The sponsored by Dr. Oetker Ristorante is officially back – and this year we’ve got talented writer, director and presenter Dawn O’Porter as our host. She’ll be choosing our next few monthly reads and sharing her first thoughts on each one in her own mini book club over on with our Deputy Digital Editor Helen Daly.

In her first review, Dawn gave her verdict on Stations by Louise Kennedy, a moving story about two friends who meet as teenagers in 1980s Ireland and stay connected even as their lives take them down very different paths. And, of course, every book club needs good food, so she served up a couple of delicious Ristorante pizzas for herself and Helen as a little midweek pick-me-up.

Whether you’ve read and loved Stations or simply can’t resist a novel that tugs on your heart strings, here are a few more tear-jerkers you need to discover – including one inspired by Ristorante’s Italian roots.

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If you fancy some more Irish literature, Where Are the Kings by Donal Ryan should be high on your reading list. Just as Kennedy’s characters are deeply affected by the events of their past, so too is Ryan’s protagonist, 12-year-old Jack.

Set in rural Ireland, the novel follows Jack as he comes to terms with the death of his mother and the absence of his father, while surrounded by his eccentric extended family. Intimate and compassionate, it mixes profound grief with warmth and genuinely funny family interactions.

Just like Stations, Kin by Tayari Jones centres around two friends who are inseparable as children but gradually drift apart. Vernice and Annie grow up together as two motherless Black girls in racially segregated 1950s Louisiana, but their lives begin to head in very different directions as teens.

Vernice leaves home at 18 to pursue her education, while Annie gets caught up in her first heady love affair and a growing obsession with finding her mother. Eventually, her search pulls her into a world of danger that leaves Vernice battling to save her.

All That is Left of Life

Another novel that sees consequences and regrets reverberate across decades is All That is Left of Life by Roberta Recchia. Set in 1980s Rome, it focuses on the Ansaldo family, whose happy, ordinary life is shattered when their 16-year-old daughter, Betta, is murdered after a beach party.

In the years that follow, the unanswered questions surrounding Betta’s death take their toll on her family, including her cousin Miriam, who carries a heavy secret about that night.

The theme of parting and reuniting at the heart of Stations is also prominent in Whistler by Ann Patchett, which begins with a chance encounter between Daphne and her former stepfather Eddie. He was briefly married to her mother when Daphne was nine, and she hasn’t seen him since a fateful event that changed the course of both their lives.

As Daphne and Eddie reflect on the short yet intense time they spent together and the years since, Patchett highlights how people from our past can remain an important part of who we become.

Delicious pizza and a moreish book
That’s midweek made

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