The Radio 2 Book Club has just announced the Autumn Season booklist! As well as coverage on Sara’s show, and other shows on Radio 2, there is a weekly podcast on BBC Sounds.
The Radio 2 Book Club’s weekly podcast will shine a light on some of the best new fiction being published in the UK, across all genres. The books are chosen with help from library staff and other reading experts from across the UK to ensure a fair and unbiased selection process.
As it always has done, the Radio 2 Book Club will champion new voices as well as featuring some of the most popular authors writing today, with a range of novels that listeners will love. Sara will also get an insight into the craft and writing process of the chosen authors and hear from listeners about what they have been reading and enjoying too.
We’re delighted to share the seven books that will be featured in this season of the Radio 2 Book Club with Sara Cox:
As You Wake, Break The Shell by Becky Chambers
The stars are waiting for you. We hope you will come find us there.
Told in alternating timelines, As You Wake, Break the Shell is a heartfelt and hopeful story from the award-winning writer of The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, exploring what it means to be human and what it means to come together.
Life on Fortune is hard. The atmosphere is poisonous, the planet hardly fit for life. But for its inhabitants, it’s home.
Pilot Cora suffers from a rare and dangerous condition, brought about by her bond with Colibri, the alien animal she pilots to quarry vital water for the colony. If Cora seeks treatment, she risks losing her license – and her connection to Colibri forever.
Then she meets Signy, a brilliant but reclusive botanist, whose bio-printed medicine is the only thing that can save her. But to do so, Signy must break the rules that govern their lives, risking her livelihood and the other colonists who rely on her for survival.
As Cora and Signy navigate their balance of risk and trust, they are forced to confront what they owe to each other and to their community – and begin to question whether survival is enough . . .
Reader comments
“A spellbinding narrative of lovers across worlds.”
“The world-building of this book is vivid and vast including details of planets, galaxies, species and time – so much imagination is given to a world so far from our own.”
“The book as a whole felt like such a balm for the world right now.”
Whale Harbour by Mary Beth Keane
An immersive multi-generational family story from the beloved and bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes
Connemara, Ireland, 1963. Sixteen-year-old Macdara and his brothers are aware from a young age that they must one day leave their small fishing village to make their way in the world. But that time comes sooner than expected in the wake of a sudden tragedy, when their father makes choices for his eleven grieving sons. The older boys will emigrate to England for work, while the younger ones will stay at home.
Macdara, the second eldest, is offered a job on a Montana cattle ranch and prepares to set off. His spirited younger brother Rian begs to go with him, and Mac promises to bring Rian to America as soon as he’s old enough.
Mac embarks upon his new life, trying not to think about all he has left behind. And then one day he receives a call to say that Rian has disappeared. The weight of his unkept promise will haunt Mac through the years, as he and the older brothers move to New York to build lives and families of their own. It will take a new generation to confront the mystery of Rian’s absence and seek to reunite them all.
Spanning decades and continents, Whale Harbour is a warm, immersive and unforgettable novel that explores the emotional resonance of family and the depths of the human heart.
Reader comments
“Beautifully written account of the Irish diaspora experience across the decades.”
" A warm, immersive and unforgettable novel that explores the emotional resonance of family and the depths of the human heart."
“You know when you pick up a book and everything just clicks? The story pulls you in, the characters feel real, and before you know it, you’re completely wrapped up in their lives.”
Partita by Barbara Kingsolver
Here’s my question: How does a person step in front of a train and leave everything right there?
Livia Bohusz misses her big brother, Cyrus. But since the day he took his own life, a day that changed everything, eleven-year-old Livia has also known she has no choice but to survive.
Her solace is music. A gifted pianist, Livia’s only escape is the quiet rapture it brings as she practices. The promise of a new life her talent might offer is intoxicating, a life away from the stifling silence that has enveloped the farm since Cyrus’ death.
When Livia starts college as a music major and scholarship prodigy, it feels as if a new life might begin. Immersing herself in her passions in a world where she excels, even as she struggles to fit in with more urbane classmates, she glimpses the possibilities of a life beyond the farm and her parents.
Then one springtime, the smell of reviving grass and crocuses and the sounds of songbirds fill the air, and Livia catches a glimpse of shirt sleeves rolled to the elbow, muscles you wouldn’t miss in the rear view:
‘Who is that man?’
It is a question Livia may come to wish she had never asked.
Partita is Livia’s story: It is a tale of thwarted ambitions, accumulated pain, of newfound hope, unexpected love, and endless resilience. It is as compelling and profound as the pieces Livia has mastered, and as heart-rending and engrossing as the music that makes, breaks and mends her.
Reader comments
“A magnificently powerful and emotional novel.”
“This is a story of love and loss but also of music, the descriptions of what Livia feels when playing piano and the passions involved transported me.”
“There is so much for a book group to discuss as Kingsolver explores childhood hopes, coming of age and middle-aged regret and reflection, set against the soundtrack of Livia’s ordinary, extraordinary, life.”
Solace In Winter by Mary Lawson
Winter in the small Canadian town of Solace is a season of hibernation. But this year, the snowfall brings a series of accidental encounters that will shake up the lives – and loves – of an old man, a student on the run and an abandoned dog
It is deep winter, 1969. As the Vietnam War drives young men north across the Canadian border, widower Jack’s quiet life is overturned by two accidents that happen on the bend in the road into town. First comes a dog in a bad way. Next a draft-dodger, seriously injured, lying in the snow. Suddenly, Jack’s cabin is busy with a growing cast of characters – and all the baggage, dreams and desires they’re carrying.
But the atmosphere chills when Jack’s daughter Sally drops by one day and doesn’t like what she sees…
This exquisite snow globe of a novel is a refuge, a story of connection and moral complexity set in the beloved world of Mary Lawson’s bestselling, prizewinning Crow Lake, The Other Side of the Bridge, Road Ends and A Town Called Solace.
Reader comments
“A story of the kindness of people and how supporting each other can build connections.”
“This book keeps giving long after you have finished it and is one that I wished I’d had on a winters evening, bundled up with a blanket and a hot drink on the sofa.”
“A simple, compelling story is told seemingly effortlessly…it’s utterly engaging.”
The Falling by Carole Hailey
Cassie had an unconventional childhood, growing up with a father who spent all of his time preparing for the apocalypse. Instead of going to school, she had an eccentric curriculum at the kitchen table with her mum, and instead of going out to play, she either snuck off to see her beloved grandparents or went to the family safe space, a garage that had been sealed off and stocked with tinned food and emergency batteries.
Now middle-aged and living alone, Cassie continues the rhythms of preparing for the worst, even though her dad failed to prepare for the slow-motion tragedy that became their family. But when an asteroid is located in the solar system, the chance of impact in northern Europe climbing every day, the worst finally seems to be confirmed. Cassie’s strange dad might just turn out to have been her salvation…
Reader comments
“For a book about an impending asteroid, it was an unexpectedly heart-warming story about family both blood and found. With highs and lows, the fast pace and countdown kept me in constant suspense.”
“Interesting and unexpectedly tender. Lots for book club readers to digest.”
“A really original read.”
Hope House by Joe Bond
“I don’t know about that, sir. We’re delinquents,” said Damico. “If you give us an inch, we’ll take the whole mile.”
Watts laughed us off.
“All I’m saying is there’s things we can do different. I’m talking about you fellas helping me get this right. What do you think?”
They came from the streets, the sticks, and every place in between. They’ve stolen cars, dealt dope and hurt people. They’ve been hurt themselves. They’ve been labelled ‘delinquents’ and cast out from their families – if they ever had a family at all. Their futures promise prison – or worse – but for now, they’ve been brought together to live in an old house on a hill, and see about getting themselves – and each other – right.
Spirited, angry, confused, and misled, these are the boys of Hope House, an institution for ‘delinquent’ young men in 1980s Kentucky. There is Smoove, named for his distinctive walk after he was shot in both feet back home in Louisville. There’s Damico, reported for shoplifting and assault, even though that was only part of the story. There’s Bobby, who tells brave tales of adventures of coyotes but goes quiet at the thought of his father. And there’s Awol, who can’t stop running away, only to return to the place he knows best.
Deeply honest and soulful, Hope House is a novel about searching for belonging and lifting each other up; about coming of age into a society that’s already closed its doors; about lost boys who grapple with their pasts, dare to imagine different futures, and nurture the almost outrageous hope that they might just turn everything around.
Reader comments
“Powerfully honest and soulful novel. Highly recommended.”
“Gets to the heart of what it’s like to be young, poor and living life on the margins of society. Bond’s own lived experience and compassion shines through, which is what makes Hope House extraordinary.”
“A novel that has something worthwhile to say about redemption, care and the possibility of change. Plenty of discussion points around second chances, social care and found family.”
Family Language by Nicole Nelson
In this striking debut, an ambitious academic faces new and unwanted choices when she is confronted with overnight motherhood…
Dr. Mona Melamed is a happily married, purposefully childfree linguist at a top Southern California university. Her days are spent researching and stressing about finally, finally securing tenure. That is, until her brother-in-law and his wife die, leaving their six-year-old son orphaned.
Everyone in Mona’s orbit expects her to take the lead in caring for the child, including – to some extent – Mona herself. Motherhood is not something she wanted–it is still not something she wants. And yet, she finds herself negotiating a temporary leave to start looking after the boy. Along the way, as the gender expectations thrust upon Mona intensify, her tenure becomes threatened.
Family Language confronts that age old question – Can women really have it all? – and uncovers the misogyny behind it. As Mona tries to balance her new responsibilities as a mother, she has to ask herself how hard is she willing to fight for the career she’s earned, and is it fair that she even has to?
Reader comments
“A feminist examination of what it means to be a mother and the assumptions that are still made about that role in the family. I think there is a lot to talk about here as these are still unresolved issues for many.”
“Themes of motherhood, parenthood, gender stereotypes and gendered language alongside the difficult juggling of parenting and work was real and heartfelt.”
“A deeply compelling contemporary novel.”
For all the latest Book Club content, including interviews with the authors, visit BBC Sounds. You can even subscribe, to make sure you never miss an episode!
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