Christmas Fiction Picks

The whole Christmas season is many things to many people. With any luck, togetherness, kindness and family play a big part in that for all of us. The other thing that marks this period is a certain sense of retrospection – a thoughtfulness about the past, both historical and personal.

And that brings us neatly to our first festive clutch of fiction picks. All of these have the human heart at their centres. But they all also concern the ideas of destiny, fate and the possibility of forging new paths through life. …making them the ideal book-gifts for lovers of histories, mysteries and, of course, romances.

Take a look

Here One Moment

by Liane Moriarty

One thing that we all have in common, regardless of our circumstances and whatever the perceived differences between us, is the need to know what comes next. When offered that chance, however slightly, we are brought together in unexpected and revealing ways.

With her new novel, Liane Moriarty turns her unusual understanding of people and what makes us tick onto this very idea, with stunning, genre-defying results. Here One Moment is a riveting blend of mystery, social drama and elegant thriller that’ll keep you guessing right the way through.

Here we have a disparate group of strangers: a young couple, a nurse, an overworked father, a flight attendant, a grieving young man, an ER Nurse, a struggling mother. Each of them is consumed by the formative events of their lives – missed birthdays, retirement, a honeymoon, a funeral, the daily grind and the emotional labour that goes with it. But they are all about to be drawn together by a mysterious old woman – a psychic or a fraudster, or some elderly crank peddling nonsense. She has words for each of them about their futures. Words that tie them to her. And thus to each other. Can any of it be real? And do they even get to choose whether they find out?

Counting Miracles

by Nicholas Sparks

 What better time to give the heartstrings a good ‘ol tug than Christmas? And who better to tug on those heartstrings than Nicholas Sparks? And then, of course, ‘tis the season of miracles too.

 The author of The Notebook and The Longest Ride is back with another real tearjerker: a tale of finding yourself and finding your place, of altering paths and embracing pasts, and of those chance meetings that can change everything.

 Army man Tanner has never settled down. He’s never wanted to. He feels most at home adventuring his way across the country, arriving and then leaving, arriving and then leaving. But the dying words of his grandmother, the woman who raised him, inspire him to go in search of his roots. She leaves him with a revelation about the father he never knew… and about where he might be found. Thus he journeys to Asheboro, North Carolina. Just to see what he can find out.

 Kaitlyn, a doctor and single mother, lives in Asheboro. That’s exactly where she wants to be and she has everything she needs. Or, at least, she thought so, until she met Tanner.

 Nearby, elderly loner Jasper lives in the forest, with only his dog for company, still mourning the accident that took everything from him. In his grief and isolation, he becomes obsessed with the mythical white deer of the forest and vows to protect it… with his life if necessary.

 When fate draws these three characters together, they are surprised to find themselves rethinking all they know about themselves. But not one of them is expecting the miracle that binds them forever.

By Any Other Name

by Jodi Picoult

 Over the course of nearly 30 novels, Jodi Picoult has crafted a host of memorable dilemmas and explored a great many themes. But there are two that she returns to… because they will never stop being both significant and emotive: who gets to tell a story? and what must women do to be truly seen?

 It’s these two themes that take centre stage in By Any Other Name, and they do so by spanning four hundred years and digging into what might continue to be the most intriguing question of authorship in the Anglophone world.

In Elizabethan England, at the end of the 16th century, a young woman, however talented, has little chance of realising her artistic aspirations. Unless, of course, she can hit upon an ingenious scheme and somehow achieve the social mobility to set it in motion.

 Emilia Bassano has a considerable gift for storytelling, and a wit that ought rightly to be celebrated. She’s educated, talented and determined. She knows that she could, that she should, be a literary luminary… but she knows too that nobody will let her in knowingly. However, circumstances have landed her among the aristocracy, and have compelled her to become the mistress of the man in charge of all theatre in London. She sees how the stage captivates, she sees what it is to hold the audience in thrall. And she decides, however it is to be done, that she will get her work onto the stage, that she will be the one to command the crowds – even if they don’t know it is she who’s doing it. She will write the plays. She just needs a man’s name to borrow, a man’s face. Fortunately there is an actor named William who may be persuaded, for a price, to provide her with both.

 If you’ve ever wondered how certain we can really be about the works of historic authors, about the sacrifices women of the past have had to make to bring their vision to the world – and why that’s still so difficult – then By Any Other Name is a book you’ll want to get hold of.

 Based in biographical truth, By Any Other Name boasts all the richness of detail, the characterful emotion and intelligent development that Picoult has spent her career mastering. … and it might just prompt you to play historical detective – and who doesn’t need a dose of that now and then?

The Hidden Girl

by Lucinda Riley

 And finally, a little bit of authorial magic. Last year, the late great Lucinda Riley wrapped up the story of The Seven Sisters with Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt – written in collaboration with her son, Harry Whitaker.

 This new release, The Hidden Girl, began its life as Hidden Beauty and was published long before Riley became the bestselling sensation that she is now. After her passing, Whitacre discovered and reworked this early gem, bringing it to a new audience and giving it new life.

In Whitaker’s words: After reading Mum’s original manuscript for The Hidden Girl, it brought back waves of admiration at the epic worlds she created with such ease and imagination. Just as with the Seven Sisters series, The Hidden Girl touches on themes of family secrets spanning generations and a long-forgotten prophecy from the past.

 The Hidden Girl concerns Leah Thompson, a beautiful rural girl from a small village who ascends to heights of the modelling profession after she’s noticed by an influential family. But even once she’s grown accustomed to the luxury and fame, she still can’t shake off her past. A haunting prophecy, which ties her to the tragic tale of two Polish siblings in WWII, has etched an inescapable destiny into every part of her life and the more time passes the more impossible it seems that she might carve a new path for herself. And time is running out.

Happy Reading and Happy Hearty Season