The Go Between, L.P. Hartley, 1953

An anti-romance, this fictional memoir must be one of the most accurate chronicles of boyhood ever written. The young protagonist carries messages he doesn’t fully understand to and from the daughter of a wealthy landed family and her paramour, a local farmer. While The Go Between‘s insightful realism never quite attains the heights of Jamesian nuance, it’s a very good novel nonetheless. The cricket match between village and great hall is especially fine.