The Pretender by Jo Harkin: Inside Early Tudor England

I enjoyed Jo Harkin's The Pretender, which was on the short list for the Sir Walter Scott Historical Fiction Prize this year. The novel begins in the late 1400s, and Henry of Breton, or Henry Tudor (later to become Henry VII), is plotting and planning desperately to become King of England after King Richard's death. That's the back action. The story primarily revolves around a young boy living a humble life on a farm whose world is transformed when strangers come to take him to a new life, because he is the Yorkist heir to the throne, and is truly, Edward, the Earl of Warwick. This review from The Guardian is a good one. The novel is 475 pages.

I have now read about 100 pages of a 2024 novel by J. Courtney Sullivan, The Cliffs, which is the fifth book I'm tackling from my 20 Books of Summer List. The link will take you to an NPR interview with the author about this book. The novel revolves around a once-abandoned old manse on the Maine coast, and the lives of women who have lived there and those who have coveted it from afar. 

 

I'm a little concerned about the future of my summer reading, because my workload has increased and it seems as though I may not have quite as much time for reading as I'd hoped. Still, I'm sure lots of hot and humid weather is on the way, so all is not lost!