This preview highlights titles to be published in October
10 Top sellers
Editor’s Choice
Editor’s Choice
Travel
Dom Joly The Conspiracy Tourist: An Alternative
Fact-Finding Trip Robinson, 24th, £10.99, 9781472146694
Joly explores the world of conspiracy theories by travelling to their source and testing their wild theories. A visit to Finland probes at the Reddit-inspired belief that Finland does not exist, much to the chagrin of Joly’s patient wife Stacey. During a trip to New Mexico on the trail of UFOs he runs into QAnon believers, and a visit to Newfoundland humanises those who believe the earth is flat. Along the way Joly notes how conspiracy theorists have become more politicised in the past two decades and becomes some- thing of a cheerleader for the chaos of human existence.
Literary
Hiroko Oyamada, David Boyd (trans) The Factory Granta Books, 10th, £9.99, 9781803510590
The meaninglessness of modern work is the subject of this funny novella which revels in the mundane and the absurd. A sprawling industrial complex plays host to three new employees, each of whom is assigned a specific monotonous task, from shredding paper and proofreading documents to studying the moss growing over the expansive grounds. The challenge is that nobody seems to know why they are doing this work or really know workers in the many departments beyond their own. Another short novel by Oyamada, The Hole, is also publishing this month.
Jenny Colgan Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop Hodder Paperbacks, 24th, £9.99, 9781399739863 A bookshop is the set of a Christmas movie, but behind the scenes a struggle goes on for festive cheer and the shop’s survival.
Thomas Erikson Surrounded by Liars: How to Stop Lies and Half- truths Ruining Your Life Vermilion, 10th, £10.99, 9781785044762 The psychological reasons why we lie and the impact lying has on our relationships.
Val McDermid, Jenni Fagan, Denise Mina and Alan Warner reimagining tales from Scotland’s “history, myth and legend”.
Mary Beth Keane The Half Moon Michael Joseph, 17th, £9.99, 9781405951388 A blizzard in a small town freezes everyone in place for a pivotal week. A “deftly written novel,” said Grazia.
Editor’s Choice
Editor’s Choice
Elly Griffiths The Man in Black and Other Stories Quercus Fiction, 24th, £9.99, 9781529420531 A cross-genre collection of stories featuring all Griffiths’ best-loved characters, including one narrated by Flint, Dr Ruth Galloway’s cat.
Literary
Kristina Gorcheva-Newberry Between Dog and Wolf Te Indigo Press, 24th, £9.99, 9781911648864
Crime & thriller
Kristen Perrin How to Solve Your Own Murder Quercus Fiction, 10th, £9.99, 9781529430073
Début
In 1965, Frances Adams was told by a fortune teller that one day she’d
be murdered so she spent the next 60 years preparing for her demise, and her plans are thorough. When the inevitable happens, it’s up to her niece Annie to use Frances’ meticu- lous files on those around her to track down the murderer. The heart of the case seems to lie in Frances’ teenage diaries allowing some intergenerational bonding for amateur sleuth Annie, but is she also being put in danger? A fun prem- ise executed brilliantly. Positive reviews across the board with Heat calling it “smart, twisty, and original”.
TheBookseller.com Food & drink
Pen Vogler Stuffed: A History of Good Food and Hard
Times in Britain Atlantic Books , 3rd, £10.99, 9781838955762
A social history of Britain told through food, using cookbooks, literature, social records and even parliamentary proceedings. Recipes interwoven throughout underscore the changing tastes of the British. Among the gems in this fascinating book are stories of how the goose disappeared from the table after Enclosures, the history of adulterating food (wheat bulked out with plaster) and how mid-20th-century canteens and communal kitchens were attacked as unBritish and danger- ously communist.
Début Four teenagers in 1980s Moscow
yearn for better lives while a brief flourishing of hope fades and another repres- sive regime takes root.
Shubnum Khan The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years Magpie, 10th, £9.99, 9780861546244 A decaying mansion on South Africa’s eastern coast holds secrets of the country’s Indian diaspora, tying past to present.
Sonia Nimr, Marcia Lynx Qualey (trans) Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands Interlink Books, 8th, £14.99, 9781623716486 A “richly imagined feminist-fable-plus- historical-novel” telling the episodic adventures of a clever and irrepress- ible young Palestinian woman who is driven to storytelling by necessity, fleeing Gaza and escaping slavery in Egypt before taking to the sea. Winner of the Etisalat Award.
David Greig Columba’s Bones Polygon, 3rd, £7.99, 9781846976735
Début On ninth-century Iona, Abbot
Blathmac is slain for refusing to give the loca- tion of the sacred relics of St Columba. Part of Polygon’s Darkland Tales series which has also seen
Grant Morrison LUDA Europa Editions, 10th, £10.99, 9781787705357 A flamboyant drag artist and their fellow actors are seduced by Luda, a femme fatale.
Aslak Nore, Deborah Dawkin (trans) The Sea Cemetery MacLehose Press, 24th, £9.99, 9781529424379 Secrets from the Second World War emerge
21
©Leo Wilkinson
©Shinchosha Publishing
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
