If you’re lucky, your life will never crumble down around you and you’ll never find yourself forced to start over… but few people are that lucky. Nearly everyone has faced that situation once or twice, whether by misfortune and bad luck or poor choices and self-destruction. In any case, it can be comforting to read about characters who manage to rise from the ashes, to galvanise your faith in yourself to do the same. Here are fifteen fiction books about starting over.
Those Other Women by Nicola Moriarty
Those Other Women begins with every childfree-by-choice woman’s nightmare: Poppy’s husband decides that he does want children after all, and announces that he’s been having an affair with her clucky (now-former) best friend. Poppy is left high and dry, starting over in her mid-30s while her (now-ex) husband starts a new life filled with baby showers and playdates. In her search for a new best friend, Poppy finds Annalise, a likeminded firecracker from her office. Together, they decide to start a Facebook group, an alternative to the ever-popular always-growing “Mums Online Paramatta” – but it doesn’t take long for the group to go off the rails. Read my full review of Those Other Women here.
Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
In a sleepy small town on the Maine coast, Evvie Drake rarely leaves her big empty house. All the neighbourhood gossips blame the death of her husband for her self-isolation, and she lets them think that – even though it couldn’t be further from the truth. That’s where Evvie Drake Starts Over begins, but it’s all about to change. Professional baseballer Dean Trenney arrives to rent Evvie’s granny flat, and the two of them strike a deal: she won’t ask him why he’s suddenly lost the ability to pitch, as long as he won’t ask about her dead husband. This is a quirky, heartfelt novel about new beginnings and unlikely connections.
The Librarian by Salley Vickers
Sylvia Blackwell thinks her new job in East Mole will be a dream come true, and it almost is… until she falls in love with an older man. That alone would be enough to get tongues in the small English village wagging, but it’s Sylvia’s relationships with two of the town’s children, and the literature she introduces them to, that really lights a fire under them all. The Librarian is a book about starting over, and the power of literature to change lives.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Little Fires Everywhere is set in the “placid, progressive suburb” of Shaker Heights, Ohio. Elena Richardson has rented out her investment property to Mia Warren, an artist and a single mother to teenager Pearl; they need a fresh start, and Elena prides herself on being a magnanimous landlord to people who need to start over. As a debate sparks in the community about whether an adopted Chinese-American infant should be returned to her birth mother, Mia’s disregard for “the rules” becomes a sore point between them all, and Elena’s charity reaches its limits. Read my full review of Little Fires Everywhere here.
Britt-Marie Was Here by Fredrik Backman
Britt-Marie Was Here follows the titular middle-aged fusspot, recently separated from her beloved husband Kent, as she starts over. Fearing that, without Kent as an (albeit inattentive) witness to her life, she might someday die without anyone noticing, Britt-Marie goes out in search of a job and a life of her own. That’s how she finds herself in the backwater town of Borg, the only person desperate enough to take on the role of caretaker for a soon-to-be-demolished community center. Despite her firm intentions of simply keeping the community center clean (with a bucket-load of baking soda), she ends up roped into coaching a soccer team of ragamuffins, and best friends with the drunken pizzeria owner. Read my full review of Britt-Marie Was Here here.
The Book Of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henríquez
A lot has been written about immigration and the pursuit of a “better life” in the United States; The Book Of Unknown Americans is a particularly striking example of fiction books about this starting-over story. The Riveras leave behind everything they know in Mexico after fifteen-year-old Maribel sustains a terrible injury – they hope, in the Land of Opportunity, she’ll be able to get the care she needs. When Mirabel catches the eye of a neighbour boy, Mayor Toro, it sets in motion a series of events that will have profound repercussions for both families.
Things You Save In A Fire by Katherine Center
As a firefighter, Cassie Hanwell is used to seeing other people on the worst days of their lives, figuring out how to start over. In Things You Save In A Fire, she finds herself the one who has to rise from the ashes. After picking up her life in Texas and moving to Boston to care for her mother, she’s suddenly working in a fire station very different to the one she’s known for years, one that’s hostile to women and drastically underfunded. Cassie will have to stay tough and stay focused to make it work, but the team rookie might be the only one who could get under her skin.
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Books about starting over aren’t always about underdogs rebuilding their life after devastating setbacks. Gone Girl, for instance, is about a woman starting over with nefarious intent. Every character – from the married couple to the childhood friends to the greasy lawyer – exists in a murky grey area. No one is entirely likeable or unlikeable, trustworthy or untrustworthy, hero or villain. The reader is forced to change gears, from wondering whether Nick Dunne was actually involved in his wife’s disappearance and waiting for the “big twist”, to wondering where on earth the story could possibly go after the truth is revealed. Read my full review of Gone Girl here.
The Helpline by Katherine Collette
The Helpline is a book about Germaine. Germaine is in her late thirties, she’s very good with numbers, and she very recently lost her job as senior mathematician at Wallace Insurance. Germaine soon discovers that there is very little demand in the job market for senior mathematicians. In the end, she’s forced to accept the only job she can get: answering the senior’s helpline at the local council. It’s not long before the mayor, high-flyer Verity Bainbridge, recognises Germaine’s unique talents and work ethic. Naturally, she invites Germaine to participate in a secret project: ousting the chairperson of the local Senior Citizen’s Center, Gladys. Germaine agrees, and takes to her new assignment with vigor, but it all goes a bit sideways when she’s forced to get to know the people she’s supposed to be getting rid of… Read my full review of The Helpline here.
Call Me Evie by J.P. Pomare
Across two different settings (“Before” in Melbourne, Australia, and “After” in a coastal small town in New Zealand), Call Me Evie follows a seventeen-year-old girl trying to piece together her memories of what happened the night everything changed. In the “Before”, her name was Kate. She was a fairly normal seventeen-year-old girl (albeit one with a dead mother and a father who is a semi-famous retired footballer). She had a troublemaker best friend and a crush on a boy called Thom. But some kind of incident occurred that led this man – Jim – to take her across the ocean and obscure her identity. Read my full review of Call Me Evie here.
There’s Been A Little Incident by Alice Ryan
There’s Been A Little Incident is a family drama-slash-black comedy set across England and Ireland (with a couple of brief jaunts overseas). The inciting incident is the disappearance of young Molly Black – she’s been prone to flights of fancy and stumbling into sticky situations since she was orphaned at 18, but this time she left behind a troubling letter. Plus, she’s nearly 30 now, far too old for this kind of carry-on. So, the Black family gathers in suburban Dublin to strategise. Read my full review of There’s Been A Little Incident here.
The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary
When The Flatshare starts, Tiffy is in desperate need of somewhere to live – cheap, and fast. She’s barely making minimum wage at her job in an arts and crafts publishing house, but she can’t stay in the flat paid for by her ex-boyfriend any longer. Leon has a one-bedroom apartment, but he’s also hard-up for cash. He needs to pay the lawyer representing his brother, who has been wrongfully imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. So, he sells the only thing he has: the space in his home when he’s not using it. The thing is: Tiffy and Leon have never actually met… even though they share a bed. Read my full review of The Flatshare here.
The Other Side Of Beautiful by Kim Lock
Mercy watches her house burn down, forcing her out into the world that she’s been avoiding for years. She finds herself in a camper van, with her ever-faithful sausage dog Wasabi (my absolute hands-down favourite character) by her side, driving the length of Australia, from Adelaide to Darwin. The Other Side Of Beautiful is a book about starting over when every nerve of your body is screaming at you to hide. This journey might be just the thing that starts her life anew. Read my full review of The Other Side Of Beautiful here.
People Like Us by Sally Piper
Tina, the protagonist of Sally Piper’s latest novel People Like Us, is having a rough trot. She’s 55 years old, “washed up in a caravan park” in the wake of a brutal mid-life divorce, and she’s struggling to find any kind of permanent employment that could help her get a foothold in her new life. Things seem to be taking a turn for the better when a friend puts her onto a strange new job: as a companion for a wealthy older woman, Mrs Bell. Her employer is an acerbic, highly-educated woman who would rather talk about ancient history than play bingo. The generous cash-in-hand salary might be just enough to keep the wolves from Tina’s door. Read my full review of People Like Us here.
The Pairing by Casey McQuiston
The Pairing straddles a couple of popular romance tropes: the childhood-friends-to-lovers, and the second chance love. Theo and Kit were best friends, then they were lovers, then they were estranged. They broke up on the transcontinental flight to what was supposed to be their big food and wine tour of France, Italy and Spain, a research trip for the restaurant/bar they hoped to open together. When they pulled out of the tour, they couldn’t get a refund, only a credit note that had to be used within four years. Four years later, they independently decide to take the tour before their credit expires. They both believe they’ll be doing it independently… until they show up, and end up sitting together on the same tour bus. Read my full review of The Pairing here.
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