1 March is St David’s Day here in Wales and heralds the start of Dewithon or the Reading Wales Challenge, started by Paula at Book Jotter and now handed over to Karen at BookerTalk. Karen asked me to write about my favourite fiction from Welsh authors, so here’s my top twelve, in alphabetical order of author, because it was hard enough to limit myself without trying to rank them:
Twenty Thousand Saints by Fflur Dafydd
Archaeologist Deian returns to the island of his childhood, where his mother disappeared without a trace. Sister Viv, closet heretic and host of the annual conference of hermits, has erected for her a gold memorial declaring her unofficial sainthood. Documentary-maker Leri, meanwhile, is pursuing a story she is keeping from her assistant and lover, Greta. This has less to do with birds and saints’ bones than with real bloodshed. During one hot August week, lives collide as Bardsey twirls once more for the cameras. A black comedy about finds, losses, secrets, privacy and intrusion… and how the most important things always happen off-camera. I loved this book.
The Coward’s Tale by Vanessa Gebbie
The book tells the tale of Ianto Passchendaele Jenkins, a beggar and story teller, who shares the history of the town and its inhabitants with anyone willing to buy him a coffee or offer him a sweet. A young boy, Laddy Merridew comes to town to stay with his grandmother while his parents’ marriage goes through a rough patch, and he forms an unlikely friendship with the older man. A rollicking good read set in a Welsh mining village, I absolutely loved this tale of kinship and kindness, guilt and atonement, and the ways in which we carve the present out of an unforgiving past. Poetic and haunting and spiked throughout with humour.
The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer
Eight-year-old Carmel becomes separated from her mother at a local children’s festival, and a man claiming to be her estranged grandfather finds her – and takes her. Unable to accept the possibility that her daughter might be gone for good, Beth makes it her mission to find her. A chillingly good psychological thriller with fairytale elements, this brilliant debut ensured that Kate Hamer became a must-read author for me.
West Wales, 1850. Harry Probert-Lloyd is a young barrister forced home from London by encroaching blindness. Working with his clerk, John Davies, they investigate when a young woman’s bones are unearthed. It turns out she was a woman Harry knew quite well. A rich historical set against the backdrop of the Rebecca Riots which brings the period detail and characters vividly to life and an excellent start to a fascinating series.
The Haunting of Henry Twist by Rebecca F John
London, 1926. A young father loses his wife in a tragic accident leaving him alone with their child. Terrified he’ll lose the baby, he keeps to himself until he meets Jack Turner. A man who can only remember his own name and Henry’s. As Henry tries to discover who Jack is and what his intentions are, the novel looks at grief and love and how we try to hold onto what is most precious to us. It’s a quietly moving and poignant debut novel.
A kayaker is struck by lightning and finds himself drifting out to sea, when he regains consciousness. He has to recover himself enough to make it back to shore and to the woman he senses waits for him there. Elemental and pared down to the essentials, this novel is haunting and compelling storytelling at its best. It started my love affair with Cynan Jones’ writing and is a tour de force that is a very good starting point for his other work.
The story of a brother and sister living in a remote cottage on the West Wales coast and a Syrian refugee who washes ashore, Drift is a remarkable book that covers the nearby military presence, the Syrians being held prisoner, the lives of people in this small coastal community and the mystery and lure of the sea in a beautifully-written story of love, loss, longing and finding someone to call home. It is simply brilliant writing.
The Innocent Wife by Amy Lloyd
Thirty-one year old teacher Samantha watches a true crime documentary about killer Dennis Danson who’s been in prison for the past twenty years for murdering a young girl in Florida’s Red River County. She becomes obsessed with the case and starts writing Dennis. She ends up going out to the US and marrying Dennis but when he’s released from prison, it forces her to question everything she thought about him and his guilt or innocence. If you’ve ever wondered what kind of person does this, The Innocent Wife provides a credible answer and will have you rooting for Sam to make it through this experience. A gripping thriller.
The Unbroken Beauty of Rosalind Bone by Alex McCarthy
Set in the fictional Cwmcysgod (Shadow Valley in English) in the Welsh Valleys, the story revolves around two sisters, Mary and Rosalind Bone, and the wider community of their small village. Alex McCarthy balances raw brutality and poetic description beautifully to evoke their world and bring it alive, offering us hope and resilience, as she shows everything that is simmering beneath the surface of this seemingly quiet place.
Set in a border farming valley in Wales, in 1944, Sarah Lewis wakes to find not only her husband but all the other men have vanished overnight, leaving her and the other women to run their farms, and cope when the German occupying forces arrive. An incredibly moving novel, which looks at the alternate reality of German success in WWII, and how a remote community under siege deals with unexpected love and friendship.
The Unlikely Heroics of Sam Holloway by Rhys Thomas
Sam Holloway has had a hard life but he’s just about surviving. Three nights a week, he transforms himself into a superhero and patrols the streets but he’s increasingly getting into sticky situations. Then Sarah comes in his life and she starts to break down the walls he’s put up around himself. Is he brave enough to confront the grief he’s been avoiding for so long? Whimsical, funny, with a quirky and adorable hero, you’ll laugh and cry at this one and probably consume a fair few bars of Toffee Crisp. I know I did.
Fingersmith may have had a more recent resurgence thanks to BookTok, but this quieter novel from Sarah Waters is also well worth your time. Set in London in 1874, it centres around a young lady prison visitor and one particularly beguiling inmate inside the walls of Millbank Prison. From the dark heart of a Victorian prison, disgraced spiritualist Selina Dawes weaves an enigmatic spell. Is she a fraud, or a prodigy? By the time it all begins to matter, you’ll find yourself desperately wanting to believe in magic.
That’s my current top twelve best reads by Welsh authors. How many have you read and which ones have you enjoyed? What would you include on your list of best fiction by Welsh authors? Let me know below!
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