BOOKS


Previews New Titles: Non-fiction


New Titles: Non-fiction October


Some giants of non-fiction make a return this autumn, alongside a striking number of books about how to cope with the winter months


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Caroline Sandersonerson @carosanderson


t’s difficult enough for me, trying to make space for all the books I admire this month. So spare a thought for valiant book publicists at this already loaded time of the year, trying to get coverage for all the titles that are not Unleashed by Boris Johnson, publishing on 10th October. The former prime minister appears bliss- fully unaware of our dilemmas, commenting: “Stand by for my thoughts on Britain’s future to explode over the publishing world like a much-shaken botle of champagne.” If this kind of fizz isn’t your


cup of tea, then you’re in luck, because this October marks the return of some giants of non-fiction on very fine form: James Rebanks, Dava Sobel, Kate Summerscale, Lucy-Hughes Hallet and John Lewis-Stempel among them.


Submissions should be sent to Caroline at St Ives, Frome Park Road, Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 3LF. Hard copies preferred (covering letter & AI essential), email submissions welcome. See thebookseller.com/publishing calendar for submission deadlines.


Next week 20


And if the darkening, lengthening nights are only adding to your sense of gloom about the world, then you are amply taken care of by a striking number of books aiming to brighten up the winter season, including How to Winter by Kari Leibowitz and Trees in Winter by Richard Shimell.


This October marks the return of some giants of non-fiction on very fine form such as James Rebanks, Dava Sobel and Kate Summerscale


Book of the Month A bravura work of the mind from a shattered body Biography & memoir


Hanif Kureishi Shattered Hamish Hamilton, 31st, hb, £16.99, 9780241667958


Finally, my Book of the Month, Shattered by Hanif Kureishi, is a memoir that starkly articulates what it is to be deprived of those simple, ordinary and gladdening activities with which we fill our days and yet routinely take for granted. Perhaps no thought is more explosive than that.


BookScan ratings accompanying titles are based on TCM sales (excludes e-book, export, direct, library and other sales) of the author’s most recent original work in a similar format with at least six months’ sales through Nielsen BookScan, using the notation left.


50,000+ 25,000+ 10,000+ 5,000+ 3,000+


The next edition of The Bookseller (19th July) will feature Children's Previews covering titles released in October.


12th July 2024


“A few days ago, a bomb went off in my life, but this bomb has also shattered the lives of those around me”. On Boxing Day 2022, while in Rome with his partner, novelist and playwright Kureishi fainted, and fell. When he came to in a pool of blood, he had lost the use of his limbs,


and could no longer walk, wash himself or hold a pen. Dictated to family members, this extraordinary account


of the year that followed—intimate, humorous, scatological, tired, juicy, opinionated, despairing, itchy, humble, and heart- rending—is made up of his daily dispatches from a series of hospitals in Rome, and then in London where, as a tetraplegic, he has required constant care. Born from the pain and shock of having to adjust to a shat-


tered body, and the termination of his past life in an instant, this is a work from a mind sharpened by hours of enforced stillness and endless time to think. From reflections on his British-Indian upbringing and how he forged his career as a writer, to his intimate encounters with those who care for him, and bracing advice for others wanting to write (“The aim of so-called creative writing is to give pleasure”), it’s never less than brutally honest and utterly courageous. Kureishi concludes with the assertation: “I will not go under; I will make something of this.” And he has.


© Kier Kureishi


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