SEASON HIGHLIGHTS


featuring Glasgow’s original gritty detective Jack Laidlaw (Laidlaw, The Papers of Tony Veitch, Strange Loyalties). When he died in 2015, he left half a hand-written manuscript of Laidlaw’s first case, which Ian Rankin has now completed.


Susanna Clarke Piranesi Bloomsbury, 2 September, pb, £8.99, 9781526622433


Science fiction & fantasy


Glorious follow-up to Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (publishing a full 15 years later)


opens in another world, in a grand, empty house where labyrinthine halls stretch into infinity, populated only by marble statues. The sole living inhabitant is Piranesi, who keeps a meticulous journal of his days, and his visits from the mysterious Other. Fantastical, very strange and not to be missed. Now in paperback.


Celeste Mohammed Pleasantview Jacaranda Books, 9 September, pb, £12.99, 9781913090890


General fiction Written in a combination of


Standard English and Trinidad Creole, Pleasantview reveals the dark side of the Caribbean dream in a town where poverty and patriarchy dominate. An election candidate beats his “outside woman” so badly that she loses the baby, so on the night of the political rally she exacts her revenge.


Nicci French The Unheard Simon & Schuster, 16 September, hb, £14.99, 9781471179310


Adventure, crime & horror


Latest from the excellent husband-and-


wife crime-writing team. Tess finds a dark and disturbing drawing among her three-year- old daughter’s brightly coloured paintings, and becomes convinced Poppy has witnessed something terrible that she cannot put into words. But no-one will listen to her fears.


Richard Powers Bewilderment William Heinemann, 21 September, hb, £20, 9781785152634


General fiction His first novel since the


Jesse Sutanto Dial A for Aunties HQ, 16 September, pb, £8.99, 9780008445881


General fiction When Meddy Chan


accidentally kills her blind date, she turns to her aunties for help. Their meddling set her up on the date, so they kind of owe her. “A gloriously screwball crime caper (with a dusting of romance) which will have you snort-laughing” found Red. Now in paperback.


Joshua Ferris A Calling for Charlie Barnes Viking, 16 September, hb, £16.99, 9780241202869


General fiction Latest from the author


of Booker-shortlisted To Rise Again at a Decent Hour is a contemporary “Death of a


Maxim Jakubowski, Ian Rankin, Jeffery Deaver (eds),


Booker-shortlisted, Pulitzer Prize-winning The Overstory tells of Theo, a promising young astrobiologist who has found a way to search for life on other planets thousands of lightyears away, and is also a widowed single father to loving, troubled nine-year-old Robin.


Salesman”, says Viking, which takes aim at our obsession with success and how it can lead to madness. Blindsided by bad news and recession, Charlie Barnes is forced to rethink his life.


Joe Abercrombie The Wisdom of Crowds Gollancz, 16 September, hb, £20, 9780575095960


Science fiction & fantasy


The Age of Madness trilogy (A Little Hatred, The Trouble with


Peace) concludes. Chaos. Fury. Destruction. The Great Change is upon us...


John Connolly, John Harvey, Julian Rathbone Daggers Drawn Titan Books, 21 September, hb, £17.99, 9781789097986


Adventure, crime & horror


The first Crime Writers’ Association


Daggers Award retrospective, featuring 19 award-winning stories from bestselling authors Ian Rankin, Jeffery Deaver, John Connolly, Denise Mina and John Harvey, plus many more.


change, this is as original and inventive as her Booker Prize- shortlisted previous novel, A Tale for the Time Being.


Anthony Doerr Cloud Cuckoo Land Fourth Estate, 28 September, hb, £20, 9780008478292


Sagas, romance & historical


His first novel since the Pulitzer Prize-winning All the Light We


Cannot See follows three storylines: one set during the 1453 siege of Constantinople, one set in present-day Idaho, and one aboard an interstellar ship bound for a distant exoplanet, decades from now.


Wole Soyinka Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth Bloomsbury Circus, 28 September, hb, £20, 9781526638243


General fiction The first novel in more than


Wild Imperfections Cassava Republic Press, 21st September, pb, £12.99, 9781913175252 An invitation to a gathering of poets from across the world.


Colm Tóibín The Magician Viking, 23 September, hb, £18.99, 9780241004616


Sagas, romance & historical


A retelling of the life of Thomas Mann, the German author of Death in


Venice, capturing the profound personal conflict of a very public life, in a novel which also tells the story of the 20th century. Reminiscent of his earlier works The Master and Nora Webster, in that it involves a deep dive into a central character, says Viking.


Lauren Groff Matrix William Heinemann, 23 September, hb, £16.99, 9781785151903


General fiction Her first novel since 2015’s


Fates and Furies tells of queer Marie de France, cast out from the medieval French court and sent to England to become prioress of an impoverished abbey. Though pining for home, Marie comes to realise the power she now wields as she inspires her new sisterhood to claim what is theirs.


Ruth Ozeki The Book of Form and Emptiness Canongate, 23 September, hb, £18.99, 9781838855239


General fiction After the sudden death


of his jazz-musician father, young teenager Benny Oh starts to hear voices emanating from the objects in his house and his widowed mother, Annabelle, finds comfort in hoarding. Touching on loss, grief, consumerism and climate


Elly Griffiths


The Midnight Hour Quercus Publishing, 30 September, pb, £14.99, 9781787477599


Adventure, crime & horror


Sixth in the 1960s Brighton- set cosy crime


series. When a postmortem reveals that theatre impresario Bert Billington was poisoned, suspicion falls on his ex-wife, former music hall star Verity Malone. Determined to prove her innocence, she calls in private detective duo Emma Holmes and Sam Collins.


Bernard Cornwell Sharpe’s Assassin HarperCollins, 30 September, hb, £20, 9780008184018


Sagas, romance & historical


Outsider. Hero. Rogue. The one and only Richard Sharpe returns...


Alan Garner Treacle Walker Fourth Estate, 30 September, hb, £10, 9780008477790


General fiction A short (64pp) tale, a fusion of


Roddy Doyle Life Without Children Jonathan Cape, 7 October, hb, £14.99, 9781787333574


General fiction A collection of 10 short stories,


mostly written over the past year, that chart life in lockdown: A man abroad wanders the stag-and-hen-strewn streets of Newcastle, as news of the virus


February 2021–July 2022 11


50 years from Africa’s first Nobel Laureate in Literature is billed as an excoriating satire on the nature of power and a portrait of modern Nigeria. Doctor Menka discovers that a cunning entrepreneur has decided to sell body parts from his hospital for use in ritualistic practices.


myth and folklore, about the Treacle Walker, a wanderer and a healer, who appears off the Cheshire moor to befriend young Joe Coppock. I have been a fan of Garner’s writing since childhood, it’s just so unlike anything else.


Jo Nesbo The Jealousy Man and Other Stories Harvill Secker, 30 September, hb, £20, 9781787303126


General fiction A collection of “dark and


twisted” crime tales from the Norwegian author of the Harry Hole series. Film rights to the title story, and another, “London”, have already been sold.


October


Sarah Hall Burntcoat Faber & Faber, 7 October, hb, £12.99, 9780571329311


General fiction The first novel in six years


from the two-time winner of the BBC National Short Story Award is billed as “an electrifying novel of passion, connection and transformation”. It tells of celebrated sculptor Edith Harkness as she makes preparations for the end she knows is coming. I loved her last collection of stories, Sudden Traveller.


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