The End of Mr. Y is a novel by British author Scarlett Thomas. The book tells the story of Ariel Manto, a PhD student who has been researching the 19th. century writer Thomas Lumas. She finds an extremely rare copy of Lumas’ novel The End of Mr. Y in a second-hand bookshop. The book is rumoured to be cursed – everyone who has read it has died not long afterwards.

Central to Lumas’ book is the “Troposphere” – a place where all consciousness is connected and you can enter other people’s minds and read their thoughts. The book contains the recipe for a homeopathic formula that Lumas’ hero uses to enter the Troposphere. Manto uses the recipe to reproduce the formula and subsequently enters the Troposphere herself.

This is a love story, a modern nightmare and an honest and incisive portrayal of a woman who honours her husband’s wish to die and finds herself in the dock for murder.

When Deborah reluctantly helps her beloved husband Neil end his life and conceals the truth, she is charged with murder. As the trial unfolds and her daughter Sophie testifies against her, Deborah, still reeling with grief, fights to defend her actions. Twelve jurors hold her fate in their hands, if found guilty she will serve a life sentence. Deborah seeks solace in her memories of Neil and their children and the love they shared. An ordinary woman caught up in an extraordinary situation.

A finely written page-turner, compelling, eloquent, heart-breaking. “The Kindest Thing” tackles a controversial topic with skill and sensitivity. A book that begs the question: what would you do?

The novel is set in the early 1900s and the main character is a young girl by the name of Mattie Gokey. She lives on a farm with her father and her younger sisters and dreams of being an author. She goes to school with her friend Weaver who is a black boy determined to be treated as an equal and together they plan to pass their entrance exams and move to New York City to go to college.

Plans are changed when they both find themselves working at a local hotel for the summer and Mattie speaks to a young woman named Grace who begs her to burn a stack of letters written to her beau. Later that same night Grace is dragged from the river in what looks like a boating accident gone horribly wrong.

Mattie reads the letters and uncovers a truth that changes the way she looks at her own life.

Willow is born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (more commonly known as Brittle Bones disease) and after a disastrous vacation to Disney World her father Sean meets with an attorney. The lawsuit they are encouraged to file is one of wrongful birth – suggesting that Sean and Charlotte (the mother) should have been made aware earlier on in her pregnancy that Willow suffered from this life-threatening condition. The fly in the ointment? Charlotte’s OB is also her best friend! The story is based around the lawsuit and the devastating effect it has on Charlotte’s relationship with Piper (the OB), Sean, Amelia (her eldest daughter) and Willow.