Editor’s Choice
queer women the norm, The Unfortunates follows Sahara, a Black, queer student at an elitist university, who is trying to survive cheap vodka and toxic friendships while battling self-hate and depression.
Natasha Brown
Assembly Hamish Hamilton, 22nd June, £12.99, 9780241515709
An astonishing literary debut with flavours of Jordan Peele’s “Get Out”, Assembly follows an unnamed Black British woman who, while preparing to attend a lavish garden party at her boyfriend’s family estate, begins a hyper- conscious deconstruction of the carefully assembled pieces of herself. Exposing the thin membrane that holds the oppressive and conflicting parts of our iden- tity together, this remark- able, expertly-crafted novel was the talk of last year’s Frankfurt Book Fair.
Anni Domingo Breaking the Maafa Chain Jacaranda, Sep 2022, £16.99, 9781913090760 The lead fiction title for Jacaranda for 2021, Breaking the Maafa Chain chronicles two sisters’ struggle for freedom in the mid-19th century, when transporting slaves from Africa to America was an illegal but lucra- tive business. It is based on the true story of Sara Forbes Bonetta, the goddaughter to Queen Victoria, whose life forms the basis of a new film starring and produced by Cynthia Erivo.
legend. The book explores themes of empowerment, daughterhood and the strength that comes with difference. There is film interest from Michael B Jordan’s production company. I’m sold.
Jendella Benson Hope and Glory Trapeze, April 2022, £14.99, 9781398702295 The first book from Benson, who is head of editorial at lifestyle digital platform and publication Black Ballad, Hope and Glory is a story of loss, love and family chaos. It follows Glory, who returns home to Peckham to mourn the sudden death of her father and finds that her previously close family has fallen apart in her absence.
Dialogue, out now, £14.99, 9780349702070 Bola’s insightful, intimate and lyrical work has been entrancing readers through his three collec- tions of poetry and the publication of his début novel in 2017. His second novel tackles mental health, police brutality and the power of love as the protagonist seeks to find his place within a world that is complicated and unwelcoming.
Maryse Condé, Richard Philcox (trans) Waiting for the Waters to Rise World Editions, out now, £12.37, 9781642860733 Named a “literary sorcerer” by Junot Díaz, Condé is a French novel- ist whose latest book features a lonely doctor who is forced to abandon his solitude when his destitute daughter reappears.
J J Bola The Selfless Act of Breathing
TheBookseller.com
J K Chukwu The Unfortunates HarperFiction, April 2022, £14.99, 9780008478018 Told in the form of a thesis that seeks to make the stories of messy,
Saara El-Arifi The Final Strife HarperFiction, June 2022, £14.99, 9780008450403 Set in “a cruelly divided empire” and featuring “a spiky heroine with a heart of gold”, The Final Strife is the first novel in an African-inspired epic fantasy trilogy which is being published in the UK and the US simultaneously in 2022, following double six-figure deals.
Mike Gayle The Museum of Ordinary People Hodder, February 2022, £14.99, 9781529344752 Inspired by a box of mementos found aban- doned in a skip following a house clearance, Gayle’s latest novel is a story of memory and love, grief, loss and the things we leave behind. Publication will follow on from the “major” paperback campaign planned for Gayle’s previous work All the Lonely People.
début novel sees Mrs Death tell her “intoxicat- ing story” to a troubled young writer in what is called a “life-affirming fire-starter” of a book by the publisher.
Kaitlyn Greenidge Libertie Serpent’s Tail, 29th April, £14.99, 9781788169004 The second novel from the author of We Love You is inspired by the true story of the third African-American woman to graduate in medicine. In the novel, the epony- mous Libertie struggles against parental pressure to become a doctor and chooses her own path in a journey that takes her to college and then on to Haiti—and marriage.
Jasmine Guillory While We Were Dating Headline, 13th July, £9.99, 9781472276766 A Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, this workplace romance follows two people who struggle to keep things purely professional while working together. Described as a “sexy gem” by Roxane Gay, While We Were Dating is the latest book from an “important new voice in romance”, according to Headline.
Zakiya Dalila Harris The Other Black Girl Bloomsbury, 1st June, £14.99, 9781526630377 Touted as “‘Get Out’ meets ‘The Devil Wears Prada’” (I’m already sold), this sly thriller details the tension that develops when two young Black women meet against the starkly white backdrop of book publishing. TV rights have already been optioned by Hulu.
sees the protagonist receive a diary filled with all her neighbours’ secrets, just before the woman who sent it is murdered...
Jade LB Keisha the Sket #MerkyBooks, 14th October, £12.99, 9781529118919 Anonymous writer Jade LB first released chapters of her seminal work aged 13, where it went viral among Black Brits. A “raw and revealing account” of youth culture and life in inner-city London, #MerkyBooks is publishing an updated version of the original story alongside a collection of essays that will explore the cultural phenomenon.
T L Huchu The Library of the Dead Pan Mac/Tor, out now, £14.99, 9781529039450 A mystery set in Edinburgh’s magical underworld, Zimbabwe- born Huchu’s The Library of the Dead is the first book in his new Edinburgh Nights series. It follows a “ghostalker” who speaks to the city’s dead, carrying messages to the living.
Robinne Lee The Idea of You Michael Joseph, 22nd July, £7.99, 9781405950367 Dubbed “the sleeper hit of the pandemic” by Vogue, The Idea of You is a globe-trotting love story about a 39-year-old gallery owner who begins a relationship with the 21-year-old member of her daughter’s favourite band. Sounds scandalous. You also might know Robinne Lee as an actress who has appeared in films includ- ing “Hitch” and “Fifty Shades Darker”.
Salena Godden Mrs Death Misses Death Canongate, out now, £14.99, 9781838851194 Poet Salena Godden’s
Nathan Harris The Sweetness of Water Headline, 15th June, £18.99, 9781472274373 A “powerful” American début set during the Civil War and portraying life after slavery—in the vein of Washington Black and Homegoing—The Sweetness of Water tells the story of the unlikely bond between two newly- freed brothers and the Georgia farmer whose alliance will alter all of their lives forever.
Robert Jones Jr The Prophets Riverrun, out now, £18.99, 9781529405705 A “blinding” début that tells the story of forbidden love between two enslaved men in Mississippi, The Prophet explores what happens when brutality threatens “the purest form of serenity”.
Dorothy Koomson I Know What You’ve Done Headline, 8th July, £12.99, 9781472277336 Koomson’s new thriller asks how well you can really know your neigh- bours. The latest from the “queen of the big reveal”
Nadine Matheson The Jigsaw Man HQ, out now, £12.99, 9780008359393 Acquired in a “hotly- contested” auction, HQ aims to launch Matheson as a “major new voice” in the crime fiction market with The Jigsaw Man, which pits two serial kill- ers against each other in a cat-and-mouse game. The publisher is planning a long pre-publication campaign to build buzz.
Nikki May Wahala Doubleday, January 2022, £14.99, 9780857527783 A “mixed-race ‘Sex and the City’ with a sinister edge”, Wahala is a mix of genre fiction, women’s fiction and comedy that explores everyday racism
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