The Town House

I must acknowledge that this is the most unattractively published of any book I've chosen for Phinney by Post, but don't let the cover (or typeface inside) turn you aside: there is superb storytelling to be found here. I have my new favorite podcast, Backlisted, to thank for leading me to Norah Lofts, a bestselling historical novelist from the middle of the last century who, from the evidence of this book at least, was brilliant at marshaling historical details to dramatize how lives were bound by status, money, and capricious fate. The first in a trilogy tracing the inhabitants of an English village home from the 14th century to the 20th, The Town House follows the rise from serfdom of a smith named Martin Reed, braiding choice and cruel chance in an unsentimental, affecting, old-fashioned tale. —Tom Old Book of the Week