When ROWAN COLEMAN isn’t writing, she’s reading. Below, find three recommendations of books to add to your READING LIST now …
I’m fascinated with the idea of time travel, so when I began to research The Summer of Impossible Things I read a lot about the nature of time, the way we perceive it, how physics understands it and how a novelist might bend it to her will. One of the books I read was Seven Brief Lessons in Physics by Carlo Rovelli. This is not a boring subject – it goes right to the heart of our existence. Rovelli’s book is a great place to start.
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
This is my favourite haunted house novel. The sense of quiet foreboding and menace that permeates this book is second to none. From the very first, and possibly most magnificent opening paragraph in fiction, it seeps into your bones with every chilling word. A writer with a very particular view of the world, Jackson knows how to take the most benign and ordinary of objects and events and suffuse them with a quiet terror. Penguin Classics, €11.82.
Together by Julie Cohen
When I am not writing I really love to read, especially something that is going to sweep me off my feet and take me to another life entirely. Julie Cohen’s new novel is just such a book. Told backwards, it begins with an elderly couple at the end of their long life together, and winds slowly backwards towards the moment they met and the secret they have always kept. It’s a brave and beautiful novel, that challenges everything you think you think, not only about the world around you, but yourself. Orion, €15.37.
Take Courage, Anne Brontë and the Art of Life by Samantha Ellis
Since girlhood, and my first visit to the Brontë Parsonage, I’ve been a huge fan of the world of the Brontë sisters. However, I have to admit Charlotte and Emily were my favourites. This book compelled me to rediscover the work of Anne and is more than simply a biography. With warmth and wisdom, it seeks to understand Anne’s life, her legacy and the ways she can still inspire us. Utterly touching and affecting, I loved it. Chatto, €17.74.
The Summer of Impossible Things (Ebury Press, €14.75) by Rowan Coleman is available now.
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