The theme for this month’s reading group is redemption. This feels like an excellent subject to explore, as we step into January after the gluttony and indulgence of Christmas and New Year. Heck, redemption is a good theme after 2017, full stop. If you’re anything like me, you’ll want to find a way back to positivity after the anger, frustration and fear of the past 12 months.

And even if you’re feeling fine about everything, this remains a fantastic thread in fiction. Should we feel inclined, we can wheel out the seriously big guns. Redemption is a big question in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, for a start, and in a quieter way in George Eliot’s Silas Marner. Then there are books about rebuilding life after a betrayal, such as Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Or Marilynne Robinson’s beautiful novels Home, Gilead, Lila and Housekeeping, which all look at the redemptive qualities of faith and family.

There are also books about forgiving yourself, such as William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice. The very title of Ian McEwan’s Atonement suggests how well it might work. I also can’t resist suggesting two Michael Ondaatje novels: the magical In the Skin of a Lion or The English Patient, both of which feature characters attempting to silence demons in their pasts.

And we don’t have to stop there. We could look at Pip’s attempts to redeem himself with Magwitch and Joe Gargery in Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations. There’s Tom Jones. There’s Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White. There’s Milton’s Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. There’s the Bible … (I’m kidding).

Redemption is a theme that has been fundamental to literature since year dot, so there are a lot of fine books to choose from. All you have to do to put one forward for consideration is to name it in the comments. I’m looking forward to reading your suggestions. It would also be great if you could provide a few words about why you want to read the book – or why you think everyone else should. I will compile and weigh up the suggestions in a few days’ time, pop them in a hat and return with a new blogpost once the result has been drawn.