BOOKS
Editor’s Choice
Previews Paperback Preview
Editor’s Choice
Editor’s Choice
Biography and memoir
Benjamin J B Lipscomb The Women Are Up to Something: How Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley,
and Iris Murdoch Revolutionised Ethics Oxford University Press, 1st, £14.99, 9780197689967
A vivid, highly readable intellectual history of four women philosophers who met at Oxford, and who carved careers in a male-dominated world. Oxford only began to confer degrees on women in 1920 (Cambridge followed suit in 1948). The group’s evolv- ing sense that philosophy needed to talk more about values when confronted with the full horror of the concentration camps permeates the study.
Biography and memoir
Monica Potts The Forgotten Girls Penguin, 2nd, £10.99, 9780141986746
From 2014 to 2017, the decline in life expectancy among the least educated white Americans, particularly among women, was the steepest in a century. Potts’ examination of that decline takes her back to her home town in Arkansas, a place she rushed to leave after childhood and where her mother hoped she would escape. Reconnecting with a best friend from childhood allows an intimate understanding of the pressures of teen miscarriage, divorce, societal expectations and low-wage jobs, portraying a side of America which inhibits the potential of its citizens.
Gallic Books, 30th, £9.99, 9781913547769
Début A New Zealand- set satirical
dystopian cli-fi thriller. Longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award.
Billy O’Callaghan The Paper Man Vintage, 2nd, £9.99, 9781529921717 In 1980s Cork, Jack is transported to 1930s Vienna uncovering his mother’s life and the mysterious footballer known as “The Paper Man”.
Janika Oza A History of Burning Vintage, 2nd, £9.99,
Début 9781529921830 One family’s
search for a better life, from India to Uganda, Britain to Canada, across four generations and a century of change. “Highly accomplished”, said the Economist.
Emily Perkins Lioness Bloomsbury Circus, 9th, £9.99, 9781526660688 A New Zealand-set portrait of women unravelling and being
42 23rd February 2024
unravelled. “‘A coolly ironic look at modern womanhood”, said the Times.
Ben Tufnell The North Shore
Début Fleet, 9th, £9.99,
9780349727318 A wild coastal village is changed by what washes up on the beach after a storm.
Wiz Wharton Ghost Girl, Banana Hodder Paperbacks, 23rd, £9.99, 9781399700375
Leïla Slimani, Sam Taylor (trans) Watch Us Dance Faber & Faber, 2nd, £9.99, 9780571376087 Morocco, 1968, is bubbling with potential, a newly independent country, and Mathilde is determined to celebrate but the future offers surprises. “Beautifully atmospheric”, said the Financial Times.
Brandon Taylor The Late Americans Vintage, 9th, £9.99, 9781529922073 In a Midwest university town, young men and women are at a crossroads. Taylor’s début novel Real Life was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Moves from April.
Début Family secrets are unearthed by
a surprise inheritance steeped in the history of Hong Kong.
Lorraine Wilson Mother Sea Fairlight Books, 16th, £9.99, 9781914148347 An island community faces extinction. Shortlisted for Scottish Fiction Book of the Year.
Liu Zhenyun, Howard Goldblatt & Sylvia Li-chun Lin (trans) One Day Three Autumns Sinoist Books, 31st, £11.99, 9781838905835
Début As a spirit plagues the
dreams of innocent townspeople, claiming the lives of those who fail to amuse her, Mingliang’s plans for a fresh start on China’s central plains are thrown into sharp relief by encounters with souls unwilling to move on.
Deborah Willis Girlfriend on Mars Serpent’s Tail, 16th, £9.99, 9781800817586
Début Kevin’s girlfriend Amber is on a
reality TV show, competing to leave him for the planet Mars. Longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Literary short stories
Kate Atkinson
Normal Rules Don’t Apply Penguin, 23rd, £9.99, 9781804990803 A collection of witty, sharp and emotional short stories, Atkinson’s first collection in over two decades. Moves from April.
History, politics and current affairs Scott Shapiro
Fancy Bear Goes Phishing Penguin, 2nd, £10.99, 9780141993843
Five rich stories of hacking, showing that cyber-crime is a human problem, not a technical problem. Shapiro highlights his own ill-preparedness for the contemporary landscape, underscoring the exponential development of computing and hacking. In writing this book Shapiro immersed himself in hacker conventions, many forms of coding and even hacked the Yale law website, much to his dean’s chagrin. Shapiro unlocks much of the expertise and secrecy around cybersecurity, explaining the fuzzy process of hacking.
Joanna Cannon (ed) Will You Read This, Please? Te Borough Press, 9th, £9.99, 9780008520014 Twelve personal experiences of mental illness as told to twelve contemporary writers.
Commercial
Helly Acton Begin Again Zaffre, 23rd, £9.99, 9781838778361 A freak kebab-related death gives Frankie a second chance at life, to explore the what ifs of her past.
Michiko Aoyama, Alison Watts (trans) What You Are Looking For Is In the Library Penguin, 23rd, £9.99, 9781804994139 Five library customers meet Sayuri Komachi, the ultimate librarian for life-changing book recommendations.
Matt Cain One Love Headline Review, 30th, £9.99, 9781472291929 Danny and Guy’s Manchester-set romance spans two decades.
Emma Cline The Guest Vintage, 9th, £9.99, 9781529921915 A young woman escapes the city to drift through a summer among Long Island elites, engaged in a dangerous struggle to keep her head above water. “Cements Cline’s place as one of America’s great contemporary stylists”, said the Guardian.
Jilly Cooper Tackle! Penguin, 9th, £9.99, 9780552177849 Rupert Campbell-Black returns with more sex and scandal, buying failing local football club, Searston Rovers at the behest of his daughter Bianca in the eleventh book in the Rutshire Chronicles. A Disney+ adaptation of Rivals arrives later this year,
© Amy Tetta
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