The Names
by Florence Knapp
GENRE: Literary Fiction
It is 1987, and in the aftermath of a great storm, Cora sets out with her nine-year-old daughter to register the birth of her son. Her husband intends for her to follow a long-standing family tradition and call the baby after him. But when faced with the decision, Cora hesitates. Going against his wishes is a risk that will have consequences, but is it right for her child to inherit his name from generations of domineering men? The choice she makes in this moment will shape the course of their lives.
Seven years later, her son is Bear, a name chosen by his sister, and one that will prove as cataclysmic as the storm from which it emerged. Or he is Julian, the name his mother set her heart on, believing it will enable him to become his own person. Or he is Gordon, named after his father and raised in his cruel image - but is there still a chance to break the mould?
Powerfully moving and full of hope, this is the story of three names, three versions of a life, and the infinite possibilities that a single decision can spark. It is the story of one family, and love's endless capacity to endure, no matter what fate has in store.
Florence Knapp has previously written a nonfiction book about a centuries-old method of quilt making, as well as contributing to a book for the Victoria and Albert Museum, Patchwork & Quilting. She lives just outside London with her husband and their dog, Nell. Their two children have now flown the nest. The Names is Knapp’s debut novel and will be translated into more than twenty languages. - Author's website
Publisher's Weekly
Knapp’s intriguing and nuanced debut comprises three alternate story lines for a British family. After giving birth to a baby boy in 1987, Cora goes to the registry office to record his name. Her abusive husband, Gordon, wants the baby named after himself, her nine-year-old daughter thinks Bear would be a good name, and Cora prefers Julian. In each of the three parallel timelines, Cora assigns the baby a different one of the three names, and the lives of the family members unfold radically differently. In the Bear timeline, Cora and the children are mostly free of Gordon, while in the Julian version, the children are raised by Cora’s mother in Ireland. When the boy is named Gordon, the three live under the father’s tyrannical rule. Minor characters in one timeline sometimes play major roles in another, as Knapp reveals which attributes are intrinsic to her characters’ personalities and which are more subject to outside influences. All three story lines twist and turn in surprising but logical directions, as Knapp provides insights into the ways familial pressure can prevent personal growth. Readers won’t be able to stop talking about this intelligent exploration of a single choice’s long tail of repercussions. Agent: Anna Stein, CAA. (May) --Staff (Reviewed 03/17/2025) (Publishers Weekly, vol 272, issue 11, p)
Kirkus
An imaginative exploration of the long-term unfolding of an abusive marriage.
Knapp’s debut is a kind of thought experiment focusing on the family of a British couple named Cora and Gordon, beginning with the birth of their second child, a boy who is nine years younger than his sister, Maia. In the prologue, it is 1987, and Cora and little Maia are off to the registrar to officially name the baby. Gordon—a respected doctor in the community, though a terrifying, violent tyrant at home—wants him named Gordon. But on the way to town, little Maia suggests he be named Bear, which "sounds all soft and cuddly and kind." The opening chapter shows Cora making three different decisions: In the first section, in a rare act of defiance, she follows Maia’s suggestion. Next, she selects the name she herself most wants: Julian. Then she follows directions: The baby is Gordon. Each of the subsequent chapters—which are all divided into three sections—jumps ahead by seven years, tracking the consequences and implications of Cora’s naming decision until the boy is a 35-year-old man.
If the intention and construction of the book are a bit didactic, expressly designed to illustrate and explore the dynamics of domestic abuse, the boldness and thoughtfulness of Knapp ’s plotting add complexity and a welcome unpredictability. As supporting characters are added to each storyline, some appearing in just one, others in two or three, and as the main characters develop in different ways in each scenario, the novel’s structure pays off as Knapp intended it to, inviting the reader to think about not just the ripple effects of a single decision and the workings of an abusive family but also about a profound and classic concern of fiction: How things we can predict and/or control in life interact with things we could never have seen coming.
This noteworthy debut explores a sobering topic with creativity, cleverness, and care. (Kirkus Reviews, March 15, 2025)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal
Knapp makes her fiction debut with a novel that traces one boy's three alternative lives, one for each baby name that his mother is choosing between. Each name shapes his life, as well as his mother's, over the course of 35 years. The novel was bought in a 10-way auction and was a hot title at the Frankfurt book fair. Prepub Alert. Copyright 2024 Library Journal --Melissa DeWild And Neal Wyatt (Reviewed 12/01/2024) (Library Journal, vol 149, issue 12, p1)
Memory Piece
by Lisa Ko
In the early 1980s, Giselle Chin, Jackie Ong, and Ellen Ng are three teenagers drawn together by their shared sense of alienation and desire for something different. “Allied in the weirdest parts of themselves,” they envision each other as artistic collaborators and embark on a future defined by freedom and creativity.
By the time they are adults, their dreams are murkier. As a performance artist, Giselle must navigate an elite social world she never conceived of. As a coder thrilled by the internet’s early egalitarian promise, Jackie must contend with its more sinister shift toward monetization and surveillance. And as a community activist, Ellen confronts the increasing gentrification and policing overwhelming her New York City neighborhood. Over time their friendship matures and changes, their definitions of success become complicated, and their sense of what matters evolves.
Moving from the predigital 1980s to the art and tech subcultures of the 1990s to a strikingly imagined portrait of the 2040s, Memory Piece is an innovative and audacious story of three lifelong friends as they strive to build satisfying lives in a world that turns out to be radically different from the one they were promised.
The Heart's Invisible Furies
by John Boyne
Forced to flee the scandal brewing in her hometown, Catherine Goggin finds herself pregnant and alone, in search of a new life at just sixteen. She knows she has no choice but to believe that the nun she entrusts her child to will find him a better life.
Cyril Avery is not a real Avery, or so his parents are constantly reminding him. Adopted as a baby, he’s never quite felt at home with the family that treats him more as a curious pet than a son. But it is all he has ever known.
And so begins one man’s desperate search to find his place in the world. Unspooling and unseeing, Cyril is a misguided, heart-breaking, heartbroken fool. Buffeted by the harsh winds of circumstance towards the one thing that might save him from himself, but when opportunity knocks, will he have the courage, finally, take it?
The Paper Palace
by Miranda Cowley Heller
“This house, this place, knows all my secrets.”
It is a perfect August morning, and Elle, a fifty-year-old happily married mother of three, awakens at “The Paper Palace”—the family summer place which she has visited every summer of her life. But this morning is different: last night Elle and her oldest friend Jonas crept out the back door into the darkness and had sex with each other for the first time, all while their spouses chatted away inside. Now, over the next twenty-four hours, Elle will have to decide between the life she has made with her genuinely beloved husband, Peter, and the life she always imagined she would have had with her childhood love, Jonas, if a tragic event hadn’t forever changed the course of their lives. As Heller colors in the experiences that have led Elle to this day, we arrive at her ultimate decision with all its complexity.
Tender yet devastating, The Paper Palace considers the tensions between desire and dignity, the legacies of abuse, and the crimes and misdemeanors of families.
