The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard
The first novel in what became the five-volume Cazalet Chronicles greets you like a warm hug. Opening in the Sussex countryside in 1937, this resplendent family saga is replete with poignancy, love, heartbreak and an unforgettable cast of characters.
Pan Macmillan, £10.99
Anxious People by Frederik Backman
A story about a group of strangers being held hostage would hardly be at home in a round-up of comfort reads if it weren’t in the hands of Frederik Backman, who writes the most uplifting books. All the vicissitudes of humanity are on show here; it leaves you feeling rescued.
Penguin, £10.99
Persuasion by Jane Austen
Sinking into any of Jane Austen’s books is like returning to an old friend, and Persuasion, her last and arguably best book, isn’t dissimilar to a fairytale (if fairytales were always this astute and funny). It’s Anne Elliot’s love story, and a terrific novel about family, class, obligation, and second chances.
Penguin Classics, £7.99
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
A novel suffused with empathy, it is a joy to get lost in the world of 70s Pennsylvania, where a small community of Jewish and African American residents face plenty of hardship – but consistently show us both what it means to be resilient and the power of love.
Orion, £9.99
Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
With disarmingly charming characters and spit-your-tea-out funny writing, this novel about what happens to the marriage of Graham and Audra when the former’s ex-wife Elspeth re-enters his orbit is joyful, jolly, and full of clever observations about life, love and making the right choices.
4th Estate, £9.99
Summer Lightning by PG Wodehouse
Wodehouse is one of the greatest comic writers of all time, and this riotously funny and farcical story about an Earl who loses his prize-winning pig – named The Empress of Blandings, no less – is an utter delight. Let your heart be buoyed by it.
Arrow, £9.99
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
Strout’s storytelling has the power to warm you from the inside out, and never more so than in this gorgeous Pulitzer-winning novel. Set in Maine, it tells the tale of its sometimes cantankerous, sometimes compassionate eponymous character and the manifold lives she shapes around her.
Scribner, £10.99
Happy All the Time by Laurie Colwin
Featuring possibly the loveliest line from a book ever – “She felt as well placed in the world as a fresh loaf of bread” – this novel from the witty, warm and woefully underrated Laurie Colwin about two cousins’ search for love is like literary sunshine.
W&N Essentials, £9.99
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop by Satoshi Yagisawa
When broken-hearted Takako takes up refuge in the tiny flat above her uncle’s second-hand bookstore, she discovers just how much reading can soothe and heal us. At 160 pages, you could read this sweet, gentle novel in a weekend.
Bonnier, £10.99
Darling by India Knight
This modern retelling of Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love is escapism at its finest, immersing its reader into the wonderfully windy setting of remote, rural Norfolk. Here, it is the trevails of its gutsy heroine Linda Radlett which make up a wise portrait of growing up.
Penguin, £9.99
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Summer, 1922. Following the Russian Revolution, Count Alexander Rostov is put under house arrest in the attic of a hotel. The pleasure of reading this fat, timeless, elegant novel cannot be overstated: it reminds you of the great possibilities of life.
Cornerstone, £9.99
Wintering by Katherine May
A charming meditation on the importance of rest and retreat, Wintering shows us how to learn to love fallow periods both in nature and in life. Reading this beautiful book is the literary equivalent of being cocooned.
Rider, £10.99
Let the Light Pour In by Lemn Sissay
For the past 10 years, Sissay has kept a morning ritual in which he writes a poem as soon as he wakes. The result is this collection, which is an absolute balm for the soul. Filled with short, honeyed poems and lines you want to highlight, it’s also a reminder of the magic of poetry.
Canongate, £10.99
The Salt Path by Raynor Winn
In possibly one of the most life-affirming memoirs in recent times, Winn and her husband Moth decide to walk the South West Coast path after losing just about everything. As they wind their way from Somerset, to Devon, Cornwall and Dorset, they learn how to rebuild a life – and as do we.
Penguin, £10.99
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