#6Degrees of Separation From Notes on a Scandal to The Mercies

It’s the first Saturday of the month which means it’s time for 6 Degrees of Separation!

Here’s how it works: a book is chosen as a starting point by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best and linked to six other books to form a chain. Readers and bloggers are invited to join in by creating their own ‘chain’ leading from the selected book.

Kate says: Books can be linked in obvious ways – for example, books by the same authors, from the same era or genre, or books with similar themes or settings. Or, you may choose to link them in more personal or esoteric ways: books you read on the same holiday, books given to you by a particular friend, books that remind you of a particular time in your life, or books you read for an online challenge. Join in by posting your own six degrees chain on your blog and adding the link in the comments section of each month’s post.   You can also check out links to posts on Twitter using the hashtag #6Degrees.

This month’s starting book is Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller, a book I read many years ago before I started my blog. It involves the unsettling relationship that forms between Sheba, a young pottery teacher, and her colleague, Barbara, an elderly history teacher at the same school.

Young Women by Jessica Moor also involves a connection that forms between two women: Emily, whose life is in a rut, and Tamsin, an actress who lives a much more exciting lifestyle. As more is revealed about their pasts the situation becomes increasingly complicated.

A similar dynamic is at the heart of Greenwich Park by Katherine Faulkner. Helen, finally pregnant after years of tragedy, meets Rachel at her first antenatal class.  What starts out as an unlikely friendship formed entirely by chance turns into something more sinister as Rachel’s true motive – the uncovering of a secret – becomes apparent.

All the Broken Places by John Boyne also involves a secret, this one long-buried and involving horrific actions carried out by the Nazi regime during World War 2. Ninety-year-old Gretel has spent her life hiding her connection to those events, and her feelings of guilt and complicity.

The events leading up to World War 2 form the backdrop to People Like Us by Louise Fein. It is the story of Hetty Heinrich – the ‘perfect German child’ – whose father is an SS officer and brother is in the Luftwaffe. Gradually Hetty begins to question Nazi dogma, especially when she witnesses the violent events of ‘Kristallnacht’.

The opening chapter of The Women of the Castle by Jessica Shattuck takes place on exactly the same night. The book tells the story of three women, the wives of men involved in a failed plot to assassinate Hitler. With their husbands gone they must survive alone.

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave features a small Norwegian community in which all the menfolk have been wiped out in a storm, leaving the women to fend for themselves.

My very female dominated chain has taken me from suburban classroom to 17th century Norway. Where did your chain take you?