Tearing a strip off a children’s entertainer and a wintry Sarah Moss… this month’s
Fabulous (& Furious) by Harper Ford (Avon £9.99, 352pp)
NELL, 55, works as a veterinary receptionist in a small town. Nell is divorced with a daughter and a grandson who live down the road. She loves her life and is not usually a violent person but has found herself increasingly angry lately.
Indeed, she finds herself so full of rage at a Christmas party that she loses her temper with the children’s entertainer.
In fairness to Nell, the man was deeply annoying and it was a good result that she didn’t punch him in the face as she fantasised about doing. Nell’s family, however, are horrified and insist she undergoes anger management therapy. Smashing things in a rage room is kind of fun but it’s not working for Nell.
When she forms a new club, Rent-A-Rant, and talks to other women about how she is feeling, Nell’s life begins to transform. Funny and heartwarming.
Bitter Melon by Liv Little (Dialogue £20, 320pp)
Jalissa is the youngest lecturer in her university department and also the only black woman. Since the loss of their baby, Jalissa’s relationship with fiance Robbie has been more about survival than romance and she is struggling to stay afloat but hasn’t taken any time off work, preferring to keep busy.
When Robbie blindsides her by telling her he needs space, Jalissa leaves her job and decides to spend time with her Jamaican bus driver father, Delroy, in London.
The two are not close and Jalissa has no idea Delroy has recently been diagnosed with an incurable neurological condition.
Delroy delivers the news in a cafe and surprises himself by inviting his daughter to travel to Jamaica with him. Jalissa surprises herself by agreeing to go – she is running from heartbreak and loss and her father is running out of time. It’s beautifully written and thought-provoking.
The Winter Guest by Sarah Moss (Picador £12.99, 128pp)
It’s Christmas Eve in the dining room of a luxurious hotel on Ireland’s west coast. Thanks to a red weather warning of a fierce snowstorm gathering pace outside, there are only two guests – 76-year-old widow Janice, who is spending Christmas alone, and Gerry, middle-aged and wealthy-looking in his expensive Herringbone tweed jacket, who is in Ireland to visit his mother.
Since they are the only diners, they propose to eat together, served by waiter Ryan, who hangs on their every word while pretending not to.
Janice begins by asking Gerry to tell her the worst thing he’s ever done. As the storm rages and the cosy, candlelit dinner for two progresses, Janice’s story slowly unfolds and Gerry gets drunker by the minute as she goes off on tangents and he waits for airspace to tell his own tale.
Atmospheric, engaging and twisty. It’s a little book but it packs a big punch.