14 February 2024
Love is in the air, and what better way to celebrate the season of romance than with captivating stories that warm the heart (more or less)?
This Valentine’s Day, we have handpicked for you a trio of literary gems that will make you want to swap roses for books… From the elegance of Mrs Gulliver to the raw honesty of Is This Love? and the sheer beauty of June Jordan’s verse in Haruko/Love Poems, we promise that these books will make your Valentine’s Day unforgettable!
Mrs Gulliver
Available from Waterstones | Amazon | Bookshop.org
‘Irresistible – a funny, sexy romp that’s also smart, even wise’ Kirkus starred review
‘ Pure elegance, subtlety and wit. A triumph of a novel’ – Francesca Segal, author of Mother Ship
It is 1954, and prostitution is legal in the tropical haven that is Verona Island. Here, among gangsters and corrupt lawmen, Lila Gulliver runs a brothel that promises her exclusive clientele privacy and discretion. When nineteen-year-old Carità, beautiful and blind since birth, comes to her door seeking employment, Mrs Gulliver sees a business opportunity and takes a chance. Carità is mesmerising, sharp and a mystery to her employer, always holding herself at a distance.
One night, the son of a wealthy judge patronises Mrs Gulliver’s establishment, immediately falling madly in love with Carità. This is Ian Drohan – young, idealistic and cushioned by wealth and family connections. Mrs Gulliver mistrusts him, and worries for Carità’s future. Carità, on the other hand, is fearless, headstrong and a force of nature that Mrs Gulliver is always several steps behind.
A dazzling drama filled with sex, wry wit and literary references, Mrs Gulliver follows two women who have nothing to lose in their fight for agency on an island too ready to dismiss them.
Is This Love?
Available from Waterstones | Amazon | Bookshop.org
‘This is a book about the untidy, complicated underbelly of love and love’s end. Funny and true, wise and utterly authentic, you will recognise yourself over and over. I loved it’ Kit de Waal
‘A deeply unsettling, but unputdownable account of a marriage unravelling. This book held me captivated with its wit, ambiguity and complexity’ Abi Morgan, creator of The Split
Did you mean to marry me?
Did you understand the vows that we took?
J’s wife has left, and J is trying to understand why. How could someone you loved so much, who claimed to love you once, just walk away? How could they send divorce papers accusing you of terrible things, when all you’ve ever done is tried to make them happy?
Narrated by J in the days, weeks and months after the marriage collapses, and interspersed with the departed wife’s diary entries, Is This Love? is an addictive, deeply unsettling, and provocative novel of deception and betrayal, and passion turned to pain. As the story unfolds, and each character’s version of events undermines the other, all our assumptions about victimhood, agency, love and control are challenged – for we never know J’s gender. If we did, would it change our minds about who was telling the truth?
HARUKO/Love Poems
Available from Waterstones | Amazon | Bookshop.org
Selected by Seán Hewitt as a Granta Book of the Year
In trailblazing poet, essayist, teacher and activist June Jordan’s poems, love is a vision of revolutionary solidarity, crossing borders both emotional and literal with an outstretched hand. Haruko traces the faltering arc of a passionate love affair with another woman while Love Poems encompasses relationships with men and women, political resistance, the need for self-care in a demanding, uncaring world and apocalyptic visions of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii and Herculaneum.
A contemporary of Alice Walker, Toni Morrison and Audre Lorde, June Jordan’s spectacular poetry remains profoundly politically potent, lyrically inventive and breathtakingly romantic. First published in 1994, Haruko/ Love Poems is a vitally important modern classic.