My top fiction of the year, collated from the (more or less) weekly bookish posts on instagram.com/nashuagallagher

10. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsglover

Heart-rending, first person misery-loop through the opioid crisis in the Appalachian region. Based on David Copperfield, like a tupperware lid that works but doesn’t quite fit, this association oscillating between clever duplication and being distractingly divergent. I loved the many nods to the original, but it did this best with the side characters and pithy observations. Both novels turned pages in-step to the treatment of vulnerable children at the hands of incompetent adults, and the societal systems around them that do nothing for their recovery or well being. Given the decades between each book, this is a striking takeaway. As a standalone, if I knew nothing about Copperfield, it may have even been a 5/5 as I really loved this book. A classic is always a tough act to follow let alone mirror with contemporary misery, but Kingslover managed it. We lost a lot of levity and satire when it came to the Micawbers and Miss Betsey, but gained with the modern-day colouring of Dora and Agnes. An excellent book and one that I would definitely recommend, I just got in my head too much about where it lines up and cuts diagonal to the original, nonetheless, I recommend it and the book hangover that comes with it. 4/5

9. Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet

This book is about everything and nothing, has a meandering sort of story and a premise that shimmers like a mirage at the corner of your eye. The book opens with the protagonist, wealthy through tragedy and inheritance, purchasing a house without ever seeing it on the other side of the country – which he then proceeds to walk to.This matter-of-fact whimsy is a consistent theme throughout the book, and part of what made me fall in love with it. Not needing to work, he spends his time volunteering and befriends the family that moves in next door. This book is about relationships, and friendship, about love, bullying, somehow also about climate change, and birds, and marriage, a little bit, I think. It is written with a delicacy that is enchanting, rich in optimism and a perfect little book to curl up with as the weather gets colder. 5/5

8. Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Autumn in Zürich continues to wipe the summer sands from its eyes.Temperatures have jostled all along the thermostat and it brings to mind one of the best late summer reads I had this year. It will give you a hankering for theatre and cherry pie, first loves, and is written from the perspective of a mother recounting her former theatre days to her three daughters – the book handles its characters in the most loving, empathetic way. Whether through the eyes of a mother or a woman looking back on her younger self, the narration is washed with the same rosewater warmth from the perspective of a main character who thrums with in satisfaction for how her life turned out. There is nostalgia and fondness, no wistfulness or waspish regret, and as a reader this in turn leads you to trust wherever this story is going, because the main character is so clearly more than alright. This books is a gentle, read. A lull into calm and crisping leaves 5/5

7. To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara

Fans of ‘ A Little Life’ (and let’s face it – who isn’t?) should have walked into this one with their eyes open. I should have known that it would be 700+ pages of complicated emotions manipulated like hand-pulled rock candy. The book is alternative reality meets contemporary systemic bias, oppression and social challenges. It covers a breathtaking expanse of issues, masterfully told and just close enough to be uncomfortable, but far enough for the reader to be able to find the threads that feel most relevant to them. I found a lot of pandemic-era paranoia taken to fuller extents. Intergenerational trauma and colonialism (sometimes both for the price of one) were steady friends throughout the interlacing of storylines with all the characters more or less having the same names but completely different traits across the generations was exhausting but never totally off-putting. However, if I read this on Kindle I may have actually cried. I had to keep going back a few chapters to work out which David was talking. 4/5 in the end – partly due to the length, and Inception-esque spinning top sort of ending. But goodness, can Yanagihara WRITE.

6. Trust by Hernan Diaz

Delighted to have received this as a present as I would never have picked it up myself – and would not know what I was missing. A strange premise – a book, within a book, within a book, a mix of ego and the birth of capitalism as we know it, rooted in the 1920’s world of finance and by all appearances, a story of men and commerce in a man’s world. However, at the epicenter of this tale is a woman (of all things!), tragedy and mental illness. Each layering of place and story gets you closer to a sort of truth, and what started out as a dry tale built on legacy and pride, ends up feeling very human. 4/5

5. The Poppy War Trilogy by R.F Kuang

Hard to think of another recent contemporary fantasy read that was more satisfying. I devoured it over the summer, and was completely captivated by the storytelling, enchanted by lore, gore and plot. It’s almost rude how many times these books moved me. I cannot add more to what has been said about the astonishing way this balances allusions to imperial history on both sides of the ocean with authentic myth and legend. It also achieved the rarest reading magic of all. My affinity towards certain characters was strong at the beginning, but throughout the course of its many pages, I trusted the flow of the plot more and gave up any attachment to outcome, freewheeling into the narrative prowess of R.F Kuang. It did not disappoint. 5/5

4. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Another long term resident on my bookshelf. If you fancy an ensnaring plot which threads love and grief with a storyline gritty, devastating and somehow still pure, this one is for you. Theo, a young boy whose life is devastated through a terrorist act at the books’ opening spends the next few years buffeted by one disappointment after the other, with the reader witnessing the total severing of innocence at a pace that made this a 4.5 for me out of 5. Very nearly a 5 – and certainly one of the most memorable books of the year for me.

3. Atonement by Ian McEwan

A masterpiece, and one I imagine will get multiple re-reads. The craft in this book and the dexterity in which it acrobats every few pages is almost rude. McEwan foreshadows like he’s Taylor Swift and does that pulling a tablecloth magic trick frequently with the POVs. The structural and stylistic changes as the book progresses is another effective sleight of hand. You don’t notice it happening, but it helps shape the narrative. Atonement is astoundingly good and requires multiple book tabs for later study – it did at least, for me. The plot is poignant and uncomfortable, and set just as WWII breaks so this gets worse as the story unfolds. It’s impossible to talk about this book without spoiler-ing the reasons why I loved it. So I will just say that there is not a single perfect obvious character that one empathises with – the cast is complex and realistic in their motives and actions. The little sister character, Briony captured so well the mind of a young, emerging writer that even her pettishness and angst was startlingly familiar. This one falls firmly in the favourites tier. 5/5

2. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

I last read (what must have been) a severely abridged version of this book when I was a child, and remembered liking it enough for me to want to re-read it before tucking into Barbara Kingsglover’s Demon Copperhead. I did not expect it to rocket to the top of all the Dickens I’ve read, and to love it as I did. Vaguely autobiographical, this book is packed with implicit societal commentary that chimes well with the modern reader. It is a triumph of human emotion and comedy. A wildly perceptive, charming celebration of idiosyncrasies and the absurd, honouring characters with a practised warmth – so beloved in a first party narrative, that they don’t quite come across as satire. Miss Betsey Trotwood and her donkies, The Micawbers, Peggoty (her buttons!) The pure and the redeemed both exude a goodness that the author’s pen outlined at a time when condemnation or moralising would have been much easier to accomplish. Dickens excels with the antagonists in equal measure. They are despicable, skin crawling, repugnant in some cases, but the genius of this book is that this is perceived by David only as he grows and matures and with us all along for the ride. The knitting together of disparate storylines is satisfying. Each bind-off from the needle is apt, from the tragic to the endearing (much like The Count of Monte Cristo, which I adored for similar reasons.) I’m glad I waited this long to pick up this book. It was more than I expected, and I will now carry it with me. Classics are always so for a reason, but there is something supremely satisfying when it hits you squarely in the chest. 5/5

1. Tomorrow and Tommorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

First book of the year starting strong — a gorgeous novel about friendship and gaming and so much more. Set in the perfect collection of decades to be in step with technology and warm the nostalgic cockles of older millennial hearts. The novel even references this (without breaking the 4th wall) in the end. Something unexpected and wholly welcome was the different literary devices used and the wide range of influences that went into each game build – like with any creative process and the novel showed this both in storycraft and the plot itself. Really enjoyed this one! 5/5