House of Names by Colm Tóibín, is a rendition of the Greek tragedy of the house of Atreus.
On the day of his daughter’s wedding, Agamemnon orders her sacrifice. His daughter is led to her death, and Agamemnon leads his army into battle, where he is rewarded with glorious victory.
Three years later, he returns home and his murderous action has set the entire family – mother, brother, sister – on a path of intimate violence, as they enter a world of hushed commands and soundless journeys through the palace’s dungeons and bedchambers…
Swing Time by Zadie Smith
Swing Time tells the story of two girls growing up on the wrong side of town. Residents of neighbouring housing estates in London, the pair – the unnamed narrator, who is clever and self-doubting, and Tracey, who is confident and self-destructive – meet at a community dance class.
The talented friend is the tortured one, while the less gifted is an able student, determined to make it out of the neighbourhood.
She becomes an assistant to a pop star called Aimee, and it is by Aimee’s side that she travels the world.
Night of Fire by Colin Thubron
The story takes one to the south coast of England, to a large house divided into flats, which is fast slipping into stately old age.
A fire has started in its basement, threatening the existence of its six tenants, including a failed priest, a naturalist, a neurosurgeon, an invalid dreaming of his anxious boyhood, and their landlord, whose relationship to the tenants is both intimate and shadowy. As the blaze spreads, the novel moves through episodes in the lives of the tenants who seem to share recollections.