Books Based on your Holiday Destination

Are you off on holiday? Whether you’re going to Cornwall, Italy or even across the pond, this blog post has five recommendations for what to read when you’re there.

Italy

The Maiden of Florence by Katherine Mezzacappa

Florence, 1584. Rumours are spreading about the virility of a prince marrying into the powerful Medici family. Orphan Giulia is chosen to put an end to the gossip. In return she will gain her freedom, and start a new life with a dowry and her own husband. Cloistered since childhood and an innocent in a world ruled by men, Giulia reluctantly agrees, only to be drawn under the control of the Medicis’ lecherous minister.

Years later, married and with a growing family, Giulia hopes she has finally escaped the legacy of her past. But when a threat arrives from a sinister figure from her youth, she must finally take control of events – and become the author of her own story.

Cornwall

The Fish by Joanne Stubbs

A few decades into the twenty-first century, in their permanently flooded garden in Cornwall, Cathy and her wife Ephie give up on their vegetable patch and plant a rice paddy instead. Thousands of miles away, expat Margaret is struggling to adjust to life in Kuala Lumpur, now a coastal city. In New Zealand, two teenagers marvel at the extreme storms hitting their island.

But they are not the only ones adapting to the changing climate. The starfish on Cathy’s kitchen window are just the start. As more and more sea creatures leave the oceans and invade the land, the new normal becomes increasingly hard to accept.

Spain

Small Wars in Madrid by Anthony Ferner

David Aguilera’s life is collapsing around him. After the catastrophic loss of the vessel under his command and a perilous trek across the Baltics to safety, he returns home to find himself unable to reconnect with his family. Frustrated by his inability to express what he is feeling, his wife Margalit moves out to stay with friends, taking their children with her.

As David anxiously awaits the official inquiry into his conduct, he turns to those who are most important to him – his closest friend and comrade Marce; his Catholic adoptive mother; his Jewish birth mother; and Margalit, herself Sephardi Jewish. Faced with the prospect of losing his family altogether, he must confront his conflicting identities and faiths and decide the man he wants to become.

Scottish Islands

Dancing in the Shallows by Clare Reddaway

Isla Wintergreen has not seen her grandfather since she was seven, but when she unexpectedly inherits his cottage on the Isle of Skye, she cannot resist the opportunity to escape her purposeless life. As she slowly becomes a part of the island community, she learns more about the family she never really knew – from her estranged father, to her reclusive grandfather, and her intelligent but oppressed great-grandmother. Meanwhile, her mother Cathy reflects on her own past. Mother and daughter both hope to find new freedom – but can family patterns ever really be broken?

Told through the lives of four generations of Isla’s family, all linked by their connection to water, Dancing in the Shallows masterfully explores family relationships and generational inheritance.

Cape Cod

Becoming Delilah by Sara Marchant

On a windswept island off Cape Cod, Delilah moves into a cottage by the shore. After growing up in precarious circumstances with her Abuela, both of them hiding a terrible secret, all Delilah wants now is a place of her own – and she’s paid a high price for it.

The neighbours watch the newcomer and wonder about her. They don’t like it when she plants a wild and colourful garden in the front yard, and they like the visits from her married lover even less. Meanwhile, her new cottage shares a driveway with the reclusive Anton, who has a secret of his own. When the two meet, sparks fly – but will the past catch up with them?

Cyprus

A Good Year by Polis Loizou

Rural Cyprus, 1925. Despo is recently married, heavily pregnant and deeply afraid. The twelve days of Christmas are beginning – the time when, according to local folklore, creatures known as kalikantzari come up from Hell to wreak havoc. Meanwhile, her husband Loukas has troubles of his own. Struggling with dreams and desires he doesn’t understand, he finds himself irresistibly drawn to an Englishman, a newcomer to the island.

In a village wreathed in superstition, Despo and Loukas must protect themselves and their unborn child from ominous forces at play.

We hope you enjoyed our holiday reading recommendations. To view other stories published by Fairlight Books, click here or sign up to our newsletter.