The Secret History by Donna Tartt

A Californian student enrols at a private New England college and falls in with a group of snobbish and ethereal Classics students. However, appearances are deceptive and he is slowly drawn into a tangled web of lies and violence as the group covers up one terrible crime with another. 

Not really a whodunit, nor even a whydunit, this is more of a lyrical Greek tragedy as each student struggles to cope with the unforeseen consequences of murder. Beautiful and strangely haunting, The Secret History evokes a sense of listlessness and ennui even as the characters commit one ignoble act after another. None of the characters are likeable - they are pretentious and selfish and aloof - but they are all realistic and their self-destruction is as absorbing as it is inevitable. A great read for the holidays.

Read On: The Goldfinch is Donna Tartt's latest novel and I've heard good things about it. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh deals with similar themes of privilege and self-destruction.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

"Look at you. You black, you poor, you ugly, you a woman. Goddam, he say, you nothing at all."

The Color Purple is the story of Celie, told in her own words as a series of letters to God and her sister, Nettie. Poor, black and female, Celie is at the bottom of the social order in rural Georgia in the 1930s. Going from an abusive father to an abusive husband, Celie eventually finds love, strength and acceptance through her friendship with brash jazz singer, Shug Avery.

This book broke my heart and made me cry, and yet was strangely uplifting. Walker never shies away from revealing the sexual abuse, racism and violence that was part of life for many poor black women in America at that time. The misery seems unrelenting but Celie is such an intriguing and quietly admirable character that you stick with it, cheering her on and desperately hoping that things get better. But no white knight saves her. This is a woman's story, told by a woman about women. There are male characters - fathers, sons, husbands and so on - but it is the women who allow Celie to realise her true worth and rescue herself. 

Read On: The Help by Katherine Stockett is based on the experiences of black women, set instead in 1950s Mississippi. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou is a memoir of the writer's early life in Arkansas, and touches on many of the same issues.