Charity Norman Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Charity Norman
Charity Norman was born in Uganda and raised in successive draughty vicarages in Birmingham and Yorkshire. She met her husband under this truck out in the Sahara desert. After several years she became a barrister, specializing in family law and crime in the northeast of England.

In 2002, after she realized that her three kids had barely met her, she took a break from the law and moved her family to New Zealand. It was here that she started writing.

“After the Fall” was a Richard & Judy and World Book Night title. “The New Woman” was a BBC Radio 2 Book Club selection. “See You in September” was shortlisted for best crime novel in the Ngaio Marsh Awards. “The Secrets of Stranger” was a Radio 2 Book Club choice.

“Freeing Grace” is the first stand alone novel and was released in 2010. Exploring the sacrifices that we make for family and what it really takes to be a good parent.

Grace’s teen mother dies just after giving birth and the perfect adoptive parents are located for her: David (the curate for an inner-city parish), and Leila (David’s wife), who are unable to have kids of their own. What they never counted on was Matt Harrison, Grace’s shell shocked young dad that falls in love with his daughter and fights to keep her.

The Harrisons are quite an unconventional family that see in Grace a shot at redemption. In order to convince the courts of their suitability is going to require a commitment from Matt’s mom to return from Africa to her unhappy marriage. The Harrisons enlist Jake Kelly (their friend, a feckless and charming man), to go and retrieve her and he goes off on a quest which will force a confrontation.

Ultimately, there are going to be horrible choices to be made over Grace’s fate. Everybody just wants what is best for her, however who can really say exactly what that is?

“After the Fall” is the second stand alone novel and was released in 2012. We start in the UK when Martha is telling her sister and dad that she, Kit (her husband), her young twin sons, and teen daughter, are all moving to New Zealand in order ‘to give the kids a better life’. However really it is move driven by Kit, in order to save him from sinking into a black depression after his business going bankrupt.

Sacha, usually such a content girl and their daughter, is the single person in the family that certainly does not want to leave her extended family, her friends, her school, and her new boyfriend just to move clear across the world. And it is Sacha for whom the move goes horribly bad, worse than can possibly be imagined.

Charity writes warmly and richly about relationships and family, however she’s also adept at exploring the dark places. This is great stuff, gripping, intelligent, and insightful into situations and people.

“The Son-in-Law” is the third stand alone novel and was released in 2013. On one sharp winter’s morning, this man turns his back on prison, as Joseph Scott has served his full term. He has lost just about everything: his wife, his career as a teacher, and the future that he had envisaged. All that he has left are his three kids however he is not allowed anywhere near them.

This is Joseph’s story, a man that killed Zoe, his wife. Of their three kids that witnessed this event. About Frederick and Hannah, Zoe’s parents, who’re bringing up the kids and cannot understand or forgive Joseph. They slowly adjust to living without Zoe, until the day Joseph gets released from prison.

“The Secret Life of Luke Livingstone” is the fourth stand alone novel and was released in 2015. Girl meets boy, they fall in love, and then they get married. They share each other’s lives for thirty years. And that should have just been the end of their story.

Luke Livingstone is a lucky man. He is a dad and grandpa, a pillar of the community, and a respected solicitor. He has kids that adore him, a loving wife in Eilish, and an idyllic home in the Oxfordshire countryside.

However Luke struggles with this unbearable secret, one which is about to ruin him. All of his life, Luke has been hiding the truth about himself, and it’s a truth that is so fundamental it’ll shatter his entire family, rock his community, and leave him as an outcast.

Luke has got nowhere left he can run. He must become the woman he knows himself to be (whatever the cost) or end his life. His family gets tested to its very limits, while each of them is forced to ponder what makes a person essentially themselves. What do you do when you learn that your dad, your husband, your son is not who you believed? Can you ever love him again?

A dramatic and beautiful depiction of a family in turmoil.

“See You in September” is the fifth stand alone novel and was released in 2016. Cassy smiled and blew them a kiss. Told them she’d see them in September. Just some throwaway line. Words uttered casually by a young woman that was in a hurry. Then she had gone.

It was only supposed to be a short trip, taking a break in New Zealand before her best friend’s wedding. However once Cassy waved goodbye to her parents, never once did they dream that it’d be years before they would see her again.

Cassy, having just broken up with her boyfriend, accepts this invitation to stay in the idyllic farming collective. Overcome by the beauty and peace of the valley and swept up in the community leader Justin’s charisma, Cassy gets convinced that she must stay.

While she gets more and more entrenched in the group’s beliefs and rituals, her frantic parents fight to bring her back home, before Justin’s prophesied Last Day can finally come to pass.

This is a powerful tale of faith, family, and finding yourself. This is an unputdownable novel from a hugely compelling writer.