Three excellent coming-of-age novels
Which also happen to be some of my favourite books of all time.
Not long ago, I watched the film Almost Famous for the first time. (It came out in 2000, so how it had passed me by for 22 years, I do not know.) It’s about a 15-year-old aspiring music journalist who, following a few white lies and a lot of luck, goes on the road with an emerging rock band in order to write a profile of them, and learns about the ups and downs of adult life en route. I loved it from about ten seconds in and by the end it had become one of my all-time favourite films.
The reason I’m telling you this is because it reminded me I have a real soft spot for coming-of-age stories. Done right, they are a melting pot of emotion - joy, angst, freedom, sorrow - as innocence and naivety give way to the sometimes harsh, sometimes liberating adult world.
It’s for that reason, I think, that the following books are all up there with the best I have ever read - but I would love to know what your favourite coming-of-age stories are too. Let me know in the comments, or by replying to this email.
Three of my favourite coming-of-age novels
Atonement by Ian McEwan
If you were to trace my love for reading back to its origins, you would find Atonement there as one of the first adult books I ever became obsessed with.
Much of my love for the novel is for its protagonist Briony Tallis, who is 13 when she makes a terrible mistake which sets off a chain of events she will spend the next six decades repenting for. It is an exquisite novel which sweeps through the 20th century and is both brutal and beautiful at the same time.
Dominicana by Angie Cruz
Ana is only 15 when Juan, who is twice her age, announces he has chosen her to be his wife, and together they will emigrate from the Dominican Republic to New York. It doesn’t matter that she will never love him, that she has no desire to move to the States, and that she doesn’t speak the language. She has no choice, because this could be a ticket to a better future for her whole family.
Dominicana is a novel about finding your place in the world. It’s funny, heartbreaking and compassionate, and it reads easily and moves you even more so. I love this book an unreasonable amount.
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
It’s a turbulent world in 1970s Afghanistan but the main thing on twelve-year-old Amir’s mind is winning his local kite tournament. His friend Hassan comes along to support him, and it could have been just another day if it weren’t for the fact that Amir witnesses something that will change the course of his life forever.
I often see The Kite Runner on those ‘books to read before you die’ lists and all I can say is that it very much deserves to be there. This book is an unforgettable, earth-shattering, masterpiece.
And finally…
The newly-released trailer for Everything I Know About Love, adapted from Dolly Alderton’s memoir and a coming-of-age story in itself, has made me very happy. Watch it here. (But read it first.)
Loved Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan - captures the spirit of being young, and the bonds between friends so well; and not a novel, but a coming of age memoir: Bad Blood by Lorna Sage. One of my favourite books ever. High, high recommend!