Continuing our recent theme of trying to keep up morale in the wake of current events, here are some titles to help rebuild your faith in humanity. With characters who do the right thing, regardless of how difficult it is, and stories about the joys of community, these books will leave you feeling more hopeful than when you first picked them up.
The Convenience Store by the Sea by Sonoko Machida, translated by Bruno Navasky
Welcome to Tenderness!
A quaint seaside town in Kitakyushu, Mojiko is full of hidden delights. And one unexpected treasure is the 24/7 convenience store, Tenderness.
At first glance, it's a store like any other.
Sure, it's a bit odd that the handsome manager has his own fan club. And perhaps the customers are somewhat eccentric. But there's a warmth about Tenderness that draws you in.
The bright lights are always on. The employees know you by name. And the shelves are stacked with delicious treats, from strong hot coffee to sweet parfaits, egg sandos to ramen, crispy fried chicken to refreshing soba.
After a while, you get the feeling that whatever you need might just be waiting for you here ...
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
It is 1985, in an Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal and timber merchant, faces into his busiest season. As he does the rounds, he feels the past rising up to meet him – and encounters the complicit silences of a people controlled by the Church.
An exquisite winter tale of courage – and its cost – set in Catholic Ireland.
The Messenger by Markus Zusak
Meet Ed Kennedy – cab driving prodigy, pathetic card player and useless at sex (self-proclaimed). He lives in a suburban shack, shares coffee with his dog, the Doorman, and he’s in nervous love with Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence – until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.
That’s when the first Ace turns up.
That’s when Ed becomes the messenger.
Chosen to care, he makes his way through town, helping and hurting (where necessary) until only one question remains. Who’s behind Ed’s mission?
Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-reum, translated by Shanna Tan
Yeongju did everything she was supposed to, go to university, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. Burned out, Yeongju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, and follows her dream. She opens a bookshop.
In a quaint neighbourhood in Seoul, surrounded by books, Yeongju and her customers take refuge. From the lonely barista to the unhappily married coffee roaster, and the writer who sees something special in Yeongju - they all have disappointments in their past. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop becomes the place where they all learn how to truly live.
Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout
It's autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He has also fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer, Lucy Barton. Together, Lucy and Bob talk about their lives, their hopes and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, befriends one of Crosby's longest inhabitants, Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive's apartment, telling each other stories about people they have known – reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.
Brimming with empathy and pathos, Tell Me Everything is Elizabeth Strout operating at the height of her powers.
In the Margins by Gail Holmes
England, 1647. As civil war gives way to an uneasy peace and Puritanism becomes the letter of the law, Frances Wolfreston, a rector's wife, is charged with enforcing religious compliance by informing on her parishioners. This awful task triggers memories of her mother, Alice, who inspired Frances’s love of books and secretly practised Catholicism at great risk. Conflicted, she doesn’t report a reclusive and mysterious midwife to delay her going to gaol.
As Frances takes increasingly bold steps to help the women and children of the parish, she attracts the ire of a patron of the church. When her mother is gaoled for religious crimes, the secrets Frances hides from her husband begin to surface, and she is faced with an impossible choice: comply with the strict dictates of the new laws, or stand up and risk everything.
My Name Is Gucci: A Dog's Story by Sun Jung
After living in a Singapore dog shelter for five years, Gucci a vaguely Dalmatian-like crossbred is losing hope of ever being rescued. One day to his surprise he is adopted by her, a writer, and moves to inner city Sydney. On arrival, however, an anti-dog war breaks out in their apartment block; Gucci's owner receives a letter threatening the possibility of 'euthanasia'. The incident triggers nightmares in her and brings back distressing childhood memories.
My Name Is Gucci is a charming novel about the relationships between pets and their owners and about how the past shapes the present. This bold ex-shelter dog narrated fable beautifully unravels Gucci's and his adopter/guardian's secrets, which have been intertwined for decades through their recurring reincarnations.
Tomorrow There Will Be Sun: A Hope Prize Anthology, with foreword by Dame Quentin Bryce
Prize-winning and highly commended stories from the 2024 Hope Prize, with judges including Dame Quentin Bryce, Dr Tony Birch and Julia Gillard.
The Hope Prize is one of the world’s leading short story competitions, and this collection of winning and shortlisted stories will delight, move and inspire you. From two lovers in Nigeria navigating uncertain futures; a homeless man in Melbourne holding fast to his dignity against the backdrop of an indifferent city; a former prisoner stepping back into the world; and a mother in Ireland who is unknowingly whisper-close to her long-lost son, these stories grapple with issues that define our time – mental health, poverty, war – in a way that feels both intimate and urgent.
In Tomorrow There Will Be Sun some of the world’s most promising literary voices remind us that no matter the challenges we face, through the strength of the human spirit and the power of connection, we can move through darkness and into the light. In a tapestry of unique perspectives, this engrossing and entertaining collection is a balm for the soul.
