Where to Start with Esther Freud: The Best First Book
New to Esther Freud? Hideous Kinky is the right starting point — but this guide matches different readers to the right Freud novel, from Morocco to Suffolk to Tuscany.
For almost all new readers, Hideous Kinky is the right starting point.
It is her most famous and most distinctive novel — a five-year-old’s-eye account of a year in Marrakech with her unconventional mother in the early 1970s. The present-tense narration from a child’s perspective gives it an originality that her later work, excellent as it is, never quite matches.
Start here: Hideous Kinky
The narrator is five years old and does not understand most of what is happening around her. Her mother is pursuing Sufi mysticism. They live in the medina. There are snakes in Djemaa el-Fna and Moroccan schoolteachers who confuse and terrify. The child registers everything and explains almost nothing — and the result is one of the most vivid portraits of Marrakech in fiction.
If you read it and want more, the complete reading order is here.
By interest
If you’re visiting or interested in Morocco: Hideous Kinky — there is no better fictional portrait of the Marrakech medina.
If you’re interested in English history or WWI: Mr Mac and Me — the Suffolk coast in 1914, and the true story of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s final years.
If you prefer historical dual-timeline fiction: The Sea House — contemporary Suffolk and the story of a German-Jewish émigré architect in the 1930s.
If you want something lighter: Love Falls — a Tuscan summer, an absent father, a young woman discovering someone she thought she knew.
By reader type
| If you like… | Start with |
|---|---|
| Morocco, travel writing (Paul Bowles) | Hideous Kinky |
| Historical literary fiction | Mr Mac and Me |
| Dual-timeline fiction | The Sea House |
| Coming-of-age in London | Peerless Flats |
See the complete works
For the full Esther Freud bibliography, reviews, and biography, visit the Esther Freud author page on Editors Reads.
Affiliate disclosure: Links to Amazon on this page are affiliate links. We earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Hideous Kinky autobiographical?
Yes — Hideous Kinky is closely based on Esther Freud's own childhood. She was five years old when her mother (who is not named in the novel) took her and her sister to Marrakech in the early 1970s. The novel is told from a child narrator's perspective and draws directly on her memories of that year.
Which Esther Freud novel has the best setting?
Hideous Kinky for Marrakech; The Sea House or Mr Mac and Me for the Suffolk coast; Love Falls for Tuscany. All her novels are strongly rooted in their locations, and the choice of setting is a good guide to which book will suit you.
