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NEW TITLES: FICTION FEBRUARY


04.11.16 www.thebookseller.com


Alice O’Keeffe


FICTION


A string of second novels hit the mark in February, with one delving into conceptual art a particular highlight


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ébuts are the lifeblood of the industry, but this month a number of excellent second novels caught my eye. Second novel syndrome is definitely a thing, and how can it not be when an author has had all the time in the world to write his or her first novel, but is (often) under contract on the second? It hasn’t been an issue for the writers who this month deliver on the promise of their first. I managed to miss Sara Baume’s début Spill Simmer Falter Wither while on maternity leave, but I’m so glad I was sent her second by a very enthusiastic publicist. A Line Made by Walking (W M Heinemann) is a beautifully written novel about mental illness and the power of art. Throughout the novel there are brief descriptions of works of conceptual art from the likes of Bas Jan Ader and Martin Creed, which made me want to seek them out. The way Baume writes about art, and being an artist, is compelling. In my description of The Doll Funeral


(Faber) I compare the second novel from Kate Hamer (The Girl in the Red Coat) to Kate Atkinson’s early novels and, while I think that is true, Hamer has a powerful way with words that is all her own. Finally, there’s just about space to mention a superb psychological thriller: He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly (Hodder), a worthy addition to last month’s pile of must-read thrillers.


EDITOR’S CHOICE/BOOK OF THE MONTH Personal favourites TOP SELLER


Likely to be the biggest selling titles of the month based on an author’s sales history ONES TO WATCH


Titles with strong sales potential and publisher support, regardless of sales history of the author DÉBUT BOOKS by the i


Indicated by the icon below D


e co


RATINGS based on previous sales in a similar format


BOOK OF TH E MONTH E DITOR’ S C HOIC E


LITERARY


KATE HAMER THE DOLL FUNERAL FABER & FABER, 16TH, £12.99, HB, 9780571313853 There is a magical, dream-like quality to


Kate Hamer’s second novel, which reminded me of Kate Atkinson’s early novels. This is the follow-up to her hugely successful début novel The Girl in the Red Coat, which was shortlisted for the Costa First Novel Award. Set in and around the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, it opens in the summer of 1983, when Ruby has just turned 13. Her parents—the passive, ineffectual Barbara and her brutal husband Mick—reveal that they are, in fact, her adoptive parents who


took her in when she was four months old. Ruby is delighted: she has suffered at Mick’s fists for as long as she can remember—“his temper took the form of bees. Attack bees, buzzing at the bottom of the stairs”. Ruby is an unusual girl, she sees things other people don’t, and now she sets out to find her real family. She meets a wild boy named Tom, who lives with his strange brother Crispin and their older sister Elizabeth in a large, decaying house on the other side of the forest. They have been abandoned by their hippy parents, who have gone to India hoping to “find themselves”. Interwoven with Ruby’s story is that of Anna, pregnant in 1970, who has plans for her unborn baby. The Doll Funeral is the story of a separated mother and daughter, and the last line is heart-stoppingly beautiful. BookScan 


HISTORICAL


JAKE ARNOTT THE FATAL TREE SCEPTRE, 23RD, £16.99, HB,


9781473637740 Set in 1720s London, this is a


riveting, bawdy tale of crime and punishment that takes place amid the notorious Hundreds of Drury. It begins with the confession of Edgworth Bess from the condemned cell at Newgate Prison. She came to London as the relatively innocent Elizabeth Lyon, but became a successful “buttock-and-file”: a prostitute who picks pockets. She comes to the attention of Jonathan Wild, the self-styled “Thief-Taker General” who, while appearing to keep order, is effectively a crime lord. Rich with the street slang of the era (there is a glossary), Arnott re-creates a London of jades and mollys, spruce-prigs and dandyprats, and a story of love and betrayal. BookScan 


LITERARY


SARA BAUME A LINE MADE BY WALKING W M HEINEMANN, 23RD, £12.99, HB, 9781785150418


The second novel from the Irish author whose début Spill


Simmer Falter Wither was widely acclaimed (“hums with its own distinctiveness”, said the Guardian), and was shortlisted for the 2015 Costa First Novel Award. Narrated by Frankie, a 25-year-old artist who, unable to cope with everyday life in Dublin, retreats to her deceased grandmother’s mouldering bungalow in the country. In the quiet but desperate throes of what might be a mental breakdown, she observes the natural world around her and tests her memory on famous works of conceptual art. The result is a spellbinding meditation on art and life. BookScan 


50,000+ | 25,000-49,999 | 10,000-24,999 5,000-9,999 | 3,000-4,999 Sales are from the Total Consumer Market (TCM) only, which excludes e-book, export, direct, library and other sales. Rankings are based on the physical format sales of the author’s most recent, previously published original work, in a similar format provided it has at least six months of sales registered through BookScan.


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