Q: Please can you recommend some escapist novels to help me unwind after a day at work?
Software developer, south-east London
A; Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry and The Music Shop
I was never really very into stories about exotic islands and I’m not very good with superheroes either, but there are some novels that have lifted me to a good place when I have felt in a bit of a tough one – and that is surely the best kind of escapism.
Top of my list is Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Anna is a beautiful, intelligent woman whose passionate affair with the dashing Count Vronsky leads to her ruin. Woven alongside her story is that of Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin (“Kostya “) striving to find contentment and meaning in his life. It is a rich and complex masterpiece: even Levin’s dog has a voice.
Abide With Me by Elizabeth Strout is the tale of a good man’s struggles to lead a small town congregation and his young family, when he himself is lost. It’s a shimmering novel about love and loss, faith and hypocrisy and family secrets.
In Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene , Henry Pulling, a retired bank manager, meets his septuagenarian aunt Augusta at his mother’s funeral. She persuades him to travel with her and before he knows it, he’s mixing with war criminals, CIA men, smoking pot, breaking currency regulations and coming alive after a dull suburban life.
Finally, Plainsong by Kent Haruf is set in the fictional landscape of Holt County, Colorado, and celebrates a small community doing its best to get by. What you are left with is a sense of the grace and hope of every human life.
These are my perfect escapist novels because such is their wisdom and empathy, I believe in them. I hope they work the same magic for you.
If you’ve got a question for Book Clinic submit it below or email bookclinic@observer.co.uk
