Fiction

Here We Are by Graham Swift, Simon & Schuster

An ethereal foray into the vanishing world of the magician, this is a gentle, touching novel. It’s 1959 and Ronnie “the Great Pablo” Deane, 28, and his assistant, Evie, are top of the bill at the theatre on Brighton Pier, England. Jack is everyone’s compere with the most. After the show the trio go to the theatricals’ pub where Jack always has a different girl on his arm – “Who’s your Flora this week?” asks Evie. “Just because we’re engaged for the summer season, it doesn’t mean we have to,” jokes Ronnie, master of the quips. Rewind to September 1939 when eight-year-old Ronnie is evacuated from badly bombed London to the Oxfordshire house of childless couple Mr and Mrs Lawrence, which even has a room for sitting and for dining.

Eric has a card table with a top hat and cane. The boy who arrived with a cardboard label round his neck to show where he’s from begins his wide-eyed education. His East End “F**kin ‘ells” bounce off Penelope’s “Here We Are!” as she shoots through with ginger beer for all. Beautiful, breathtaking and heart-wrenching.

LOVE AFTER LOVE by Ingrid Persaud, Allen & Unwin

This compelling family saga by Trinidadian author Ingrid Persaud reaches into your heart. When Betty Ramdin’s abusive alcoholic husband dies, she takes in teacher Mr Chetan as a lodger. He forms a special bond with

Betty’s shy, five-year-old son, Solo, and the three become a unit. But Betty’s amorous advances on Chetan reveal that he is gay in a country where it’s illegal and later we discover Betty’s part in her husband’s death.

THE SECRET LIFE OF SHIRLEY SULLIVAN by Lisa Ireland, Penguin

Lisa Ireland taps into the Shirley Sullivan in all of us in this charming study of a happy marriage struggling with the traumas of old age and illness. Shirley and Frank have been together for 57 years and they are not ready to part. So Shirley hatches a plan to take Frank out of the Sunset Lodge nursing home and back to some of their favourite places.

MELTING MOMENTS by Anna Goldsworthy, Black Inc

Set in Adelaide in the 1940s, this sharply observed tale follows the life of Ruby Jenkins from her ill-judged marriage through motherhood and widowhood. Ruby’s decisions are fuelled by ideals of middle-class respectability, leaving her with a life that feels unfulfilled.