Muriel Spark

Miss Jean Brodie, teacher at the Marcia Blaine School for Girls in Edinburgh in the 1930s, dedicates herself to educating her chosen set of girls for life rather than for exams. She is charismatic, dangerous, and will be betrayed. Spark's masterpiece in 137 pages.

Lise, a woman from northern Europe, takes a holiday in Rome. She is searching for a man. What she is searching for, and why, becomes clear gradually. The novel uses a disturbing narrative technique — flash-forwards to her violent death — to create a portrait of a woman in complete control of her own annihilation.