BOOKS
The Black Issue 2022 Black Authors’ Preview
copies, according to the publisher.
for the first time: one is the son of a king and the other is the gifted daugh- ter of a master craftsman from a famous but secre- tive tribe.
Editor’s Choice
Elvin Mensah
Small Joys Simon & Schuster, 16th March 2023, HB, £14.99, 9781398514881
Mensah’s début, which is pitched as Normal People meets Ghosts, is a captivatingly tender novel charting the friendship between Harley, a Black, gay, working-class young man dealing with mental health issues, and his flatmate Muddy, who is everything Harley isn’t: confident in his masculinity, ostensibly heterosexual, warm and straightforward. Slowly, their friendship blossoms as Muddy introduces Harley to birdwatching, Oasis and rugby, and Harley starts to believe that life may, after all, be worth living. It’s beautiful.
Sean Godfrey Sasha Knight OWN IT!, 23rd June, HB, £12.99, 9781916052376 Alternating between past and present, shifting back and forth from Jamaica and the US, this title picks apart the puzzle left behind when 11-year-old Sasha disappears.
Frances Mensah Williams The Second Time We Met Lake Union, 1st Aug, PB, £8.99, 9781542038867 This title follows unlucky-in-love events manager Cara, who has vowed to avoid relation- ships after recovering from heartbreak, until fate throws her into the path of handsome and kind Henry, who is worlds apart from the men she has dated before.
Editor’s Choice
Gothataone Moeng Call and Response Oneworld, 2nd Feb 2023, HB, £14.99, 9780861543342 A richly drawn collection of stories about the lives of women navigating love, loss, tradition and independence in contem- porary Botswana.
The new novel from Mutt-Lon is set in Cameroon in 1929, where French colonial powers fight for influence in Central Africa amid a widespread outbreak of “sleeping sickness”, a parasitic disease that is seemingly incurable.
Zora Neale Hurston You Don’t Know Us Negroes and Other Essays HQ, 3rd March 2023, PB, £9.99, 9780008523008 Spanning more than 35 years of work, this is the first comprehensive collec- tion of essays, criticism and articles by Harlem Renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston, showcas- ing the evolution of her distinctive style.
Ashleigh Nugent Locks Picador, 13th Apr 2023, HB, £14.99, 9781529097894 The funny and pain-ridden account of growing up and wising up from the perspective of a mixed- race teenager from a middle-class Liverpool suburb.
Ella McLeod
Rapunzella, or, Don’t Touch My Hair Scholastic, 7th July, PB, £7.99, 9780702313868
This innovative and evocative début from spoken-word poet McLeod is a genre-bending YA story that weaves together inner-city life and a wildly dangerous fairytale universe. Blending poetry and prose, McLeod combines a fairytale reimagining—following Rapunzella, imprisoned in an enchanted forest made of her own Afro and terrorised by the evil King Charming—with a contemporary coming-of-age story, which is set in a hair salon. This is a lyrical exploration of a teenager coming into her power as a young woman and a unique celebration of the power of Black identity and Black hair.
32 20th May 2022
Leila Mottley Nightcrawling Bloomsbury, 7th June, PB, £14.99, 9781526634559 Inspired by the true story of a scandal underpinning a police department, Nightcrawling is a searing début novel following Kiara Johnson, who is picked up by police offi- cers. The gruesome deal she is offered in exchange for her freedom lands her at the centre of a media storm.
Mutt-Lon The Blunder Amazon Crossing, 12th July, PB, £6.99, 9781542037877
Onyi Nwabineli Someday, Maybe Oneworld, 6th Oct, HB, £16.99, 9780861543519 An unconventional love story about loss, resilience and a heroine bursting with rage and unexpected joy, from the co-founder of Surviving Out Loud, a fund for survivors of sexual assault.
Tomi Obaro Dele Weds Destiny Hodder, 28th June, HB, £14.99, 9781529366822 This heartfelt début by Buzzfeed culture editor Tomi Obaro is the nuanced story of three women that explores the power of enduring female friendship, the highs and lows of mother-daughter relationships and what it means to find home.
Shirlene Obuobi On Rotation Quercus, 21nd June, HB, £16.99, 9781529426830 Billed as a “women-in- STEM rom-com”, this
title follows a Ghanaian American medical student who finds herself in the middle of a quarter-life crisis.
Aiwanose Odafen Tomorrow I Become a Woman Simon & Schuster, 2nd March 2023, PB, £8.99, 9781398506145 Loosely based on the stories of real women known to the author, this follows a complex rela- tionship between mother and daughter as they grapple to come to terms with tremendous loss.
Okwiri Oduor Things They Lost Oneworld, 2nd Feb 2023, PB, £8.99, 9780861544912 From the 2014 Caine Prize winner comes a new novel, riven through with mystery and magic, about a daughter’s quest to save her mother. Oduor’s origi- nal début novel is inspired by Kenyan folklore and myth and traces the fragile, intoxicating bond between a mother and daughter.
Temi Oh More Perfect Simon & Schuster, 30th March 2023, HB, £14.99, 9781471171284 A reimagining of the Greek myth of Eurydice and Orpheus, this title is set in a near-future where technology, governed by the all-seeing Panopticon, connects you with every other person on the planet—whether you’ve asked for it or not.
Andi Osho Tough Crowd HQ, 16th Feb 2023, HB, £14.99, 9780008430986 A funny, heartwarming romantic comedy about navigating dating some- one with children and becoming a step-parent from comedian Osho.
Christine Pride & Jo Piazza We Are Not Like Them HQ, 9th June, PB, £8.99, 9780008335977 The story of a lifelong friendship between two women—Riley, a success- ful Black television journalist, and Jen, a working-class white woman married to a Philadelphia police offi- cer—and what happens after Jen’s husband is involved in the shooting of an unarmed Black teenager.
Cecilia Rabess Everything’s Fine Picador, 2nd March 2023, HB, £14.99, 9781529083170 This title follows a young Black woman and a preppy white conservative who fall reluctantly in love.
Ben Okri The Last Gift of the Master Artists Head of Zeus, 4th Aug, HB, £16.99, 9781803285672 A novel about life in the time immediately before the arrival of the Atlantic slavers. Two lovers meet
Jacqueline Roy The Gosling Girl Simon & Schuster, 5th Jan 2023, PB, £8.99, 9781398504240 A powerful account of systemic, institutional and internalised racism, and of how the marginalised fight back. This title delves into the psychological after-effects of a crime committed in childhood, exploring intersections between race and class.
Samira Sedira People Like Them
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