The Names

It is 1987, a great storm has just torn through, and Cora is on her way to register her newborn son with her nine-year-old daughter beside her. Her husband expects the boy to carry his name, as the men of his family always have. At the registrar's desk, Cora hesitates, knowing that defying him will come at a cost.

Florence Knapp's debut, a Sunday Times bestseller, follows that moment down three paths. Seven years on, the boy is Bear, named by his sister; or Julian, the name his mother longed to give him; or Gordon, raised in his cruel father's image. Within a marriage shadowed by control and violence, each version asks what a name can set in motion, and whether a pattern can be broken. It is tender and hopeful, and it will stay with anyone who has wondered how one decision might have changed everything.