The Decameron
Giovanni Boccaccio
(UK: Penguin Classics, 2003; USA: W W Norton, 2014)

In the summer of 1348, as the Black Death ravages their city, ten young Florentines take refuge in the countryside. Taken from the Greek, meaning ‘ten-day event’, Boccaccio’s Decameron sees his characters amuse themselves by each telling a story a day, for the ten days of their confinement – a hundred stories of love and adventure, life and death, and surprising twists of fate.

Less preoccupied with abstract concepts of morality or religion than earthly values, the tales range from the bawdy Peronella, hiding her lover in a tub, to Ser Cepperallo, who, despite his unholy effrontery, becomes a Saint. The result is a towering monument of European literature and a masterpiece of imaginative narrative.

Recommended by:
Jane Johnson

Available in the UK via ‘My Local Bookshop‘ search engine or Amazon (The Decameron)
Available in the USA via Amazon (The Decameron)

Independent People
Halldór Laxness
(UK: Vintage Classics, 2008; USA: Vintage International, 1997)

Set in rural Iceland in the early 20th century, Bjartus is a sheep farmer determined to eke a living from a blighted patch of land. Nothing, not merciless weather, nor his family will come between him and his goal of financial independence. Only Asta Solillja, the child he brings up as his daughter, can pierce his stubborn heart. As she grows up, keen to make her own way in the world, Bjartus’ obstinacy threatens to estrange them forever.

Recommended by:
Christopher Norris, Jolabokaflod Book Campaign

Available in the UK via ‘My Local Bookshop‘ search engine or Amazon (Independent People)
Available in the USA via Amazon (Independent People)

To Kill a Mockingbird
Harper Lee
(UK: Arrow, 2010; USA: Grand Central, 1988)

A lawyer’s advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee’s classic novel – a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man’s struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

Recommended by:
Jane Johnson

Available in the UK via ‘My Local Bookshop‘ search engine or Amazon (To Kill A Mockingbird)
Available in the USA via Amazon (To Kill a Mockingbird)

Wide Sargasso Sea
Jean Rhys
(UK: Penguin Modern Classics, 2000; USA: W W Norton, 2016)

Born into the oppressive, colonialist society of 1930s Jamaica, white Creole heiress Antoinette Cosway meets a young Englishman who is drawn to her innocent beauty and sensuality. After their marriage, however, disturbing rumours begin to circulate which poison her husband against her. Caught between his demands and her own precarious sense of belonging, Antoinette is inexorably driven towards madness, and her husband into the arms of another.

Recommended by:
Christopher Norris, Jolabokaflod Book Campaign

Available in the UK via ‘My Local Bookshop‘ search engine or Amazon (Wide Sargasso Sea)
Available in the USA via Amazon (Wide Sargasso Sea)