Read this when
The Sea, the Sea
He ran into his first love 40 years later and decided she needed saving. She didn't. A Booker winner about the difference between love and fixation. 🌊
Who it's for
Charles Arrowby narrates his own obsession with charm and total conviction, and the reader gradually sees what he cannot: that his 'rescue' of his first love Hartley is about his fantasy, not her wishes.
Feelings it meets
What it is
Iris Murdoch's 1978 novel, winner of that year's Booker Prize, is narrated by Charles Arrowby, a self-satisfied playwright and director who withdraws from the world to live alone in a house by the sea. There he unexpectedly meets Hartley, his first love from adolescence, now married and greatly changed.
Where to find it
In print (Vintage Classics/Penguin) and in libraries (Libby/Hoopla); audiobook available. Not public domain. Won the 1978 Booker Prize.
Before you start
Heads up: A drowning and a woman held captive.
Age: Ages 16+
Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights, Chapter 9
