Best fiction of 2010!

[Merilyn]

2010 has been a great year for fiction so here's a handful of some of the best.

The Finkler Question – Howard Jacobson

Julian Treslove, a radio producer, and Samuel Finkler, a Jewish philosopher, have been friends since childhood and, as they enter middle age, they reminisce over their struggles with self-identity, anti-Semitism, women, love, and the past. Winner of this year’s prestigious Booker prize.

Freedom – Jonathon Franzen

In his first novel since The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen has given us an epic of contemporary love and marriage. Freedom comically and tragically captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, the heavy weight of empire.

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand – Helen Simpson

Major Ernest Pettigrew (retired) leads a quiet life in the village of St. Mary, England, until his brother's death sparks an unexpected friendship with Mrs. Jasmina Ali, the Pakistani shopkeeper from the village. Drawn together by their shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship blossoming into something more. But will their relationship survive in a society that considers Ali a foreigner?.

Room – Emma Donahugue

A 5-year-old narrates a riveting story about his life growing up in a single room where his mother aims to protect him from the man who has held her prisoner for seven years since she was a teenager. Shortlisted for the 2010 Booker prize this is suspenseful literary fiction at its best.

Trespass – Rose Tremaine

A London antique dealer sets his sights on an ancient stone farmhouse in southern France owned by a man haunted by his violent past and his revenge-seeking sister. A gripping, and dark novel from Orange Prize–winner Tremain (The Road Home).