Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Illness Lesson | 2020 | Clare Beams | Buy |
| 2 | The Garden | 2024 | Clare Beams | Buy |
Clare Beams’s standalone novels are works of literary fiction that bring historical settings to life with an edge of the uncanny. The Illness Lesson (2020) imagines a school for teenage girls in mid-19th-century Massachusetts, where a mysterious epidemic disrupts an idealistic educational experiment. It was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice and recognized by Esquire, Bustle, and Time as one of the best books of 2020.
The Garden (2024) moves to the late 1940s and follows Irene Willard, a woman who has suffered five miscarriages, as she enters a strange obstetrical clinic in western Massachusetts. The novel explores the desperation of wanting a child and the willingness to trust institutions that may not have your best interests at heart. Both books share Beams’s gift for atmosphere and her focus on the pressures placed on women in controlled environments.