Popular fiction with profound emotional impact: THE ISLAND RETREAT by Cathy Kelly,
THE ISLAND RETREAT by Cathy Kelly (HarperCollins £16.99, 448pp)
The Island Retreat is available now
It’s such a great idea – a group of damaged people on a stunning Greek island to be helped by therapist Rose. Like Agatha Christie meets Sigmund Freud.
Child star Keera has mother issues, posh boho India has man issues, brainy Dan has girl issues and glamorous Grazia has husband issues (not least the fact that he’s travelled with her).
Rose works slowly and patiently through their problems, all the time fighting demons of her own.
I absolutely loved this wise and calming novel and afterwards felt I’d had top-notch therapy myself.
And the Corfu setting is so beautifully evoked you can almost smell the sea, along with the wonderful food.
Check in to explore sun, sea… and secrets
STOWAWAYS by André Aciman (Faber £12.99, 112pp)
Stowaways is available now from the Mail Bookshop
In this novella from the Call Me By Your Name author, two friends of recently-passed literary giant Paul meet in a New York cafe to discuss him.
Carol’s connection seems the strongest: she was Paul’s lifelong, mostly platonic, lover.
Julian, on the other hand, only saw him in Starbucks every morning. So it’s a shock when Carol tells him that Paul was madly in love with him and lived for the daily glimpse over the flat whites.
I loved the New York atmosphere and the suggestion that passing encounters in ordinary places can have profound emotional impact.
FAVORITA by Michelle Steinbeck (Faber £16.99, 448pp)
Favorita is available now
Fila’s rackety mother Magdalena has been out of her life for years.
One day the hospital phones to say she is dead. And what’s more, the nameless caller adds, she was killed.
Clasping the ashes, Fila heads for Naples to discover who’s responsible. A journey begins, part magical-realist detective tale, part ghost story, part hallucinatory road trip, but entirely concerned with violence against women and the unreported murders of them through the ages.
A colourful cast of sex workers, gangsters, ancestors and phantoms combine to help Fila in her quest.
Intense, complicated and possibly overlong, but atmospheric and gripping.