The Names: A Read with Jenna Pick

A Novel

Author Florence Knapp

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READ WITH JENNA BOOK CLUB PICK AS FEATURED ON TODAY | AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

“Beautiful, heart-wrenching, utterly original.” —Miranda Cowley Heller, bestselling author of The Paper Palace

The story of one family told three different ways, leading to three different fates—a dazzling debut that asks: Can a name shape the course of a life?

In the wake of an enormous, history-making storm, Cora sets off with her nine-year-old daughter, Maia, to register her son’s birth. Her husband, Gordon, a local doctor, respected in the community but a terrifying and controlling presence at home, intends for her to name the child after him. But when the registrar asks which name she wants to pick, Cora hesitates . . .

What follows are…

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May 6, 2025

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FLORENCE KNAPP is a writer whose short stories have been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and won the Bath Short Story Award’s Acorn Award. She is the author of a non-fiction book about a centuries-old method of quilt-making and has also contributed to a book for the Victoria and Albert Museum. She is passionate about children’s literacy and has worked alongside her husband for the past fifteen years creating educational apps for use in schools. Florence lives in Kent with a dog, Nell, and her musician husband, who, thankfully, is absolutely nothing like the one in her novel. Her two children have recently flown the nest. The Names is her first novel.