The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
The Calamity Club is available now from the Mail Bookshop. This novel by Kathryn Stockett (Fig Tree £20, 656pp) is big-hearted, bold, and brimful of exuberant characters. Stockett's sprawling second novel is as engaging as her debut, the bestselling The Help.
Set in Depression-era Mississippi, it follows the fortunes of a group of broke but resourceful women who are making the best of compromising circumstances as the heat swelters and emotions teeter between laughter and tears. At the heart of the story is smart, sparky 11-year-old Meg, who is attempting to keep her spirits up in an awful orphanage, and burgeoning Birdie Calhoun, who is visiting her rich, pampered, prettier sister in the hopes of borrowing money. Birdie's path crosses with the irrepressible Meg, her mother Charlie, and a roguish cast of down-on-their-luck ladies who find a wayward solution to their financial woes in this tale of unexpected friendships.
Noble Beasts by Lucy Waverley
Noble Beasts is available now from the Mail Bookshop. In this novel by Lucy Waverley (Bonnier £16.99, 400pp), the lovesick, dizzy with alcohol and haunted by his youthful indiscretions, ageing, anxious Sir Edwin Landseer is an artist forever on the brink of disaster. Waverley paints a fantastic, enthralling portrait of him here, full of yearning emotion and artistic ambition.
Her narrative flits back and forward in time, alighting on his impoverished beginnings in Victorian London, to fame and fortune where his pictures of dogs, deer, and the Scottish Glens become sought after, helped by the patronage of the Duke of Bedford. Waverley deliciously describes the complications of his life as he struggles to complete his greatest commission – sculpting the four proud lions that guard Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square – forever hampered by the fever dream of his past and the memories of the married duchess who enraptured him, loved him, and then broke his heart.
The Repentants by Kate Foster
The Repentants is available now. This novel by Kate Foster (Mantle £18.99, 336pp) uses a small town in Fife, Scotland, and the unforgiving landscape of Iceland as the perfect settings for a devious tale of revenge, betrayal, and survival, beautifully crafted by Foster.
It is 1790 and Florrie has been caught in an illicit encounter in a shabby hotel. Forced to publicly repent, she is joined in her shame by salt serf Eliza, who has broken the Sabbath, offering Jonny, Florrie's husband, the perfect opportunity to set up a nefarious scheme involving a salt-making business, a prison ship, and Florrie's wealth. This twisty tale reveals that nothing is quite as it seems as Eliza and Florrie make a daring plan of their own.
