The Good Clean Fiction bookshelf
A little room for a good book.
by Elizabeth von Arnim
Published anonymously in 1898, this is a year in the life of an English wife on her husband's estate in northern Germany, where she escapes household duty, unwanted visitors and the "Man of Wrath" into a garden she is determined to make her own. Wry, sunny and quietly rebellious, it reads like a letter from a very funny friend.
Before you read
Read our approach to language, romance, and difficult subjects before choosing your next book.
How we choose our booksFind your copy
Retailer links may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Read our disclosure.
Literary
Allen Levi
A mysterious traveler named Theo drifts into a small Georgia town and quietly changes the people who take him in. Allen Levi's debut is unhurried and gentle — a meditation on friendship, grief, and grace with no villain to speak of, just ordinary kindness given room to matter.
LiteraryTranslated
Lydia Sandgren
Martin Berg runs a struggling publishing house in Gothenburg, and it has been years since his wife Cecilia walked out of the family's life without a word. When their daughter Rakel stumbles on a clue to where her mother went, she and her brother follow it across Europe and back through their parents' past. A long, absorbing novel about love, art and absence, and winner of Sweden's August Prize.
ClassicsLiterary
Elizabeth von Arnim
On a wet February afternoon in London, two women who barely know each other answer a newspaper advertisement for a small medieval castle on the Italian coast, to let for April. With two strangers recruited to share the cost, four unhappy women arrive at San Salvatore, and the month slowly works on each of them. Funny, generous and full of wisteria.
