September 1943: German forces occupy Rome. SS officer Paul Hauptmann rules with terror. An Irish priest, Hugh O’Flaherty, dedicates himself to helping those escaping from the Nazis. His home is Vatican City, a neutral, independent country within Rome where the occupiers hold no sway. He gathers a team to set up an Escape Line. But … Continue reading August 4th – My Father’s House (Joseph O’Connor)

At the bottom of a great stone staircase, dressed in her mother’s black lace evening dress, twisted in murderous death, lies Janet. So end the sixteen years of Janet’s short life. A life spent in a draughty Scottish castle, where roses will not grow, and a jackdaw decides to live in the doll’s house. A … Continue reading September 1st – O Caledonia (Elspeth Barker)

Ever since he was a kid, kicking broken footballs on the streets of East London in the shadow of Canary Wharf’s skyscrapers, Gary wanted something better. Something a whole lot bigger. Then he won a competition run by a bank: ‘The Trading Game’. The prize: a golden ticket to a new life, as the youngest … Continue reading October 6th – Trading Game (Gary Stevenson)

On the Six-Thousand Ship, things have started to feel changed. Since bringing aboard a number of strange objects from a newly discovered planet, the crew – both human and humanoid – have begun to feel a yearning. They want to be near the objects, to feel them pressed against their skin, but they also all … Continue reading November 3rd – The Employees (Olga Ravn)

Meet Alison’s father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family’s Victorian home, a third-generation funeral home director, a high-school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with his male students and the family babysitter. When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in … Continue reading December 1st – Fun Home (Alison Bechdel)

Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a white mother and a Cherokee father, Betty is the sixth of eight siblings: the world they inhabit in the rural town of Breathed, Ohio, is one of poverty and loss, of lush landscapes and blazing stars. Despite the hardships she encounters, Betty is resilient. Her curiosity about … Continue reading January 5th – Betty (Tiffany McDaniel)