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Original poster

Books set during covid

65 replies

Wildchild60s · 02/12/2025 09:50

I read a lot of contemporary fiction, nothing especially highbrow. In two recent novels there was passing reference made to covid as a time in the characters' recent past. In one the character had taken up baking as a new hobby during lockdown. In another the character (who was one of the murder victims) had become increasingly isolated during lockdown.
This set me off wondering if anyone has come across novels set right in the middle of the pandemic, where all the restrictions we all lived under were an essential part of the plot, having such a huge impact on people's personal and professional lives?

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HewasH2O · 28/12/2025 23:12

Arran2024 · 02/12/2025 12:30

Night Swimmers by Roisin Maguire. One of the best books I read this year.

I was about to suggest this one

GloriousGiftBag · 28/12/2025 23:10

FollowSpot · 23/12/2025 23:05

I absolutely loved The Fell.

She is an extraordinary writer and that book weaves together so many of the ways ordinary humdrum lives were laid bare and raw, uncovering poignant feelings and finding people growing and falling apart, falling apart and surviving.

Really evocative. And true of so many women’s lives.

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I thought The Fell was good too. Really, really evocative and thought provoking.

Genuinely surprised to read it wasn't well received

LambriniBobInIsleworthISeesYa · 28/12/2025 23:09

Came to suggest Ann Patchett. I enjoyed that.

FrostyMorn · 28/12/2025 22:42

Gary Shteyngart's Our Country Friends - set in the US during covid with a lockdown situation being central to the plot. It's very funny and the American context far enough removed for it not to be too much of a painful reminder (as a Brit, at least).

DancingPony · 28/12/2025 22:37

yorkshiretoffee · 02/12/2025 10:06

Ann Patchett Tom Lake
and Elizabeth Strout Lucy by the sea (You need to read the other Lucy books first)

I didn't think I'd ever want to read a Covid novel but these work really well.

I was going to mention these two. I loved Lucy By The Sea, but wasn't overly fond of Tom Lake. I actually abandoned it halfway through...

PickledOnionOverdose · 28/12/2025 22:35

@sonnybeaudelaire it was not the ending I expected at all. For some reason it really upset me and has made me remember that book alot more than most other recent books I have read.

Somersetbaker · 28/12/2025 10:51

Not a novel, but "The Marmalade Diaries" by Ben Aitken is about an elderly widow and a younger male lodger during 2020, highlighting some of the futile absurdities we had to suffer, while Downing St had a big party.

tsmainsqueeze · 28/12/2025 10:46

TamzinGrey · 02/12/2025 10:26

Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton is a lovely book.

It's the true story of a writer who retreats from London to an isolated house in the countryside during the pandemic. One day when out walking, she comes across an abandoned leveret that she ends up lovingly rearing by hand, whilst cut off from the horrors of COVID raging in the background.

This book aside i can't imagine ever wanting to read something set during covid.

disappearingfish · 28/12/2025 10:13

Slightly off brief, but Not Forgetting the Whale by John Ironmonger is absolutely excellent.

FerrisWheelsandLilacs · 28/12/2025 10:10

cestlavielife · 02/12/2025 12:22

Jodi picoult wish you were here

Came to say this. One of the best books I’ve ever read.

sonnybeaudelaire · 28/12/2025 10:09

@PickledOnionOverdose - I thought it was a neat and sombre way to end, and appropriate given the severity of Covid in NYC - and as Nomorecoconutboosts said, rather unexpected.

The really interesting aspect to me was the different voices all contributing to the single story (as opposed to a collection of short stories). I am definitely not sufficiently well read in US literature to be able to do this, but I imagine it would be fun to try to guess the author of each chapter as you are reading.

Nomorecoconutboosts · 27/12/2025 23:40

Fourteen Days (already mentioned) worth persevering - ended very differently to what I anticipated.

Allswellthatendswelll · 27/12/2025 22:17

JaneJeffer · 02/12/2025 12:15

The Fell by Sarah Moss. I haven’t read it but it was reviewed on an Irish book club programme and was universally hated so maybe not the best suggestion 😬

I loved Ghost Wall but.found The Fell really bleak!

Consider yourself kissed is a great book about a couple where one of them is a political journalist in the 2010s and I think has a covid section.

PickledOnionOverdose · 27/12/2025 22:09

@sonnybeaudelaire I said this further up the thread. What did you think about the ending of this?

FollowSpot · 23/12/2025 23:05

JaneJeffer · 02/12/2025 12:15

The Fell by Sarah Moss. I haven’t read it but it was reviewed on an Irish book club programme and was universally hated so maybe not the best suggestion 😬

I absolutely loved The Fell.

She is an extraordinary writer and that book weaves together so many of the ways ordinary humdrum lives were laid bare and raw, uncovering poignant feelings and finding people growing and falling apart, falling apart and surviving.

Really evocative. And true of so many women’s lives.

sonnybeaudelaire · 23/12/2025 22:23

Fourteen Days - A Collaborative Novel.

It’s a really interesting concept - each story is contributed by a different US author (led by Margaret Atwood), set in a building in New York during lockdown.

Definitely worth a read.

EmotionallyWeird · 14/12/2025 21:50

I was going to mention the Catherine Fox books (I think at least 2 of them deal with the pandemic and its aftermath) and Bournville too. I can only second those recommendations.

Roserunner · 14/12/2025 09:42

Storynanny1 · 02/12/2025 12:34

that was an amazing book, I didn’t guess the big twist at all

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I hated the twist in this book, I loved the rest of the story until that point. I found it went a bit too political/preachy. I know she wrote it at a difficult time so can understand her emotions/ opinions coming through but I just didn't like it and I usually love her books.

g1c2d3 · 14/12/2025 09:30

Holly - Stephen King

JaneJeffer · 10/12/2025 22:55

Soony · 10/12/2025 15:34

I read it so you don't have to.

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😆

CapriceDeDieux · 10/12/2025 16:12

bagsofbats · 02/12/2025 13:07

Elizabeth Smout, Lucy by the Sea - the character is having a fair old winge from a point of privilege, its only a short book but I may not make it all the way through ...

I love Elizabeth Strout's books, but I couldn't finish that one. I don't know whether it was too accurate and stressful in relation to Covid or whether the moaning was just unbearable.

Soony · 10/12/2025 15:34

JaneJeffer · 02/12/2025 12:15

The Fell by Sarah Moss. I haven’t read it but it was reviewed on an Irish book club programme and was universally hated so maybe not the best suggestion 😬

I read it so you don't have to.

SheilaFentiman · 10/12/2025 13:41

Currently reading Dear Dickhead, in which Paris goes into Covid lockdown about halfway through. Not loving it though (nothing to do with the Covid bit!)

Wolfiefan · 08/12/2025 13:12

@Arran2024 thought it was wonderful. Really moving and I truly cared about the characters. Couldn’t find anything else she had written though.

Theoscargoesto · 08/12/2025 08:21

The Sentence by Louise Erdrich. She writes about native Americans and all her books are great. This one is set in a book shop during the pandemic and it is really great, even gives you a fascinating reading list.

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