by Stephen Fry
First published 1992
Stephen Fry's "Paperweight" opens on a man, Charles, alone in his flat, transfixed by a fragile paperweight. As he examines it, memories of his troubled childhood and fractured family come flooding back. Charles must confront these ghosts of the past even as the paperweight threatens to shatter, mirroring the precarious state of his own psyche. Fry weaves a poignant story of a man wrestling with loss, regret, and the elusive promise of redemption, set against the ticking clock of the fragile paperweight's demise.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-driven, unreliable-narrator
480 pages · Paperback · Arrow
Content warnings: mental-illness