SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
search for places of consolation and solace,” says Rose Tremain of this, her latest.
John le Carré Agent Running in the Field Penguin, 14 May, pb, £8.99, 9780241986547
Adventure, crime & horror
Nat, a 47-year- old veteran of Britain’s Secret
Intelligence Service, believes his years as an agent runner are over. But the office has one more job for him. “A very classy entertainment about political ideals and deception... laced with fury at the senseless vandalism of Brexit and of Trump. Le Carré is the master of the spy genre,” according to the Guardian. Now in paperback.
Ruth Jones Us Three Bantam Press, 14 May, hb, £14.99, 9781787632257
General fiction Following the success of her
début novel Never Greener, the latest from the actor and co-creator of “Gavin & Stacey” features three girls, Lana, Judith and Catrin, best friends since primary school. But now they find that their friendship under threat after an unexpected turn of events.
Ann Patchett The Dutch House Bloomsbury, 14 May, pb, £8.99, 9781526614971
General fiction Latest from the wonderful
Patchett is a masterful tale of family, love, sacrifice, betrayal and the nature of “home”, set in small-town Pennsylvania, where Danny grows up in the splendid Dutch House with his distant father and elder sister Maeve, with an absent mother who nobody will speak of. Now in paperback.
Denise Mina The Less Dead Harvill Secker, 28 May, hb, £14.99, 9781787301726
Adventure, crime & horror
Latest from the author of Conviction—
one of the best thrillers I read in 2019—is based on real-life 1980s Glasgow murder cases, and explores power, privilege and violence against women. When Margot goes in search of her birth mother, she meets her aunt Nikki instead and learns that her mother was a murdered sex worker, whose killer has never been found.
June
S A Chakraborty The Empire of Gold HarperVoyager, 11th June, hb, £14.99, 9780008239497
Science fiction & fantasy
The final part of the Daevabad
Trilogy, in which a conwoman and an idealistic djinn prince join forces to save a magical kingdom from a devastating civil war, follows The City of Brass and The Kingdom of Copper.
Elif Shafak 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World Penguin, 4 June, pb, £8.99, 9780241979464
General fiction “A rich, sensual novel... This is a
novel that gives voice to the invisible, the untouchable, the abused and the damaged, weaving their painful songs into a thing of beauty,” says the Financial Times. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2019 and now in paperback.
David Peace Tokyo Redux Faber & Faber, 4 June, hb, £16.99, 9780571232000
General fiction The final part of the Tokyo
Trilogy follows Tokyo Year Zero and Occupied City, and is published in June to coincide with the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Peace will be in the UK to promote.
Daisy Johnson Sisters Jonathan Cape, 4 June, hb, £14.99, 9781787331624
Kate Mosse The City of Tears Mantle, 28 May, hb, £18.99, 9781509806874
Sagas, romance & historical
The second novel in the Burning
Chambers quartet opens in 1572 with a royal wedding, and moves from the Languedoc to Paris, Amsterdam and London. “Mosse’s fans will relish this tale of secrets, love and treachery,” says the Times of this series.
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General fiction Johnson became the
youngest ever author to be shortlisted for the Booker with her début novel Everything Under. This follow-up is billed as an absorbing, twisting literary horror novel, inspired by Shirley Jackson and Stephen King.
Roddy Doyle Love Jonathan Cape, 4 June, hb, £16.99, 9781787332270
General fiction Latest from the Booker Prize-
The Bookseller Buyer’s Guide Fiction
winning Irish writer tells of two middle-aged men, close drinking pals in their youth, embarking on a pub crawl. Both a hymn to Dublin and a comic yet moving portrait of what it means to try to put into words the many forms love can take, says Cape.
Rachel Joyce Miss Benson’s Beetle Doubleday, 11 June, hb, £16.99, 9780857521989
General fiction Latest from the author of The
Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry begins in England in 1950. In a moment of madness, Margery Benson abandons her job and advertises for an assistant to accompany her on an expedi- tion to the other side of the world, to search for a beetle that may, or may not, exist.
Joanna Briscoe The Seduction Bloomsbury, 11 June, hb, £16.99, 9781408873496
Adventure, crime & horror
I’m looking forward to this, billed as a
sexy, febrile and sinister thriller about desire, motherhood, power and control, which asks: “What if the person you most trusted turned out to be the most dangerous of all?”
Ocean Vuong On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous Vintage, 11 June, pb, £8.99, 9781529110685
General fiction I was surprised this didn’t
make the Booker longlist: the first novel from prize-winning poet Vuong is told in the form of a letter from a son, Little Dog, to his Vietnamese mother, who cannot read it. A stunningly original novel exploring race, immigration, class and masculinity.
Robert Harris The Second Sleep Arrow Books, 11 June, pb, £8.99, 9781787460966
Sagas, romance & historical
It’s 1468 and in a remote Exmoor
village a young priest arrives to conduct the funeral of his prede- cessor. The land around is strewn with ancient artefacts which the old parson used to collect. Did his obsession with the past lead to his death? “Genuinely thrilling, wonderfully conceived and entirely without preaching, it probes the nature of history, of collective memory and forgetting, and exposes the fragility of modern civilisation,” says the Daily Telegraph. Now in paperback.
Joanne Ramos The Farm Bloomsbury, 11 June, pb, £8.99, 9781526605238
General fiction Assured first novel (a Book
of the Month for me in hard- back) set in an America where
women can work as “hosts”, carrying a baby to term for ultra-wealthy clients wishing to outsource the messy and exhausting business of preg- nancy and labour. Examines the notion of the American Dream in the 21st century, exploring power and inequality, ambition and sacrifice in a page-turning read. Now in paperback.
Tea Obreht Inland Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 11 June, pb, £7.99, 9781780221182
General fiction Set in lawless Arizona, 1893,
this is an extraordinary reimag- ining of the American West, which is as much about the land itself as it is about the people: Lurie, a former outlaw haunted by ghosts; and Nora, a frontiers- woman who waits for the return of her husband. Obreht’s début, The Tiger’s Wife, won the Orange Prize.
Sophie Mackintosh Blue Ticket Hamish Hamilton, 18 June, hb, £12.99, 9780241404454
General fiction Set in a world where all
women must enter a lottery where a white ticket grants you children and a blue ticket grants you freedom, Calla becomes obsessed with the path not taken, and a forbidden desire to have a child. From the author of The Water Cure.
Zadie Smith Grand Union Penguin, 18 June, pb, £8.99, 9780241983126
General fiction The first collection of
short stories from the bestselling author of Swing Time and White Teeth. “Smith’s dialogue crackles with mordant wit... This dazzling collection of stories will leave you with plenty to think about,” said the Independent. Now in paperback.
John Grisham Camino 2 Hodder & Stoughton, 23 June, hb, £20, 9781529342451
Adventure, crime & horror
The plot is under wraps at the time of
writing, but I understand this is the sequel to Camino Island, a Sunday Times Thriller of the Month and a Mail on Sunday Thriller of the Week.
Jojo Moyes Night Music Hodder Paperbacks, 25 June, pb, £8.99, 9780340895962
Sagas, romance & historical
Originally published in 2008, before
the phenomenal success of Me Before You, Hodder invites you to “discover the moving Jojo Moyes novel you haven’t read yet...” I think she’s great, and how exciting for new readers of The Giver of Stars to discover her wonderful backlist.
Ben Lerner The Topeka School Granta Books, 2 July, pb, £8.99, 9781783785377
General fiction No need to take my word
for the brilliance of this novel, here’s Sally Rooney: “A novel of exhilarating intellectual inquiry, penetrating social insight and deep psychological sensitivity... To the extent that we can speak of a future at present, I think the future of the novel is here.” Now in paperback.
Ali Smith Summer Hamish Hamilton, 2 July, hb, £16.99, 9780241207062
General fiction The conclusion to Ali Smith’s
Booker Prize-shortlisted quartet of novels: Summer follows Autumn, Winter and Spring. The Seasonal quartet has been heralded as “a bold and brilliant experiment” by the Independent.
Elizabeth Strout Olive, Again Penguin, 2 July, pb, £8.99, 9780241985540
General fiction A welcome return for the
cantankerous Olive (of Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge fame) who is getting older and grappling with grief, loneliness, loss and regret—and yet the novel is a joy from start to finish. One of my stand-out books of 2019, now in paperback.
Edna O’Brien Girl Faber & Faber, 2 July, pb, £8.99, 9780571341184
General fiction “Mesmerising... [O’Brien] has
set herself one of the greatest challenges a writer can face: to plumb the darkest depths of the human soul. She has trium- phantly succeeded. Hypnotic, lyrical and pulsating with dark energy, Girl is a masterful study of human evil by a writer who, at 88, is still getting better. It will blast you with its searing, savage beauty,” says the Sunday Times. Now in paperback.
Margaret Atwood The Testaments Vintage, 2 July, pb, £8.99, 9781784708214
July
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