It's boring when everyone gets agrees all the time, isn't it? Jodi Picoult's new novel A Spark Of Light hits the shelves this week, and it's already generating a lot of opinions (in the best possible way). And if you think your monthly book club discussion has been getting a bit too safe recently, here are four more novels that will throw the cat amongst the pigeons/end the night in a screaming row, depending on how much wine you've all consumed.
Grazia Books - 30 October
1 of 5A SPARK OF LIGHT - Jodi Picoult (Hodder & Stoughton)
Jodi Picoult has long been writing novels with a strong ethical dilemma, taking the reader through the experiences of different characters facing the situation from different angles. What's changed is the reader: the febrile world of current US politics has made us more engaged than ever with discussing gnarly issues. And just in time for Picoult's latest, which is set in a US women's reproductive health centre where a hostage situation takes place. With an intricate backward-weaving structure, a host of compelling voices and her characteristically calm but captivating tone, this is a very special novel about a very difficult subject. Here are four other novels with enough of an ethical dilemma to provide an properly intense book club discussion…
2 of 5Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng (Abacus)
Set in a 'perfect' town with shades of Wisteria Lane, Little Fires Everywhere opens with a house burning down and family in tatters, before spooling back to see how the home's inhabitants ended up in this situation. Race, adoption, motherhood and female ambition are all stirred into the pot with perfect pace and great characters. Ng has an uncanny knack of sneaking big issues and big ideas into what you thought was just a thriller to pass the time on your commute. This is so much more, and leaves you able to chat for hours to anyone who's read it too.
3 of 5He Said, She Said - Erin Kelly (Hodder)
The complications of a historic rape case, unreliable memories and adolescent desires are the back drop for Kelly's most recent thriller. She writes fantastically taught, compelling psychological dramas and this one - darting between memories of a festival during the 1999 eclipse and the current day is easily her best. Eeking out details about the past while slowly forming a picture of how it affected the present, it is subtle and manipulative in equal measure, leaving the reader guessing - and wrong footed - time after time. You'll lose sleep over it but you might not mind.
4 of 5The Husband’s Secret - Liane Moriarty (Penguin)
The haunting premise of this early Moriarty novel was enough to catapult her to must-read author status: Cecilia Fitzpatrick finds a letter her husband has left her to read in the event of his death. It contains his darkest secret. Only he's not dead. Following Cecilia's choices, as we watch her discovery, while learning what led her extended family to this point is a masterclass in storytelling, which delicious dollops of insight into marriage, mother in laws and the daily grind.Where so many thrillers peter out towards the end, this one has a final few pages which will haunt you for weeks.
5 of 5Me Before You - Jojo Moyes (Penguin)
The novel that did more for tissue sales than any other in the last decade. Me Before You tackles euthanasia, through a prism of young love, female ambition and the English class system. When Lou discovers that her new employee Will, a handsome young man who is a quadriplegic following a road accident, is planning to end his life, she makes it her mission to persuade him not to. A journey of self-discovery follows, but one quite unlike anything we've seen on the page - or now on screen.A gorgeous love story with the pace of a thriller.