This week we’re bringing you the gems that haven’t gone out in a while, part four! You can see the reasoning behind this collection and the previous instalments here and here.

33 Snowfish, Adam Rapp

On the run in a stolen car with a kidnapped baby in tow, Curtis, Curl, and Bobbie are three young people with troubled pasts and bleak, uncertain futures. As they struggle to find a new life for themselves, it becomes painfully clear that none will ever be able to leave the past behind – though for some, redemption is waiting in the unlikeliest of places. It’s a harrowing and haunting read that’s sure to stay with you.

Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons, Ann Rinaldi

Kidnapped from her home in Senegal and sold as a slave in 1761, a young girl is purchased by the wealthy Wheatley family of Boston. Phillis Wheatley – as she comes to be known – has an eager mind and a knack for learning that leads her on an unusual path for a slave. When the Wheatley’s discover Phillis’s talent for writing poetry, they begin to mold her future by having her “perform” for influential guests. Eventually she is sent to England, where her work is finally published – the first book of poetry by and African American woman. Despite her great achievement and the fame that follows, Phillis is troubled about her way of life. All of the trappings of success do nothing to change the fact that she is still a slave.

Variant X, Sue Robinson

A deadly strain of botfly is causing fear and panic on Australia’s east coast. In a race against time, Adam Wilde follows his scientist father to South America in search of a biological remedy. On board the Carlotta, their floating laboratory on a tributary of the Amazon, Adam meets Sharma, the daughter of a family friend. The two are suspicious of each other from the outset and, in the melting heat of the forest, tension builds to breaking point. Things are about to go very, very wrong.

Anonymity Jones, James Roy

Once, in a street not very far from yours, there lived a girl called Anonymity Jones. Anonymity’s life is falling apart. Her father has left to have a mid-life crisis, her mother’s new boyfriend is a definite worry, her Europe-bound sister has changed her name (just to make a point), and all her girl friends are now girlfriends, with boyfriends. And then there’s the art teacher. Anonymity’s losing control, and it’s decision time. Does she hang on, get out, or get even?

Koyal Dark, Mango Sweet, Kashmira Sheth

Jeeta’s family is caught up in the whirlwind of arranging marriages for her two older sisters, but the drama and excitement leave Jeeta cold. Even though tradition demands the parade of suitors, the marriage negotiations, and the elaborate displays, sixteen-year-old Jeeta wonders what happened to the love and romance the movies promise? She dreads her turn at the matrimonial circuit, especially since Mummy is always complaining about how Jeeta’s dark skin and sharp tongue will turn off potential husbands. But when Jeeta’s smart mouth and liberal ideas land her in love with her friend’s cousin Neel, she must strike a balance between duty to her tradition-bound parents, and the desire to follow her heart.

General Winston’s Daughter, Sharon Shinn

When seventeen-year-old heiress Averie Winston travels with her guardian to faraway Chiarrin, she looks forward to the reunion with her father, who is commanding general; seeing her handsome fiancé, Morgan; and exploring the strange new country. What she finds is entirely different from what she expected. Although the Chiarizzi appear to accept the invading army, rebels have already tried to destroy them; Morgan is not the man she thought he was; and she finds herself falling in love with Lieutenant Ket Du’kai, who himself comes from a conquered society. Can the irrepressible Averie remake herself in this new world?

Damosel : in which the Lady of the Lake renders a frank and often startling account of her wondrous, Stephanie Spinner

Water spirit Damosel, the Lady of the Lake, glides through Arthur’s kingdom like a glamorous wraith. She shimmers and shifts between the worlds of fairies and humans, with the Rules Governing the Ladies of the Lake always on her mind: The Rule of Thorough Preparation for a Difficult Task, The Rule of Eternally Binding Vows to Wielders of Magic, Especially Wizards, The Rule of Service to Future Kings. Her knowledge is vast (magic, metal, men’s hearts) and leads to her greatest honor – and worst mistake. Damosel makes a promise to the wizard Merlin to protect young King Arthur, and then dares to break it – with devastating results.

Inferno, Robin Stevenson

For Dante, high school is hell. She hates her new home in the suburbs, her only friend has moved away, her homeroom teacher mocks her and her mother is making her attend a social skills group for teenage girls. When a stranger shows up at school and hands Dante a flyer that reads: “WOOF, WOOF. YOU ARE NOT A DOG. WHY ARE YOU GOING TO OBEDIENCE SCHOOL?” Dante thinks she’s found a soul mate. Someone who understands. But there are all kinds of ways of bringing about change … and some are more dangerous than others.

Toads and Diamonds, Heather Tomlinson

Diribani has come to the village well to get water for her family’s scant meal of curry and rice. She never expected to meet a goddess there. Yet she is granted a remarkable gift: Flowers and precious jewels drop from her lips whenever she speaks. It seems only right to Tana that the goddess judged her kind, lovely step-sister worthy of such riches. And when she encounters the goddess, she is not surprised to find herself speaking snakes and toads as a reward. Blessings and curses are never so clear as they might seem, however. Diribani’s newfound wealth brings her a prince – and an attempt on her life. Tana is chased out of the village because the province’s governor fears snakes, yet thousands are dying of a plague spread by rats. As the sisters’ fates hang in the balance, each struggles to understand her gift. Will it bring her wisdom, good fortune, love … or death?

The Bad Girls’ Club, Rhian Tracey

Four girls – Mary, Bea, Meena and Atlanta – are thrown together when they are picked for very different reasons by their teacher, to form a book review club. Their discussions and reviews will be heard on radio, chaired and presented by the incredibly cool Jazz. As the girls gradually relax and talk more and more animatedly about what they think about the different books, they find they are learning from, as well as about, each other. And so they become friends. Until one day Mary does the unforgivable and, having flirted outrageously with Bea’s new boyfriend, makes an all-out play for him. The tender new friendship of the foursome is fractured as a result of what Mary has done.

No and Me, Delphine De Vigan

Lou Bertignac is thirteen, has an IQ of 160, a head full of questions and a good friend in class rebel Lucas. At home, her father puts a brave face on things but cries in secret in the bathroom, while her mother has hardly left the house in years, not since her second child died in its sleep. To escape this desolate world, Lou likes to go to one of Paris’s main railway stations, Gare d’Austerlitz, to see emotion writ large in the smiles and tears of arrival and departure. But there she also sees the homeless and meets a girl called No, not much older than herself. She determines to make No the subject of her class project, and bit by bit, coaxed with drinks and a seat in a warm cafe, No begins to talk.

Wendy, Karen Wallace

Wendy’s imagination never runs away with her – it flies. Wendy Darling is not the perfect girl her parents would like her to be. Intrepid, outspoken, and wilful, she’s always getting into trouble. One evening, confined to the nursery by her horrible nanny, she sneaks out to spy on one of her parents’ glamorous parties. What Wendy sees changes her life forever and triggers a series of confusing adventures as she tries to solve the mysteries that lie at the heart of her family…

The Midnight Charter, David Whitley

In the city of Agora, anything can be bought and sold. Even children are possessions until their twelfth birthday. Mark has been sold by his father and Lily, an orphan from birth, has bartered for her life. Thrown together by chance, in the ancient tower of Count Stelli, they face an existence of poverty and servitude unless they can find a way to break free. But, unbeknown to Mark and Lily, they are being watched by the ruler of the city. Can they survive the treachery that awaits them and discover the dark secret that binds them together?

Message in a Bottle, Valerie Zenatti

After a suicide bomb attack on her local Jerusalem cafe, seventeen-year-old Israeli Tal Levine sends a message in a bottle to Gaza. It is a desperate act, but Tal hopes that by starting a dialogue with a Palestinian, their shared experiences could lead to some kind of mutual understanding. Her message is found by a young man calling himself Gazaman, and a remarkable email correspondence begins…

This is a subject that we have been thinking about for a long time. There are so many contenders that fit into the title of epic ladies (and really, if you try hard enough, you can find something epic about most characters) and we wanted to do the subject justice so consequently this will be a long post. So sit back and enjoy this collection of our favourite ladies in literature. We love them all for various reasons – we want to be them, we want to have the adventures they have, we want their unbearably adorable love stories – but mostly we think they’re cool chicks that we would be friends with if we met them.

Historically, resiliant young women have always been present in children’s literature. Predominant, some may argue. From the likes of the Paper Bag Princess (by Robert Munsch) and Clarice Bean (by Lauren Child) in picture books through to the truly intriguing and resourceful girls of children’s literature, they are everywhere. This is our, far from complete, list of epic girls that we shelve in children’s but are always inspirational reading.

Jo from Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Sara from A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Mary from The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Katy from What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge
Lottie and Lisa from Lottie and Lisa by Erich Kästner
Heidi from My Father’s Daughter (originally published as Father’s Arcane Daughter) by E.L. Konigsburg
Meg from A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
Pippi from Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren
Bobbie from The Railway Children by Edith Nesbit
Leslie (and May Belle) from Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Anne from The Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield
Rebecca from Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin

Over the course of the past year or so we’ve introduced you to a lot of our favourite epic women of young adult literature. Here’s some of them that we’ve mentioned before:

Ellie from Guardian of the Dead, Keri from The Shattering, and Tegan from When We Wake by Karen Healey

Our admiration for Karen Healey has been mentioned here. We love her heroines because they are ordinary young women who find themselves in a dangerous situtation where, when faced with the option of fight or flight, they choose to fight. They make mistakes, they get things wrong, they doubt themselves, they’re beautifully flawed but they still choose to take on the dangers of the world just ’cause it’s the right thing to do. We hope we could do that given half the chance.

Katsa from Graceling, Fire from Fire, and Bitterblue from Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore.

We mentioned these epic ladies in this blog post and this one. Quite honestly, we’ll keep recommending these books until you all read them. Kristin Cashore’s heroines are born extraordinary but it is their actions that make them epic. All three are extraordinary in very different ways, all epic for different reasons, but who are all embarking on major ’save-the-world’ quests. All three go through a transformation as they work out who they are, what their place is in the world, and accept the power they have (in this case, a literal power that no one else has).

Verity from Code Name Verity, and Rose from Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

These incredible wartime heroines have had a post all to themselves before, which you can find here. We love them not only for their outstanding deeds of courage under horrific circumstances but also because they tell a deeply moving tale of friendship. So many of the friendships between women are depicted as competition, which of course at times it is, but we feel there’s a lot more to them than that. Elizabeth Wein set out to tell stories with friendship at the heart of them and she does such a wonderful job! We love these ladies because we recognise the best aspects of our own friendships in them and thus, they really do “infest your heart.”

Frankie from The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and Ruby from The Boyfriend List (and the sequels The Boy Book, The Treasure Map of Boys and Real Live Boyfriends) by E. Lockhart

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is another book that we will keep recommending again and again until you all read it. It’s that great. As we’ve mentioned here and here. Frankie is one of the most fierce, resiliant and independent teenage feminists we’ve ever read about, and we love her to bits. She’s not perfect though (the best characters never are) which makes her even more relatable. Just like Ruby. Where Frankie takes on the secret society at her school, Ruby’s just trying to work out the secrets of high school. She has an agonizingly funny perspective on the trials of friendships, parents and boys as she learns there is (thankfully) a world outside of high school.

We have already dedicated an entire post to the epic ladies of graphic novels (which you can find here) but we’re going to make a special mention to Superhero Girl from The Adventures of Superhero Girl by Faith Erin-Hicks.

Superheroes usually have to deal with things like an arch-nemesis or a tragic past that inspires a life of crimefighting. Superhero Girl struggles with these things, as well as less intense superhero problems like forgetting to take her mask off. And some more everyday relatable problems like forgetting to update her mother on her life and accidentally shrinking her cape in the wash. In the process Faith Erin-Hicks creates the funniest, most down-to-earth, almost ordinary superhero we’ve ever seen and subverts all the tropes of superhero characters. We love her.

And now for some more epic ladies from young adult literature:

Eleanor from Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor & Park has been winning all kinds of “best of 2013” awards, and for good reasons. Eleanor, while she is described so uniquely, is so representative of how so many girls, including us here at the Teen Blog, have felt at some point in their own lives. We can’t help but feel just a little too close to the story. Eleanor faces a very rough home life which affects how she is seen at school – she is a complete outsider. But she’s tough. Eleanor bares it because she feels she has no choice. Despite the dire circumstances she finds herself in, she doesn’t let this define her. She is still able to let someone – a specific someone named Park – slowly, slowly into her private world where she no longer has to face her troubles alone. We love that Eleanor is one tough chick, but she knows that she can still reach out for help, and that doesn’t make her weak.

Lia and Cassie from Wintergirls and Melinda from Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

These books take on serious issues, eating disorders and rape respectively, without pulling any punches. Laurie Halse Anderson provides a powerfully honest perspective on these issues through resiliant protagonists. They go through hell, often feeling very alone, and come out the other side. They are stories about the importance of speaking out, about the power of words and they convey that message without falling into the realm of unbelieveable and preachy. The heroines of Speak and Wintergirls are relatable protagonists; love em or hate em, you’ll understand the pain they are going through. Trust us, reading these books is an emotional roller coaster but it’s definitely worth it and it’s a testament to Laurie Halse Anderson’s skill as a storyteller.

Gemma from A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

It’s kind of like a Victorian, elongated Gossip Girl, but with fantasy bits. Gemma Doyle has grown up in India, until she has a spookily true vision of her mother’s death. She is then shipped off to Spence Academy for girls in England, where she encounters an exclusive clique. Rejected by the group as well as her less glamorous roommate Ann, Gemma blackmails herself and Ann into the clique. After that things get weird and complicated because of an interesting mythology. At it’s heart though, this book is about friendship. It’s fulfills some of the tropes of girls at boarding school (which Enid Blyton encapsulated so exstensively) but along the way there is rollicking, and at times, terrifying adventure to cement Gemma’s friendships.

Carmen, Tibby, Lena and Bridget from The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants by Ann Brashares

This is another we love because of the way friendship is portrayed between these equally epic ladies. The first (of four) Sisterhood books kicks off as the girls are about to part ways for the summer. In order to stay in touch they form the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, vowing to send the same pair of jeans (and news) to each other at their various destinations. Each girl goes on her own personal journey of discovery but throughout it she is supported by the Sisterhood. The loving support the girls give one another is why they are epic and why we love them.

Ash and Kaisa from Ash by Malinda Lo

In the wake of her father’s death, Ash, consumed with grief, is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Her only hope is that someday, in her dreams, the fairies will steal her away, as they are said to do. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted. However, Ash takes her fate into her own hands when, after meeting Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, she learns to hunt. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash’s capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love. We love the eerie yet fascinating atmosphere Malinda Lo creates with her lyrical prose and richly described settings. She interweaves fairy tales and traditions of her own into the story and creates a world you will fall in love with.

Phew! Hopefully now you have have miles-long to-read lists overflowing with tales of our favourite epic ladies, and perhaps some of your own discoveries too. If you have some favourite epic ladies that weren’t on our list, or you just love the ones we have included, let us know in the comments!

This week we’re bringing you the gems that haven’t gone out in a while, part three! You can see the reasoning behind this collection and the previous instalments here and here.

The Properties of Water, Hannah Roberts McKinnon

For thirteen-year-old Lace Martin it has always been the three of them: Lace, her older sister, Marni, and the lake. The sisters’ lives have always circled around the lake on which they’ve grown up. As Marni always said, the water was in their blood. Both competitive swimmers, the girls once shared everything. But living in her sister’s shadow was sometimes difficult for Lace; there was no escaping Marni’s beauty, wit, and athleticism. All that changed one tragic summer afternoon.

Figs and Fate: Stories About Growing Up in the Arab World Today, Elsa Marston

The five stories in this collection are told from the perspective of Arab teens living in Syria, Lebanon, a Palestinian refugee camp, Egypt, and Iraq. Each main character embarks on a mission to confront his or her social situation, whether regarding friends, family, teachers, or society at large. Marston beautifully details the rich Middle Eastern culture of these five individuals and their families, dispelling negative stereotypes associated with young adults living in these societies and providing for a better understanding of their culture. Their ideals, goals, and dreams are no different from those of teens living elsewhere in the world. By exploring the challenges they face, Figs and Fate will awaken you to the rhythms of young people’s lives in the Middle East – a beat that may sound surprisingly familiar to you.

The swallow and the Dark, Andrew Matthews

Sam is sixteen, and at war with his own body, fighting an incurable illness that gives him only months to live. Time has suddenly become very important to him as he now has so little left. Nearly a hundred years ago, another Sam — a lieutenant in the British Army — is off to fight a different kind of war, on the Western Front. He knows that he may well not survive. Linking the two is a girl named Marion. But is Marion just a figment of Sam’s imagination — a hallucination caused by his medication — or something far more extraordinary? Could she somehow be… a bridge across time?

The Year of the Shanghai Shark, Mo Zhi Hong

The North-Eastern Chinese city of Dalian is home to orphaned teenager Hai Long. In the year of the Sars epidemic, he and his friends live out their urban existence, going to school, navigating the malls, and watching American basketball and Michael Jordan. They are part of China’s new generation, severing ties with their cultural past, surrounded by a fascinating array of rich, colourful characters who frequent their inner-city apartment block – from Gambler Dang, a high stakes Ma Jiang player, to Fish, a peasant from the countryside and an unlikely friend, and finally Uncle, whose shadowy occupation exerts an irresistible pull on Hai Long’s life…

The Door of No Return, Sarah Mussi

“Until my son, the lost Prince – get it, that’s you – comes back through The Door of No Return, and claims his ransom, my soul will never rest in the land of my ancestors.” Those are Zac’s grandfather’s dying words. An old man’s wild fancy? Or real: diaries, lost maps, secrets buried 300 years ago somewhere in Africa? A motive for murder? Somewhere in the old slave forts of Ghana lies the answer, and Zac knows his only choice is to go there and find out.

Cry of the Giraffe : based on a true story, Judie Oron

Labelled outcasts by their Ethiopian neighbors because of their Jewish faith, 13-year-old Wuditu and her family make the arduous trek on foot to Sudan in the hope of being transported to Yerusalem and its promise of a better life. Instead, they are herded into a squalid refugee camp until the day soldiers round up Wuditu and scores of others, forcing them back to the Ethiopian border. Throughout her harrowing trek across the scorching sand, and the humiliation, fear, and despair she later faces as a slave, Wuditu’s only hope is to be reunited with her family in Yerusalem. Based on real events, this is one girl’s courageous journey from exile and slavery to hope in a new land. It mirrors the experience of thousands of Ethiopian Jews who fled from hatred, persecution, and brutality to a new life in their spiritual homeland.

So Punk Rock (And Other Ways to Disappoint Your Mother), Micol Ostow

Despite his dreams of hipster rock glory, Ari Abramson’s band, The Tribe is more white bread than indie-cred. Made up of four suburban teens from a wealthy Jewish school, their Motley Crue is about as hardcore as SAT prep and scripture studies. But after a one-song gig at a friend’s Bar Mitzvah – a ska cover of “Hava Nagilah” – the Tribe’s popularity erupts overnight. Now, Ari is forced to navigate a minefield of inflated egos, misplaced romance, and the shallowness of indie-rock elitism. It’s a hard lesson in the complex art of playing it cool.

Secret Keeper, Mitali Perkins

When her father loses his job and leaves India to look for work in America, Asha, her older sister, Reet and their mother must wait with Baba’s brother and his family, as well as their grandmother, in Calcutta. Uncle is welcoming, but in a country steeped in tradition, the three women must abide by his decisions. Asha knows this is temporary – just until Baba sends for them. But with scant savings and with time passing, the tension builds. Ma finds it hard to submit to her mother- and sister-in-law; Reet’s beauty attracts unwanted marriage proposals; and Asha’s promise to take care of Ma and Reet leads to impulsive behaviour.

The Middle of Everywhere, Monique Polak

Fifteen-year-old Noah Thorpe is spending the school term in George River, In Quebec’s Far North. The Inuit kids call Noah a Qallunaaq–the Inuktitut word for a non-Inuit person, someone ignorant of the customs of the North. Noah thinks the Inuit have a strange way of looking at the world, plus they eat raw meat and seal blubber. Most have never left George River–a town that doesn’t even have its own doctor, let alone a McDonald’s. But Noah’s views change when he realizes he will have to learn a few lessons from his Inuit buddies if he wants to survive in the North.

Malka, Mirjam Pressler

Malka’s world is changing. Jews are no longer welcome in her home town and her family is threatened by Nazi round-ups. Nothing is safe any more. Now Malka’s mother knows she has no choice – she must take her daughters across the mountains to freedom. But escape proves harder than they could ever have imagined. Separated from her mother and alone in a terrifying new world, Malka struggles to survive starvation and brutality at the hands of the Nazis. But she is unaware that, miles away, a broken-hearted mother is searching for her lost little girl…

The Star Locket, Natalie Jane Prior

Identical in appearance, yet raised as strangers on opposite sides of the world, Estee Merton and Sally Taverner share a perilous inheritance: a broken half of a mysterious star-shaped locket, a magical talisman that could control the destiny of millions. Aided by a renegade secret society and a young man who loves one of them too much, Sally and Estee are drawn into a terrifying struggle on the murky streets of nineteenth-century Starberg. As torn loyalties threaten everyone’s safety, the star locket is fated to decide which twin will live and which will be lost. The problem is, there is no way of telling who is real and who is not.

Because Nicola is amazing, as well as her guides to the graphic novels, she’s put together a guide to the ‘classics’. The notion that a book can be ‘classic’ is a contentious one. The term puts a group of books above everything else. But how is that possible when what makes good literature is so subjective? We do have a section devoted to ‘classic’ novels, which really means the ones that you’re likely to be asked to read for an English assignment. That being said, these novels are famous for a good reason; well written, sometimes funny, sometimes sad portraits of a particular time and place. Often, the ones we have classed as ‘classics’ are there because they’ve stood the test of time (another contentious term) in that they’ve been loved by several generations. Here are Nicola’s picks for the best of the best:

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

Jane Eyre is definitely one of the great female characters of pre-feminist literature. Stroppy and headstrong, intelligent and self aware, she conquers not only dreadful relations and a dire school, but the heart of Mr. Rochester, a man equally as difficult as she is. But please don’t mistake the book for a sappy romantic novel; Jane has to make hard choices and refuses to compromise on her sense of ethics, even if it means losing the man she loves. The Brontë family is pretty incredible as all three sisters (Charlotte, Emily and Anne) wrote novels that have become widely classed as ‘classics.’ Emily wrote Wuthering Heights and Anne wrote The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. All three sisters were popular for the passion and originality in their writing.

Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys

This was actually written as a companion piece to Jane Eyre. It’s no spoiler to say it deals with the life of Antoinette, Mr. Rochester’s first wife. Written in 1966, almost 120 years after Jane Eyre, it has a very different take on the world that Jane Eyre lived in. It mostly takes place in the Caribbean after the end of slavery and looks at race, class and sexism – themes unexplored in Jane Eyre.

Works of Charles Dickens

Where to begin? We’ve got almost all of his major works in the YA section. My particular favourite is Great Expectations (closely followed by Bleak House and Oliver Twist). Charles Dickens’ writing style can be a little hard to get into at first, but the first few are well worth persevering through. Despite my love for his novels, I will admit to finding his main characters a bit straightlaced; but the secondary characters sparkle with life. His books often take a satirical but realistic depiction of his society and its problems. He was regarded as the literary colossus of his age. A Christmas Carol, is one of the most influential works ever written, and it remains popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every artistic genre.

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Victor Hugo

If your only knowledge of this classic comes from the 1996 Disney movie, then you’re in for a shock. But like so many screen adaptations, the book is much better (but librarians would say that). In the vaulted Gothic towers of Notre-Dame lives Quasimodo, the hunchbacked bellringer. Mocked and shunned for his appearance, he is pitied only by Esmerelda, a beautiful gypsy dancer to whom he becomes completely devoted. Esmerelda, however, has also attracted the attention of the sinister archdeacon Claude Frollo, and when she rejects his lecherous approaches, Frollo hatches a plot to destroy her that only Quasimodo can prevent. This novel is a dark picture of life in pre-reformation Paris, depicting cruelty, passion, lust and jealousy, all centred around the eponymous cathedral.

The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

“Epic” doesn’t even begin to describe this book. It starts rather simply; Edmond Dantès is thrown in prison for a crime he hasn’t committed. There he learns of a great hoard of treasure hidden on the Isle of Monte Cristo and he becomes determined not only to escape, but also to unearth the treasure and use it to plot the destruction of the three men responsible for his incarceration. But that simple premise also encompasses stories of debt, class, love, illegitimate children, murder… and that’s about half of what happens before the end of the book. Certainly not a light read, but a breathtaking saga that encompasses years.

The Lord of the Rings trilogy, J. R. R. Tolkien

Some would baulk at including The Lord of the Rings on this list. It has numerous imitators, and has been a massive influence on the fantasy genre since it was published. But a good story is a good story, and these books also have truths to tell. After all the hero is not the warrior Aragon, or Gandalf, or the elves. The hero is a shy hobbit who leaves his bucolic existence for a dangerous mission. At its heart it’s a story about ordinary people faced with doing extraordinary things.