Guest post written by The Night In Question author Susan Fletcher
Susan Fletcher is an award-winning British author. She has written six adult novels, including Eve Green – for which she won the UK’s Whitbread First Novel award and was nominated for the LA Times Book award. Common themes in her novels are the natural world, hidden secrets – and, above all, strong female protagonists who live unconventional lives. Her seventh book, The Night in Question, will be published by Union Square on 2nd April 2024. She lives in Stratford upon Avon, UK.
So much of the love that is captured in literature (and in all forms of art) is that of romantic love. Passion, adoration, and falling in love – that half-madness, that visceral ache – are all dazzling subject matters, and can change our lives. But there is another, arguably more prevalent kind of love that, I feel, deserves a little more attention: that of deep friendship. In my latest book, The Night in Question, I wanted to examine all the adventure, love and sorrow of a single human life. Florrie Butterfield is eighty-seven and, these days, easily overlooked; yet I wanted to show how rich in experience her life has been, for better or worse – how rich her life still is. Above all, I wanted to explore all the love that she’s felt, in her nine decades – and whilst yes, Florrie has had her love affairs and broken hearts, it is the lifelong love of her best friend, Pinky, which stands out.
Our dearest female friends are our confidantes, our partners-in-crime, our cheerleaders and saviours; they laugh and grieve with us; they forgive our clumsy mistakes. Unlike partners, there is no wedding ring with which a friend may announce their love, no public promise to love us all their lives. Yet, very often, friends will love us forever: they stay because they choose to and have no wish to go. Whilst such friendships may, sometimes, seem in the background of our lives, they are faithful, unchanging – and can be (as with Florrie and Pinky) one of our greatest gifts.
Below are five novels which all capture and explore all the messy, complicated, wondrousness of close female friendships. I loved them all.
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Armin
There’s such sunshine and kindness in this luminous novel from the 1920s. Four women – strangers, and of differing age and circumstance – arrive to spend the summer at a castle on the Italian coast. The Mediterranean climate, the wisteria and each other’s company (and, too, the absence of their menfolk) all have a transformative effect on these four women’s lives. It’s a novel that celebrates nascent female empowerment, as well as the joy and support that women can bring each other.
The List of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey
1979 in Yorkshire, England – and a killer is on the loose. In an effort to identify the culprit, twelve-year-old Miv and her best friend Sharon decide to make a list of anything (or anyone) suspicious in their neighbourhood. What follows is a sharp-eyed, moving account of two friends on the cusp of adolescence with all its insecurities, paranoia, misunderstandings and fervent loyalty – as well as a crystallised depiction of northern England in the late 70s.
100 Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin
This debut shines for its characterisation. Lenni (aged seventeen) and Margot (aged eighty-three) might make for an unlikely coupling – but they have similar personalities: indomitable, spirited, secretly lonely and frustrated by their circumstances. There’s a freshness to their story which never falls into mawkishness or sentimentality – and the effect that their friendship has on both of them is beautifully handled. The novel celebrates human connection and its importance in a happy, nourishing life.
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
The term ‘friendship’ may not initially feel the right word for the relationship that forms between a scientist Marina and her former mentor, Dr Annick Swenson – who meet again, after many years, in the depths of the Amazon rainforest. The women’s exchanges are brittle, at first, and distrusting. Yet, as the plot of this extraordinary novel unfolds, the mutual respect, concern and tenderness that grows between Marina and Annick reminds us that close, platonic bonds can be wholly unexpected – and do not have to last a lifetime to have a lasting effect.
We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman
Edi is in terminally ill, dying in a hospice, and her best friend Ash is right by her side, bringing jokes, watermelon ice cubes, observations about hot doctors – all whilst managing her own immeasurable grief. It sounds like a humourless read; but, in fact, this astounding novel is witty, irreverent, riotous, gentle – and so full of love that it is, at times, hard to breathe for it. One dreads, as Ash does, the inevitable. But when it comes, the bond between Ash and Edi remains. It is a huge, reverberating love song to female friendship – and suggests that maybe no-one can ever truly know you as well as your closest friend.
