Who doesn’t love a great coming-of-age story? We’ve all been through that period of our lives and it’s often the most vivid, no matter our age. It’s when we fully become ourselves and interact with the world on our terms. It’s a time of firsts. Perhaps a first kiss, first love, first death; the first time that we understand that everyone, including ourselves, are fallible.

Let me know which you’ve read and also loved, and which you’ve never heard of. If you’re interested in buying any from Bookshop.org (UK) then have a browse.

Here’s why I love these nine novels:

One Moonlit Night by Caradog Prichard: Oh my, this is so good. A cross between Under Milk Wood and Lanny by Max Porter. Welsh village life with all its death, desertion, gossip, madness, and joy. Lyrical and sometimes mystical its unnamed narrator goes out one moonlit night and remembers his past. The end is shadowy and shocking. It was first published in 1961 in Welsh, and this translation is by Philip Mitchell.

Brother of the More Famous Jack by Barbara Trapido: What a joy this book is. A literary romance. Aged about 19, Kath meets a bohemian family with six children and falls in love with them, and especially the eldest son, Roger. And I fell in love with them too. After the end of that first love affair, Kath moves to Rome, and it is ten years before she catches up with the Goldmans again, when she falls in love with another one of them. It’s a coming-of-age story about whether in the late 70s in England women can actually get a family and a career.

Lord Jim at Home by Dinah Brooke: This is a re-issue from 1973, which apparently was met with horror on its first publication. I can see why, but I loved it. It is repulsive, disturbing, grotesque, and mordantly funny – I laughed out loud many times and then felt bad about laughing. It’s about Giles Trenchard, born between the wars into an upper middle class family where he is cruelly treated by his father and his first nursemaid. He learns to keep his head down, and by doing this he survives school and escapes to the Navy. The second part is about long stretches of time doing nothing, and an hour or two of intense and terrible fighting. When Giles returns to England he finds he doesn’t fit in anywhere, can’t understand what he’s supposed to be doing, and the third part is completely unexpected and yet makes complete sense in a weird and very dark way.

A Wreath for the Enemy by Pamela Frankau: I LOVED this. Penelope Wells is a precocious fourteen-year-old when we first meet her in the 1950s in her father’s hotel in the south of France. She’s writing an ‘Anthology of Hates’ which she soon tears up and starts writing a novel – this novel. The characters are wonderful, the writing is brilliant, the settings are vivid.

Blood Awful in Different Ways by Andrev Walden: Starting in 1983 seven-year-old Andrev has seven ‘dads’ in seven years, beginning with the one he thought was his biological father and it turns out isn’t, we meet all of the men that Andrev’s mother dates or moves in with, or move in with her. Translated from Swedish by Ian Giles. Darkly funny, and comically tragic. An absolute gem.

The Elizabeth Stories by Isabel Huggan: This collection of Canadian short stories should definitely be better known because they’re wonderful. Eight stories about the eponymous Elizabeth from age 7 to 17, taking us through relationships with friends, family and boyfriends. The writing is unshowy, letting the stories shine through. The book seems to be out of print in the UK but you can find it second hand.

Loot by Tania James: A thrilling, absorbing and immersive tale of artistry, adventure and romance. The 1790s and woodcarver, Abbas works with a French artist to carve an automaton of a tiger eating a British soldier (which can really be seen in the V&A) for Mysore’s leader, Tipu Sultan. When Mysore is looted, the automaton is taken, and eventually Abbas teams up with a young woman to try to get it back from an English lady. It’s all great fun!

Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor: A haunting novel and beautifully written debut novel. In 1938, restless Manod lives with her father on a Welsh island, caring for her younger sister and sewing embroideries of what she sees about her. The war is on its way and Manod dreams of leaving for the mainland when two ethnographers arrive hoping to capture the island’s culture before it disappears, and Manod becomes their translator. At first she is taken in by this British couple, but by the end, her eyes have been opened.

The Summer My Mother had Green Eyes by Tatiana Tibuleac: Wow, what a voice, what a story. I absolutely loved this, but it’s not an easy read. Aleksy, a grouchy disabled and successful artist, has been tasked by his psychiatrist to write down the events of fourteen years previously when he finished school and stayed with his mum in a French village. He hates his mum she bribes him to go to France with her for three months, with the lure of a fancy car and lots of money, Aleksy can’t resist. It’s funny and moving, tragic and hilarious. Superbly translated from Romanian by Monica Cure.

The ebook of my third novel, Bitter Orange is currently on special offer in the UK. You can buy it for just 99p. Offer ends at the end of October 2026.