The Names by Florence Knapp

THE NAMES by Florence Knapp is a very dark book, but it is also a Read with Jenna pick and a LibraryReads selection for May 2025. The story begins in 1987 when Cora is deciding what to name her newborn son. From there the story splits into three scenarios, depending on the choice of naming the baby after his father and grandfather, or instead selecting a name Cora prefers, or choosing a more whimsical name suggested by her nine-year old daughter. Sadly, domestic abuse often features prominently in the vignettes and that makes for difficult reading even though debut author Knapp has created a fascinating book. She relates the story of this family in each circumstance roughly every seven years – book groups will be entranced. Expect to see a great deal of “buzz” on THE NAMES which received starred reviews from Booklist, Publishers Weekly and Kirkus (“inviting the reader to think about not just the ripple effects of a single decision and the workings of an abusive family but also about a profound and classic concern of fiction: How things we can control in life interact with things we could never have seen coming.”).