Discover Lauren’s 10 Titles not to miss overleaf (p12-13)


Also in Crime & Thriller, I was


blown away by the really excep- tional Kill Your Darlings by Peter Swanson (Faber), the author of a number of bestselling novels, including two Richard & Judy picks, The Kind Worth Killing and Rules for Perfect Murders. In the vein of Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis, a book referenced within its pages, or Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister, it is a fiendishly clever and highly satisfying mystery told in reverse. Anyone going away in July would not do wrong packing it, but the best holiday read from July’s fiction line-up has to be Kate Sawyer’s deeply moving and genuinely unputdownable second novel Getting Away (Zaffre), which is a love-letter to holidays. Previously, the last time a book made me pause reading to phone a loved one to tell them I love them was Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason; I did it again after Getting Away.


A


s ever, there are not nearly enough column inches here to spotlight everything, but


other titles to earmark for the month include Ben Brooks’ The Greatest Possible Good (Scribner); Hattie Williams’ Bitter Sweet (Orion), a debut set in the publishing industry about the relationship between a young publicist and an established author; broadcaster Steph McGovern’s debut novel Deadline (Macmillan); Zoe Dubno’s acerbically funny Happiness and Love (Doubleday); Emma Nanami Strenner’s My Other Heart (Hutchinson Heinemann), which the publisher says is going to be “a major global publication”, and two of Del Rey’s biggest debuts of 2025,


Upcoming Previews


Jackson P Brown’s The Reaper and LK Steven’s Silvercloak. July also seems to be an


Fiction Book of the Month


especially exciting month for books coming from indie presses. Turbulence by Hafsa Lodi (Neem Tree Press) follows Dunya, a young Muslim woman who had big ambitions before she fell in love. Pregnant and on a flight to America, she is upgraded away


The best holiday read has to be Kate Sawyer’s deeply moving and genuinely unputdownable Getting Away


Crime & thriller


Peter Swanson Kill Your Darlings


Faber, 3rd, £18.99, HB, 9780571393121


This ingenious mystery about childhood sweethearts Thom and Wendy moves backwards in time to tell the couple’s story, revealing a portrait of a marriage defined by a terrible act they plotted together many years ago. Through gripping vignettes detailing the moments of their life together, from a 50th birthday party to the purchase of their ocean-side home, to the birth of their son, the novel progresses like a lit fuse, dropping tantalising and often satisfyingly revealing breadcrumbs about who Thom and Wendy are and the secrets binding them (and those they have kept even from each other), while exploring questions of guilt, justice, religion, fate and wealth. After 40 years, Wendy is convinced that


her husband, a disappointment who has slid into alcoholism and whose flirting has got out of control, is on the verge of divulging their secret, and is starting to think the only way to bury the truth is to bury her husband with it. She plans a trip that will take them all the way back to their beginning, and, it transpires, endings neither see coming. The novel is also soon to be a film starring and produced by Julia Roberts.


from her husband and son to business class, where she reflects on the life trajectory she never intended. Supporting Act by Swedish author Agnes Lidbeck (Peirene Press) explores similar themes. It follows Anna, a mother who begins an affair with an ageing author, who finds herself in the role of caregiver once more. It is described as “the study of a woman performing the roles society asks of her, even as they overlap, contradict and subsume each other”. And Edenglassie by award-winning indigenous author Melissa Lucashenko (Oneworld) is a searing exploration of Australia’s colonial history that sold 10,000 copies in Australia in publication month.


Submissions


Submissions to be sent to Lauren Brown, at fictionnewtitles@thebookseller.com; AIs essential. Please contact Lauren for the grid on which submission details need to be entered. thebookseller.com/publishingcalendar


For submission information and deadlines, visit thebookseller.com/ publishingcalendar


11th


April


New Titles: Non-Fiction Covering titles published in July 2025.


25th


April


Children’s Previews Covering titles published in July 2025.


25th


April


Paperback Preview Covering titles published in July 2025.


2nd


May


New Titles: Fiction Covering titles published in August 2025.


16th


May


Discover Covering titles published in June 2025.


11


EMILY TIRELLA


Books New Titles: Fiction


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