BOOK CLUB The best holiday reads on our list

BOOK CLUB Viking

If you’re looking for reading recommendations for the year ahead, look no further. Here we select a few of our favourite novels…

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COOKING FOR PICASSO BY CAMILLE AUBRAY Ballantine Books, £12.18 An evocative tale whisking readers away to the French Riviera on the cusp of springtime. The story begins in the 1930s – the young Ondine is helping out with her family café when a curious character disturbs the norm. The mysterious customer is one Pablo Picasso, who at this point in his life is at a crossroads similar to the recently broken-hearted Ondine. The tale flashes forward and the reader is transported to modern day New York. Celine, a makeup artist, learns of her grandmother Ondine’s close connection with the artist and, spurred on by her discovery, seeks to unravel the truth about her fascinating family connection.

RIVER GOD, BY WILBUR SMITH Macmillan, £9.99 The first book in a series of Egyptian epics by Wilbur Smith, this story tells of the fate of the ancient Egyptian Kingdom through the perspective of a bright slave named Taita. An expert in art, poetry and medicine, Taita is a precious possession of Lord Intef, but when Intef’s daughter is married off to the Pharaoh, Taita’s fate is sealed and he becomes a dedicated slave to the newlyweds. Taita consequently finds himself tangled in a web of deception amidst a tumultuous backdrop of a divided ancient Egypt. With twists at every turn, this is a romp packed with death and intrigue in the mysterious Valley of the Kings. THE BLUE PERIOD BY LUKE JEROD KUMMER Little A, £8.99 A fascinating depiction of Pablo Picasso’s uprooting from the gritty streets of turn-of-the-century Barcelona to bohemian Paris, where the young artist navigates a relationship with the mysterious muse, Germaine Gargallo. The comingof-age tale follows the determined artist and his poet accomplice, Carles Casagemas, running riot in the streets of Montmartre, experiencing all the excitement of this artistic quarter of the capital at a time of heightened debauchery. The artists’ passion for Gargallo intensifies and exposes a rift in their relationship, but amid the despair, Picasso discovers a colour palette to inspire a wave of artistic creativity.

THE DISCOVERY OF SLOWNESS BY STEN NADOLNY Viking Penguin, £9.99 Sten Nadolny’s masterpiece recounts the life of Sir John Franklin, a British Royal Navy officer and explorer of the Arctic. Franklin famously made three attempts to find the Northwest Passage – a sea route to the Pacific Ocean though the Arctic Ocean. His final voyage in 1845 ended in notorious tragedy for him and his men, becoming the worst disaster in the history of British polar exploration. But the work of Franklin paved the way for the discovery of the Northwest Passage and Nadolny’s thorough historical research is an labour of love and testament to this fascinating man. THE NORTH WATER BY IAN MCGUIRE Simon and Schuster, £8.99 A riveting murder mystery set onboard a whaling ship bound for the Arctic in the mid-19th Century, at a time when the whaling industry was on its last legs. Having left the British Army, Patrick Sumner joins the ship as its surgeon as the crew heads for the Arctic Circle on a doomed voyage. In the midst of the journey, a cabin boy is discovered dead. Patrick finds himself faced with more than he signed up for on the expedition, battling human relationships tested in close proximities and the inevitable harshness of mother nature.

THE VISITORS BY SALLY BEAUMAN Little, Brown and Company, £7.99 Dive into Sally Beauman’s fascinating fiction for a taste of the trail for Tutankhamun. Set in Egypt in the 1920s, this novel sifts through Carter’s long years of toil in the Valley of the Kings, reimagining the story of Carter and Carnarvon’s hunt for the elusive tomb. The adventure is cleverly retold through the eyes of an eleven-year-old English girl, Lucy, who has been sent to Egypt to recover from typhoid, a fever to which she has lost her mother. Lucy is caught up in the excitement that surrounds the search, making friends with the daughter of an American archaeologist. Years later, the book switches to London in the present day and we catch up with a Lucy haunted by the ghosts of her past.