Claire Lynch’s first novel, A Family Matter, recently won the 2025 Nero Book Award for debut fiction (and was our lifestyle director Marianne’s favourite book of the year). Here, she chooses her three ultimate holiday reads…
Hot Milk, Deborah Levy
Honestly, I find it hard not to recommend this book for all occasions, but it’s exceptionally good for holidays. Levy’s descriptions of the relentless heat and the cool (jellyfish-infested) sea are so convincing that I almost have a memory of being in Southern Spain alongside these characters. Slightly lost, and rightly-frustrated Sofia and her maddening mother Rose are one of the great mother-daughter pairings in literature. It’s impossible to put it down.
My Name is Lucy Barton, Elizabeth Strout
I recently read this novel on a flight from Milan to London. It’s one of those perfectly honed novels, short but packed with thought-provoking detail. I love a novel you can read on the way to or from a holiday to bookend the trip. The book takes place over a five-night stay in hospital but manages to show us so much of Lucy’s past and her inner life. If you want a book that gives you time to think, this is it.
Tom Lake, Ann Patchett
There is something so supremely comforting about this book that being in the company of these characters would only improve a holiday. The book is Lara’s life story, told to us through her memories, and the filtered version she shares with her three grown-up daughters. Patchett does that rare and important thing here, showing children that their parents had lives of their own before they were born! The scenes set at the eponymous Tom Lake are fresh and full of drama in every sense. Top tip: the audio book is narrated by Meryl Streep so no better novel to read with your ears, ideally on the shore of a sparkling lake.
Buy Claire’s novel here: A Family Matter.
