Contemporary fiction books from Scotland
Recommended contemporary fiction books (9)
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you are into contemporary fiction here are some contemporary fiction books from Scotland for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
1.
Bitterhall by Helen McClory EN
Description:
Bitterhall is a story of obsession told between three unreliable narrators. Daniel, Órla and Tom share a flat and narrate the intersections of their lives, from future-world 3D printing technology to the history of the book, to a stolen nineteenth-century diary written by a dashing gentleman who may not be entirely dead. A Hallowe'en party leads to a series of entanglements, variously a longed-for sexual encounter clouded by madness, a betrayal, and a reality-destroying moment of possession.
2.
Caledonian Road by Andrew O'Hagan EN
Description:
I loved this complex and nuanced story about responsibility, race, money, gender and power. It’s interesting and beautifully written.
3.
Description:
Shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize Seventeen-year-old Silvie is camping in rural Northumberland with her father and a group of archaeologists, who hope to uncover evidence of human sacrifice. As Silvie glimpses new freedoms with the students, her relationship with her overbearing father deteriorates, until the haunting rites of the past begin to bleed into the present.
4.
Description:
A heartbreaking novel of an extraordinary lifelong friendship.
5.
Description:
What unites Katherine Mansfield, Charlie Chaplin, Shakespeare, Rilke, Beethoven, Brexit, the present, the past, the north, the south, the east, the west, a man mourning lost times, a woman trapped in modern times? Spring. The great connective. With an eye to the migrancy of story over time and riffing on Pericles, one of Shakespeare's most resistant and rollicking works, Ali Smith tells the impossible tale of an impossible time. In a time of walls and lockdown, Smith opens the door. The time we're living in is changing nature. Will it change the nature of story? Hope springs eternal.
6.
Reality and Dreams by Muriel Spark EN
Description:
His real life and his creative life become ever more displaced while he gradually recovers his health, his balance, and his natural imbalance.
7.
Show Us Who You Are by Elle McNicoll EN
Description:
A neurodiverse twelve-year-old girl is shown an amazing new technology that gives her another chance to talk to the best friend she lost. But she soon discovers the corporation behind the science hides dark secrets that only she can expose in this heartwarming and heroic sophomore novel from the award-winning author of A Kind of Spark. A CILIP Carnegie Medal nominee! "A touching, perceptive take on grief, technology, and self-acceptance.” –Kirkus Reviews It has never been easy for Cora to make friends. Cora is autistic, and sometimes she gets overwhelmed and stims to soothe her nerves. Adrien ... continue
8.
Description:
On the longest day of the summer, twelve people sit cooped up with their families in a faded Scottish cabin park. The endless rain leaves them with little to do but watch the other residents. Tensions rise and all watch on, unaware of the tragedy that lies ahead as night finally falls
9.
The Accidental by Ali Smith EN
Description:
Filled with the bestselling, award-winning author's trademark wordplay and inventive storytelling, here is the dizzyingly entertaining, wickedly humorous story of a mysterious stranger whose sudden appearance during a family’s summer holiday transforms four variously unhappy people. Each of the Smarts—parents Eve and Michael, son Magnus, and the youngest, daughter Astrid—encounter Amber in his or her own solipsistic way, but somehow her presence allows them to see their lives (and their life together) in a new light. Smith’s narrative freedom and exhilarating facility with language propel the ... continue