Sarah Franklin is a novelist and Senior Lecturer in Publishing at Oxford Brookes. In this Book Hook post, she recommends five books that explore the notion of home and class and what it means/takes to belong somewhere. These are all questions that preoccupy her, whether writing or teaching.
What would you add to Sarah’s list? Let us know in the comments.
Respectable by Lynsey Hanley
America is not the Heart by Elaine Castilo
The Farm by Richard Benson
Hometown Tales: Lancashire by Jenn Ashworth & Benjamin Webster
Common People, edited by Kit de Waal
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The Light of Amsterdam by David Park… three ‘pairs’ of Belfasters fly to a frosty Amsterdam for the weekend, each from a different background and each for a different purpose. My favourite characters are Karen, a care home worker reluctantly flying for the first time to her daughter’s Hen weekend, and Alan a dysfunctional academic forced to take his teenage son to a Bob Dylan concert. Stuff happens, paths cross and everybody returns home…
It’s a wonderful book: parenthood, class and education all contribute to the entwined stories and home (Belfast) is more important to these tales than Amsterdam.
I’ve read only two of Park’s books but I intend to read more.
Bob Pomfret
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