it’s time for all of that to change whether she likes it or not. It’s a novel about letting in the surprises, discovering life and finding fulfillment in unexpected places – opening yourself up to things that may scare you, and inviting change, only if you let it.
Welcome To the Hyunam-dong Bookshop – Hwang Boreum
Yeongju did everything she was supposed to do in life – get a degree, marry a man and get a great job, then it all fell apart. Burnt out, she abandons her old life and opens her own bookshop and takes comfort in a place where she begins to learn how to truly live and find comfort and acceptance in the life she is now leading. Grappling with aspects of regret and societal pressures, this is a novel we can all truly embrace as the search for happiness and acceptance is sometimes a rocky journey.
The Emperor of Gladness – Ocean Vuong
A 19-year-old Hai on the brink of suicide develops a friendship with an elderly woman with dementia called Grazina and becomes her caretaker. As their bond develops, Vuong’s prose reflects adolescence and the unexpected friendships that form, the complexities of immigrant experiences in America, healing and the realities of American life. The search for a second chance at American life and the profound ways that people choose to do so is what makes this such a beautiful narrative.
