It’s November! Yep, I’m turning another year older. So it’s the perfect time to recommend novels that have a main character who’s,
uh, “getting up in years” and where something triggers her memories of long ago—often
memories of tragedy and survival.
Of all the novels that alternate between the past and
present, those with aging characters who look back are among my favorites. Given
the distance of time, a character can examine her life with the wisdom of new
eyes.
Check out below a dozen novels I suggest, books filled
with secrets and lies, love and betrayals, and regrets and redemption.(Click each title to learn more about the book.)
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline –This is a tale of an elderly
woman who as a child was sent by rail across the country to an uncertain
future, along with other Irish immigrants. Shifting between Depression-era
Minnesota and contemporary Maine, it reveals the woman’s painful past—and how,
late in life, she befriends a troubled, teenage foster child.
My take: Orphan Train does what
past-and-present books do best: it skillfully intertwines two stories that can each
stand on their own, but that are made more powerful because of their parallels.
My take: I didn’t expect this book to
make me cry, but it did!
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah – Alternating between 1990s
Oregon and German-occupied, war-torn France, this is a heart-wrenching saga of
two sisters, of choices and deception, and of mistakes and sacrifice.
My take: In one word? Unforgettable.
Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler – Eighty-nine-year-old Isabelle McAllister
asks her young, African-American hair dresser to take her from Texas back to
Cincinnati where she will confess her longest-held secret. This is a tale of
forbidden love and tragic consequences in a time of horrendous racial discrimination.
My take: Given this book was partly
inspired by the life of the author’s own grandmother, it makes reading it all
the more heartbreaking and memorable.
The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon – The story begins in a bar
in 1969, where Stella Crater is finally ready to reveal what she knows. This
historical fiction is inspired by the true mystery of Judge Crater’s disappearance
in New York City, during the politically corrupt era of the 1930s.
My take: The author writes the period
setting so well, I could hear the jazz music and smell the smoke. She put me
right there!
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid –
Aging and reclusive Evelyn Hugo is at last ready to spill the truth about her
scandalous past as a 1950s Hollywood icon. At age 79, she summons to her
luxurious Manhattan apartment a virtually unknown journalist and asks her to
report on her life . . . after she’s dead.
My take: I was new to Jenkins Reid’s
work but found this book a total, effing, page-turner.
The Baker’s Daughter by Sarah McCoy – Spanning sixty years and ranging from
Nazi Germany to modern El Paso, Texas, this emotionally-charged story of Elsie
Schmidt’s life sheds light on the last year of WWII—and reveals how illegal
alien families are handled at the U.S. border.
My take: McCoy’s novel is a wonderful
example of how dual narratives can open a reader’s mind to world events in both
the past and present.
Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner – Set in England and
alternating between present day and the 1940s, the story unfolds when an
American scholar interviews Isabel MacFarland, an elderly woman with long-held
secrets of the choices she made during the war—choices driven by youthful ambition
and the terrible destruction that Hitler hurled on London.
My take: Meissner brings great
empathy to her characters; you feel the protagonist’s internal conflict as she
wrestles with unimaginable choices.
The House at Riverton by Kate Morton – It’s the summer of 1924 in England.
Grace Bradley is a servant for a family hosting a glittering party at their country
estate. Only when Grace is ninety-eight years old and living in a nursing home—and
a film director requests a visit—will she be driven to speak of the long-ago
night in which a poet shot himself at the party. . . .
My take: This novel marks Morton’s
literary debut, and I’ve rushed to
read every one of her books since.
The Thirteenth Tale
by Diane Setterfield – Vida Winter is a renowned, reclusive author when, now that
she’s old and ailing, she contacts a bookseller’s daughter to whom she’ll finally
tell her life’s story. But does she reveal the whole truth?
My take: Atmospheric and beautifully
written, this haunting book demands multiple reads.
The Fortunate Ones by Ellen Umansky – Before WWII, the Zimmers, a
Viennese Jewish family, owned a beloved painting. The Soutine painting
eventually makes its way to America. Many years later, Rose Zimmer, recalls the
days of her childhood during the war, while a young woman in modern L.A. also
mourns the loss of the Soutine (for the painting’s gone missing again). Can the
two women band together to find the lost work of art?
My take: I enjoy books where I’m
forced to ask: to whom
does this painting really belong? In this vein, another book to try is Jojo Moyes’ The
Girl You Left Behind.
Along the Infinite Sea by Beatriz Williams – When a rare, vintage
Mercedes sells at auction, two women will become inextricably connected . . .
one is a young beauty in the 1960s with a scandalous secret, and the other
carries secrets of her own from a time when the German automobile rolled
through Nazi Europe.
My take: Beatriz Williams never fails
to draw me in with a spunky character’s voice,
beginning in paragraph one!
The list could go on. What past-and-present books with aging characters do you love?
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The list could go on. What past-and-present books with aging characters do you love?
To receive notifications of my blog posts, visit any page in the blog while you're not on a mobile device. Enter your email address in the Subscribe box.
