Jen Recommends…

Blog · Posted September 24, 2024

Jen has some stunning contemporary fiction recommendations.

Self Portrait with Boy by Rachel Lyon 

Like the portrait at its centre, Rachel Lyon’s 2018 debut Self-Portrait with Boy is like a piece of art that you can’t walk away from. Lu Riles, an aspiring young photographer based in 1990s New York, captures an image that will launch her career, but at what cost? Lyons gives the reader much to think about; does a moment of chance create an artist or art?

Complicated and emotive, with a hint of ghostly menace, this novel is an immersive experience. 

Lyon’s protagonist ‘contain(s) multitudes’: she is fluid and ambitious, judgemental and intense, cowardly yet shrewd. I urge you to read the novel with all its complex layers rather than watch the forthcoming movie ‘based’ on the book!


Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner 

Right from the start of this novel from the author of Fleishman is in Trouble you know you’re in for a “terrible ending” so why keep reading…?  

The dark humour offsets the challenging and luckless characters and the full-on rollercoaster of devastation fairly pulls you along. This is a novel of excess: too much money, too much self indulgence, too much selfishness, all written with exuberance and an eye for detail.

…and, yes, there is a terrible ending, just not the one you might be expecting or hoping for. “But what are you going to do?” 


Our London Lives by Christine Dwyer Hickey 

Our London Lives is an epic story of love and loneliness set in a changing London. Following the lives of Irish immigrants Milly and Pip over four decades, I was engrossed by their lives and those of characters wrapped up in their lives. From alternate points of view, Milly’s story evolves over the years while Pip’s is recalled from the near-present. Revolving around each other, I desperately wanted them to find happiness amongst the heartbreak, loneliness, successes and failures.

The brooding city of London is an ever present character and references to Eliot’s The Wastelands sets a tone of alienation and broken-ness in modern life. Yet hope and love carry you through this moving and immersive novel.


You can find an updated list of all our bookseller recent reads over on Bookshop.org. Click HERE. 

Our booksellers love to recommend books and share their favourite reads with other booklovers (it is their job but also their hobby). Our blog is a good place to start to find some recommendations but if you still need some help, simply pop into the shop, give us a call or shoot us an email.

Find out how to contact us HERE.