I’m probably going to do a proper round-up post in a day or two but having watched a very bleak two-parter on TV (an Agatha Christie adaptation) that left me feeling even lower than before, it occurred to me that what I would like to see trending in the new year is literature that comforts. Not schmaltzy, saccharine candy-fluff books that pretend everything is nice and rosy but books that have a strong core of something special, something strong and real and comforting.
One of the books I read this year was Elizabeth Goudge’s The Rosemary Tree. It’s a comfort book, like all of hers I have read so far. It’s not light and fluffy but quite different. It’s about people coping with things that seem intolerable and finding ways to redeem the unredeemable. That’s what I mean about Comfort Books.
In view of this, for the end of this year and for the start of next, I have reduced the price of Away With The Fairies to £1.99 or equivalent worldwide. I’ve had many emails, reviews, letters and messages from readers about this book, on how it’s helped them cope with some very difficult times in their lives.
I’m hoping to have a new book out by Easter, and that too will be a Comfort Book. More information to follow soon.
If you have suggestions for other books we might all enjoy, please share them in the comments.
Zen and the Art of Tightrope Walking 
One totally marvellous book with much of comfort is A History of the Rain by Niall Williams. A book I wish I had written, a book about the comfort of books in a condition of extremis.
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Check out the books of Kent Haruf’s soulful novels. Here is my short review of ‘Plainsong.’ https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/794888173?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
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I love Lela Aboulela’s books (except her latest which is a bit different) for their ‘comfort’ value. Esp. ‘The Translator’. Also Jane Davis’s books are deeply thoughtful and satisfying reads, concerned with the wrongs in society and with how ‘misfits’ work to overcome the constraints of ‘traditional values’ (such as paternalism and conventions)
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I always have to read a ‘comfort’ book before I go to sleep. (That is not at all what I generally read during the day, or write, myself, but before sleep I must; I need to settle down and relax)
One I always go back to is The Tale of Murasaki, by Liza Dalby; it is a fictional tale based on extant historical records of the lady who wrote the Tale of Genji. It’s such a charming, gentle read, scattered with little poems, (real ones, I believe) that when my partner says, ‘You’re reading that AGAIN?’ I say, ‘Yes, it’s comforting.’ 🙂
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