Long Island by Colm Tóibín, the author of Brooklyn, is his masterpiece: an exquisite, exhilarating novel that asks whether it is possible to truly return to the past and renew the great love that seemed gone forever 

‘The Word for World is Forest’ - Ursula K Le Guin (113 pages). This is science fiction for non-sci-fi readers, a short and easy to read novella. It’s about a humanoid race called the Athsheans, who value the dream world equally to the waking, and whose society has an absence and abhorrence of violence. The ‘yumen’ race are expanding across the galaxies and have colonised their planet to harvest the forest, and the Athsheans are placed into servitude. It’s a brilliant commentary on what it is to be human, pacifism, colonialism and resistance - just set on a different planet. 

The Siege by Helen Dunmore (320 pages) Leningrad, September 1941. Hitler orders the German forces to surround the city at the start of the most dangerous, desperate winter in its history. For two pairs of lovers - Anna and Andrei, Anna's novelist father and banned actress Marina - the siege becomes a battle for survival.