The Lost Traveller by Antonia White (Virago Modern Classics)

A brilliant portrait of a young girl’s coming of age, The Lost Traveller tells of Clara, the beloved daughter of a devoted though authoritarian father, an imperious mother and the family’s devout Catholicism. Father and daughter conduct an intense relationship which seems at odds with their faith, and with the need for Clara to become a woman. Set against the backdrop of the First World War, Clara experiences the vagaries of adolescence and, faced with the first tragedy of her adult life, she realises that neither parents, nor faith can protect her from change. This is a brilliant, evocative book which stands as a marvellous successor to Antonia White’s famous Frost in May.