BOOKS Fiction


Arun Sood New Skin for the Old Ceremony 404 Ink, September, £9.99, PB, 9781912489534 404 Ink’s lead fiction title for the autumn is a structurally imaginative novel about friendship and growing up as a mixed-race person in Scotland. It follows four estranged friends as they reconnect during a motorcycle trip on the Isle of Skye, many years after a life-defining journey in northern India.


Elle Nash Nudes 404 Ink, July, £9.99, PB, 9781912489503 This is the début collection of short stories by the author of critically praised Animals Eat Each Other and it’s both insightful and irreverent. Populated by psychologically complex characters, it places the desires of working-class women centre stage.


Liam Konemann The Arena of the Unwell 404 Ink, 21st April, £9.99, PB, 9781912489480 This novel takes us into north London’s indie music scene, where 22-year-old Noah, follow- ing his favourite band, is drawn into the compli- cated relationship of two older men. A novel about mental health, music and queerness by the author of The Appendix: Transmasculine Joy in a Transphobic Culture.


Country Focus: Scotland Category Preview


Tinder, 1st September, £20, HB 9781472223845 We know nothing but that it’s coming—and that’s enough for us to get excited!


Alan Warner Nothing Left to Fear from Hell Polygon, 1st September, £10, HB, 9781846975691 The third title in the Darkland Tales, a series of retellings of myth and lore by Scottish authors, traces Bonnie Prince Charlie’s last journey through Scotland. Infused with poetry as well as dark humour, it’s the tale of a historical figure known, above all, for his failure.


a friendship that may lead to more trouble than Wendy expected.


Janey Godley Nothing Left Unsaid Hodder & Stoughton, 12th May, £16.99, HB, 9781529357127 The début novel from award-winning comedian and actress Janey Godley. Set in Glasgow in the 1970s, this is a poignant, funny and quietly devas- tating mystery about five women fighting for their lives against the odds.


what our dependence on technology has done to our sense of responsibility. Model Citizen brings dark humour and suspense to bear on themes of identity and class in an eerily near future.


Alexander McCall Smith The Love Story of Herb la Fouche Polygon, 4th August, £14.99, HB, 9781846976001 This standalone novel from the bestselling author tells the story of a quiet Canadian man, and his journey from chemistry teacher in a fictional Ontario town to a new life in Martinique, after coming up with a unique invention. A feel-good novel about the grace of ordinary lives.


Douglas Stuart Young Mungo Picador, 14th April, £16.99, HB, 9781529068764 The follow-up to the Booker Prize-winning and much adored Shuggie Bain takes us back to 1980s Glasgow, with a story about masculinity and vulnerable love. James and Mungo grow up on opposite sides of the city’s sectarian divide, yet find, in each other, the promise of a life lived truthfully.


Jenni Fagan Hex Polygon, 3rd March, £10, HB, 9781846975684 Excitingly, Fagan has two new titles out this year. On the prose side comes Hex, part of Polygon’s Darkland Tales series. Convicted for witchcraft and about to be executed, Geillis Duncan receives a visit. Iris arrives from a future where women are, still, far from free.


Maggie O’Farrell The Marriage Portrait


30 18th February 2022


Camilla Grudova Children of Paradise Atlantic, 7th July, £14.99, HB, 9781838956318 Grudova’s story collection The Doll’s Alphabet was a favourite of ours with its off-kilter tales. Her début novel further reveals an extraordinary imagina- tion. Holly’s new job at the Paradise, an old cinema, is at first marred by drudg- ery and isolation, until she manages to join the strange gang of ushers.


Elissa Soave Ginger and Me HQ, 21st July, £12.99, HB, 9780008458416 Soave won the 2020 Primadonna Prize and this is her début novel: part-mystery and part- coming of age tale, set in working-class Scotland. At its heart is Wendy, who has found her first real friend in Ginger. It’s


Ryan O’Connor The Voids Scribe, March, £14.99, HB, 9781913348434 One to watch! Flashes of humour and warmth accompany an unflinching eye on contemporary Britain in this début novel, making it an irresistible combination that has already garnered a host of fans. On the outskirts of society, among vacated Glasgow flats (the “voids”), a young man seeks meaning and connection.


Frankie Boyle Meantime Hachette, 21st July, £14.99, HB, 9781399801157 Felix McAveety, strung- out on a cocktail of drugs, decides to solve the murder of his best friend, Marina, with the help of a dying crime novelist. Taking place in the shadow of the inde- pendence referendum, Meantime tackles ques- tions of loss, justice and colonial legacy, mixing humour and heartbreak.


Steven Veerapen Of Blood Descended Polygon, 5th May, £9.99, PB, 9781846976131 A new series of historical mysteries introduces us to Anthony Blanke, the fictional, mixed-race son of the historical figure John Blanke—trumpeter at Henry VIII’s court and its only Black musician. The series promises period intrigue as well as explorations of race and identity.


their own lives at risk. This is a pacy dystopian novel about justice and survival, inspired by a real-life adoption scandal.


Karen Campbell Paper Cup Canongate, 2nd June, £14.99, HB, 9781838855093 After an accident, Kelly is forced to leave Glasgow and return to the small village in south-west Scotland she once fled. Campbell’s uplifting novel was inspired by the author’s experience of facilitating creative writ- ing with homeless people, as part of Scottish PEN’s Many Voices project.


David Keenan Industry of Magic and Light Orion, 25th August, £18.99, HB, 9781399603249 Set in Airdrie in the mid-1960s and running through the ’70s, Industry of Magic and Light features the return of record collector and legendary hippy Edward Thom, a.k.a. Teddy Ohm—one of the main characters from Keenan’s critically acclaimed début This is Memorial Device.


F J Watson Dark Hunter Polygon, 7th April, £8.99, PB, 9781846976117 Set in Berwick-upon- Tweed in 1317, the last English-held Scottish town following the Battle of Bannockburn, this historical mystery, a real feast for the senses, follows a young English squire caught between the murder of a young girl and the great sweeps of history that are drawing ever closer.


Daniel Shand Model Citizens Corsair, 5th May, £14.99, HB, 9781472156648 The new novel from the award-winning author of Fallow and Crocodile turns to lives lived online and


Lucy Cruickshanks The Liberation’s Child Polygon, 7th April, £8.99, PB, 9781846975776 In a near-future Britain haunted by recent collec- tive trauma, Thea and Dom seek to uncover the dealings of an illegal adoption ring, putting


Stephen May Sell Us the Rope Sandstone Press, 1st March, £8.99, PB, 9781913207885 This is a treat for lovers of beautifully written historical fiction, bringing to life some of the figures that shaped 20th-century Europe. Sell Us the Rope follows a young Stalin on a visit to London, as he encounters fellow revolutionaries, as well as enemies and even love.


Crime & Thriller


Chris Brookmyre She Knows Little, Brown, 30th June, £18.99, HB 9781408712177 Chris Brookmyre is back with a heartstopping mystery set during a hen night on a remote island, where secrets are lethal and everyone has something to hide. We expect this latest to be as humorous and wickedly clever as ever.


N E Solomons The Bone Road Polygon, 7th July, £9.99, PB, 9781846976148 An exploration of inter- generational trauma in the form of a thriller, set on the border between Serbia and Bosnia. A former Olympic cyclist and her journalist boyfriend are out riding when he disappears around a bend in the road. Her search for him uncov- ers dark histories.


Philip Miller The Goldenacre Polygon, 2nd June, £9.99, PB, 9781846975936 This is a literary thriller in which murder, fine art, history and the politics of modern Scotland all become entwined. At the centre of the story is “The Goldenacre”, a masterpiece and the last painting to be produced by its creator; the painting has just been given to the Scottish people.


Alan Parks May God Forgive Canongate, 28th April, £14.99, HB, 9781838856748 In the fifth thriller featur- ing Glasgow detective Harry McCoy, three boys are charged with the suspected arson that killed five people and left Glasgow raging. When all three suspects are kidnapped and one is found dead, McCoy has 24 hours to find the remaining boys alive.


Val McDermid 1989 Sphere, 18th August, £20, HB, 9780751583106 The second book in the new series by one of crime’s greatest picks up a decade after the first, with Allie Burns in the eye of a turbulent era. There’s the cold war, the HIV/AIDS crisis and upheaval in the world of journalism. Add murder and kidnapping, and nothing is certain.


Lucy Banks Caged Little Birds Sandstone Press, 16th June, £8.99, PB, 9781913207939


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