women-centred fiction recommendations for a holiday read

I was going to suggest The Women. I loved that book. I’ve just read The Names on holiday. Picked it up at the airport and read it in a couple of days. Centred around a woman in a domestic violence situation and her children.

I've just started reading The Women on the recommendations from this thread. I'm glad you said to stick with it @GTTSR because at the moment it's feeling quite formulaic and a bit like it's written for the big screen with actors like Callum Turner and Zendaya.

The Women was fascinating…I loved the story. The writing I thought was quite off putting and I nearly stopped after a couple of chapters as it felt quite contrived. A bit like reading a soap opera script. But…I am so glad I preserved and got used to the writing style. I feel like I learned a lot about something I previously had no idea about.

Number Thirty-Two by Cassie Steward

Would also recommend. Fab writer.

I saw the dog as a metaphor for old age. Poor dog ..

Also the Glassmaker by Tracey Chevalier. Set in Venice.

Now finished this book, and 7 days later I'm still thinking about it.
An excellent book, with a beautiful and clever storytelling tackling a very difficult life event.

I know where you buried your husband by Marie O'Hare. It is funny, women led and not too demanding!

I've just 'discovered' Sylvia Townsend Warner, a contemporary of Virginia Woolf (and with no little overlap). (I first heard of her, shamefully, after a statue of her was unveiled a few months ago, and that was newsworthy because statues of non-royal, non-mythological women are still extremely rare!)

I read Lolly Willowes first, as what I'd heard of it (single spinster woman rebels in middle-age, goes off to live in a hovel in the woods, gets a cat, turns into a witch and becomes same-sex attracted) struck a chord with me! It's really good. She's a very wicked writer, deftly constructed prose and dry humour. I'm just finishing The Corner That Held Them which is a portrait of a group of medieval nuns. Trust me, it's a lot more engrossing than that sounds! Both books would easily pass the Bechdel Test for most parts of them.

The elegance of the hedgehog

I now you’ve already had lots of great suggestions, but I can strongly recommend the Neopolitan Quartet books by Elena Ferrante. 4 books about two girls growing up in Naples and how their lives differ, their friendship and how they drift in and out of each others lives over the course of their lifetimes. Men come and go, but their relationship to each other is the most impactful.

Dark Earth by Rebecca Stott
The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
The Kashmir Shawl by Rosie Thomas

An oldie and memoir rather than pure fiction but Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi is a compelling read.

Do you like older books? There are a lot of great modern recommendations here but there is also gold on the catalogs of Virago and Persephone books, many of which are available on ibooks/kindle. Barbara Pym, Delafield, Rebecca West, Willa Cather, Antonia White, Rosamund Lehman and many others, often about the mundane and minutiae of women’s lives and relationships but still riveting and full of humour, pathos and suspense.

Exciting times - Irish author starting with n

Green Frances Sherwood. Venus flaring Suzannah Dunn

Anything by Sarah Waters
I who have never known men
Last one at the party
Nina is not ok
Chutzpah by Yhudis Fletcher

Atmosphere/Daisy Jones and The Six/The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (not read Carrie Soto yet), Lessons in Chemistry, Where the Crawdads Sing, How to Kill You Family, Water by John Boyne (I wasn’t so keen on the other 3 elements)

More or less anything by Kristin Hannah.

The Nightingale is wonderful, and so is The Women.

Kate Quinn is also good - The Rose Code is a fab read.

Stacey Halls - women centric historical fiction

All My Mothers is a wonderful book.

So many great suggestions on here. I am going to add Salley Vickers- especially Miss Garnet's Angel and the Librarian (which has a similar feel to Clare Chambers, I think). For an American who writes brilliantly about women and family dynamics I would recommend Ann Tyler.

The Mercies Kiran Millwood Hargreaves
Queenie Candice Carty Williams
True Colours Kristin Hannah
The Marriage Portrait Maggie O'Farrell
Jaded Ela Lee

Annie Bot by Sierra Greer
Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens
The Names by Florence Knapp
All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker

Jenny Eclair - Moving and Life Death and Vanilla Slices

All My Mothers by Joanna Glen

Lessons in chemistry - Bonnie Gamus
Where the crawdads sing - Delia Owens
The Tomorrow Project - H Critchlow
Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver and The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See. Both brilliant female centred books I would highly recommend.