MUST READS

MUST READS

LUCY BY THE SEA

by Elizabeth Strout (Penguin £9.99, 304pp)

Twenty years ago, Lucy Barton and her husband, William, divorced after a 20-year marriage.

Lucy is a New York-based writer whose second husband recently died. William, a scientist, is also alone, and as the Covid pandemic reaches the U.S., he tells Lucy that he is taking her to stay at a friend’s house on the Maine coast.

The terrible strangeness of the pandemic gradually begins to dawn on Lucy: a fellow writer dies of Covid; a kindly neighbour in Maine keeps away, believing that they have brought the infection from the city.

Her relationship with William falls into the rhythms of their former marriage, with moments of affection and sharp irritation. But an overwhelming sense of jeopardy brings the power and fragility of love into sharp focus in Strout’s elegant and heartfelt novel.

A HEART THAT WORKS

by Rob Delaney (Coronet £10.99, 192pp)

In 2014, the American comedian Rob Delaney and his wife, Leah, moved to London, where he was filming the Channel 4 sitcom Catastrophe.

When their third son, Henry, was sick at his elder brother’s fifth birthday party, Leah and Rob weren’t especially worried. But, just after Henry’s first birthday, a scan revealed a large tumour near his brain stem.

Surgery followed, then long stays in hospital. When the cancer returned, they took the heartbreaking decision not to torture Henry with further treatment. He died in January 2018 at just two years old.

This remarkable memoir is many things: a beautiful celebration of the too-brief life of a beloved son, a generous tribute to the NHS, and a luminously candid (and often very funny) account of a family sustained by love through their unbearable loss.

THE ONLY SUSPECT

by Louise Candlish (Simon & Schuster £9.99, 448pp)

In the South London suburb of Silver Vale, Alex and his wife, Beth, have the sort of midlife marriage in which a sense of loss over their inability to have children expresses itself in general grumpiness (Alex), and enthusiastic community activism (Beth).

The latest neighbourhood project involves turning a former rail track into a wildlife trail. It is a plan that Alex views with dismay — in the 1990s, a woman’s body was discovered nearby with brutal head injuries.

Alternating chapters set in 1995 follow the budding relationship between Rick and Marina. As Rick’s obsession grows, Marina discloses increasingly troubling details of her home life in Silver Vale.

As the buried secrets of the past are exposed, the plot twists keep coming, culminating in a shocking final revelation.