The best books of 2019
Sarra Manning picks her favourite reads of the year
The Confession by Jessie Burton (Picador, £16.99) Female identity and motherhood are explored in this novel. Desperate to find her mother who disappeared, Rose tracks down her mother’s old friend, reclusive novelist Constance.
Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout (Viking, £14.99) We’re reunited with the difficult, irascible Olive Kitteridge and follow the messy, often tragic lives of her and her neighbours in this book full of hope and humanity.
Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls (Hodder & Stoughton, £20) It was good to have Nicholls return with this coming-of-age story. When Charlie meets Fran, he has to join a troupe of Shakespearean players to win her love.
In At The Deep End by Kate Davies (The Borough Press, £12.99) One of the funniest books I’ve read. Julia comes out as a lesbian and realises that men don’t have the copyright on toxicity when she falls in love with the manipulative Sam.
City Of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
(Bloomsbury Publishing, £16.99)
I felt like I’d waited all my life to read City Of Girls. Its heroine, Vivian, leaps off the page in this novel that’s mostly set in 1940s New York and is full of ingénues, showgirls and women who refuse to go quietly.
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Hutchinson, £12.99)
Written as an oral history, this tale of Daisy Jones and the dysfunctional relationship she has with Billy Dunne and his band, The Six, made me listen to Fleetwood Mac on repeat.
Expectation by Anna Hope (Doubleday, £12.99)
The friendship novel deconstructed and redefined. Expectation charts the course of a 10-year friendship between three women as they navigate careers, marriage and dashed dreams.
The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell (Century, £12.99) The best thriller of 2019! In a house in Chelsea, three adults have been dead for days. The children who live there have disappeared, but there’s a healthy baby in a room upstairs…
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo (Hamish Hamilton, £14.99) Spanning more than 100 years and following the lives of 12 people, this is a beautiful paean to what it means to be black, British and female. A worthy winner of the Booker Prize.
The Garden Of Lost And Found by Harriet Evans (Headline, £16.99)
Sir Edward Horner destroys his celebrated painting days before his death. A century later, his great granddaughter uncovers a secret.