#6Degrees of Separation – A book chain from After Story to Days Without End

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 After Story by Larissa Behrendt. As usual, it’s a book I haven’t read – or even heard of – but I understand it involves the mysterious disappearance of a child, twenty-five years after the disappearance of the protagonist’s sister.

(Links from each title in the chain will take you to my review or the book description on Goodreads.)

The disappearance of a child also forms the basis of End of Summer by Anders de la Motte. Set in Sweden, it was made into a TV series in 2023.

Also set in Sweden are Henning Mankell‘s novels featuring police inspector Kurt Wallander, the first of which was Faceless Killers. The novels were also made into a TV series with the British version starring Kenneth Branagh.

Earlier in Branagh’s career he starred in the TV adaptation of the cycle of novels by Olivia Manning comprising The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy. The first book in the series was The Great Fortune.

Branagh’s co-star in that series was Emma Thompson who played the role of Miss Kenton in the film adaptation of The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Ishiguro’s first novel, A Pale View of Hills, won the 1982 Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize, awarded by The Royal Society of Literature for the best regional novel of the year. The prize was later incorporated into the Ondaatje Prize and the winning novel in 2017 was Golden Hill by Francis Spufford.

Golden Hill was also shortlisted for The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction the same year but lost out to Days Without End by Sebastian Barry.

My chain has involved starring roles and prize winners.  Where did your chain take you this month?