I’ve read all the titles in this first instalment of March paperbacks beginning with a 2024 favourite: Carys Davies’s Clear, set in 1843. Having impoverished himself and his wife by resigning his living to become a minister in the newly formed Free Church of Scotland, John Ferguson reluctantly accepts a lucrative offer preparing the clearance of the last man from an island whose owner wishes to populate with sheep. The day after John lands, Ivar finds him naked and unconscious. As Ivar nurses John back to health, he begins to realise how lonely he’s been, transferring the affections for the picture of Mary he’s found in John’s belongings as they learn each other’s language. Gorgeous images sing out from elegantly spare prose in this brief novella together with the occasional flash of humour.
Tom Lamont’s warm-hearted, empathetic debut, Going Home, follows Téo who finds himself in charge of two-year-old Joel after his mother takes her own life. Social Services’ machinery grinds into action with the help of Sibyl, the local rabbi, deeming Téo a suitable temporary carer, plunging him into a parenting role he didn’t ask for while his wealthy, hedonistic best friend Ben looks on. Over the next year, a kind of family is formed from this disparate set of characters plus Téo’s enthusiastic father who sees a fresh chance in Joel. This is a setup which might well have descended into sentimental schlock but Lamont steers it well clear of that.
Moa Herngren’s The Divorce explores the end of a long marriage from both points of view. When Bea discovers that Niklas has forgotten to book their tickets to her beloved Gotland, she lets out a furious tirade prompting him to walk out of the apartment, not for the first time. By the following summer both their lives have changed in ways neither could have expected. Herngren tells the couple’s story in three parts beginning with Bea before switching to Niklas then bringing them together in the final section. I found myself taking sides fairly quickly which I hadn’t expected, hoping for a more balanced view of the split, but I enjoyed Herngren’s novel and would be happy to read more by her. 
Acclaimed short story writer Niamh Mulvey’s The Amendments follows three generations of Irish women, from the 1970s to 2018 when Nell and her partner Adrienne are expecting their first child, a prospect that terrifies Nell. Mulvey’s intricately plotted novel shifts perspectives between Nell and her mother Dolores. Through the experience of Brigid, Dolores and Nell, a carefully nuanced picture emerges of a country which has changed beyond recognition, from the 1970s, when Brigid had no choice but to carry seven children, to her granddaughter’s marriage to the biological mother of their son. I thoroughly enjoyed this deeply immersive, compassionate novel.
Spanning three timelines, Alex Schulman’s Malma Station follows a married couple grappling with a crisis, a single father and his daughter together with a woman hoping to solve a mystery left behind by her mother, all following the same train route. As they travel through the Swedish countryside in the September sun, many years apart, the connections between each of these characters and why they feel impelled to make their journeys becomes clear. As quietly gripping as Schulman’s enjoyable debut, The Survivors, it’s a cleverly constructed novel, sensitive and perceptive, with a less dramatic but equally surprising reveal at the end.
That’s it for March’s first batch of paperbacks. A click on a title will take you to my review should you want to know more, and if you’d like to catch up with new fiction it’s here and here. Part two soon…
