Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson
In Notes From a Small Island, Bryson, who moved to England from the USA seventeen years ago and settled in North Yorkshire with his family, turns an affectionate but ironic eye on his adopted country.
Milkman - Anna Burns
In this unnamed city, to be interesting is dangerous. Middle sister, our protagonist, is busy attempting to keep her mother from discovering her maybe-boyfriend and to keep everyone in the dark about her encounter with Milkman. But when first brother-in-law sniffs out her struggle, and rumours start to swell, middle sister becomes 'interesting'.
The last thing she ever wanted to be. To be interesting is to be noticed and to be noticed is dangerous.
The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton
On an autumn day in 1686, 18-year-old Nella Oortman knocks at the door of a grand house in the wealthiest quarter of Amsterdam. She has come from the country to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt, but instead she is met by his sharp-tongued sister, Marin.
Only later does Johannes appear and present her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a cabinet-sized replica of their home. It is to be furnished by an elusive miniaturist, whose tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in unexpected ways.
The Children's Book - A.S. Byatt
A panoramic novel of family secrets, set against a backdrop of a bohemian, artistic late Victorian and Edwardian world, and with real commercial as well as literary potential, about the damage wrought by writers of children's books on their children - about predators and innocents, war and peace, art and society.