SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
Science fiction & fantasy
Sequel to Our Child of the Stars (“this strong and generous first novel wears its heart
on its sleeve and embeds all the thrills and chills in credible human, and non-human, emotions,” said the Daily Mail). Cory is the child of two worlds: when his birth-people come, they will break his adoptive mother’s heart, but they may also be this world’s only salvation.
the book of secrets, or would you try to find out what everyone had done?
January
Sarah J Maas House of Sky and Breath Bloomsbury, 4 January, hb, £16.99, 9781408884423
Science fiction & fantasy
Sequel to House of Earth and Blood, and second in the Crescent City series.
Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar have made a pact to keep things platonic until the Solstice. But can they resist when the crackling tension between them is enough to set the whole of Crescent City aflame?
Salena Godden Mrs Death Misses Death Canongate, 6 January, pb, £8.99, 9781838851224
General fiction An Editor’s Choice for me
Abir Mukherjee The Shadows of Men Harvill Secker, 11 November, hb, £12.99, 9781787300590
Adventure, crime & horror
Fifth mystery in the Raj-era Wyndham and
Banerjee series is set in Calcutta, 1923, where a Hindu theologian has been found murdered in his home, pushing the city to the brink of all-out religious war. Can officers of the Imperial Police Force, Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee, track down those responsible in time to stop a bloodbath?
Jodi Picoult Wish You Were Here Hodder & Stoughton, 25 November, hb, £16.99, 9781473692503
General fiction Diana and her boyfriend are
about to go on a long-awaited holiday to the Galapagos islands when a new virus hits New York. Finn, a medic, suggests she go on without him. In the Galapagos, unable to get back to her real life, Diana learns about the devastation hitting the world as she hears intermittently from her boyfriend. She is discovering a new side to herself and a new kind of life, when everything changes...
December
Dorothy Koomson I Know What You’ve Done Headline Review, 30 December, pb, £8.99, 9781472277374
Adventure, crime & horror
What if all your neighbours’ secrets landed
in a diary on your doorstep? What if the woman who gave it to you was murdered by one of the people in the diary? What if the police asked if you knew anything—would you hand over
16
Raven Leilani Luster Picador, 6 January, pb, £9.99, 9781529036008
General fiction This dazzling début was a
Book of the Month for me in hardback. In New York, Edie is a 23-year-old Black woman of precarious means who begins a relationship with an older, married white man whose wife has agreed to an open
The Bookseller Buyer’s Guide Fiction
in hardback. Mrs Death, an elderly, Black, working-class woman, decides struggling poet Wolfie will write her memoirs. An original, exuberant novel that freewheels from prose to poetry to non-fiction, as Wolfie tells Mrs Death’s story across the ages, and also his own. Now in paperback.
Lisa Jewell
The Night She Disappeared Arrow Books, 6 January, pb, £8.99, 9781787466357
Adventure, crime & horror
A Book of the Month for me in hardback, this
thriller about 19-year-old mum Tallulah, who fails to return to her Surrey home after a night out, unfolds in three timelines. Jewell pulls the threads of the story tighter and tighter; a gripping mystery, expertly told and completely unputdownable. Now in paperback.
marriage. Edie’s voice is terrific; wry, sharp, honest, often caustically funny. Now in paperback.
Abigail Dean Girl A HarperCollins, 6 January, pb, £8.99, 9780008389093
General fiction An Editor’s Choice for me
in hardback, this tells of lawyer Lex, the “Girl A” of the title, who survived a horrific upbringing and must now trace her adult siblings, who were all adopted by different families. Absolutely gripping, this is also more nuanced and emotionally complex than a brief synopsis might suggest. Now in paperback.
Patricia Lockwood No One Is Talking About This Bloomsbury, 6 January, pb, £8.99, 9781526629777
General fiction Shortlisted for the Women’s
Prize 2021, the début novel from the author of the memoir Priestdaddy is a book about what it feels like to live and think online. Sally Rooney is a fan: “I really admire and love this book. Patricia Lockwood is a completely singular talent and this is her best, funniest, weirdest, most affecting work yet”.
Olivia Sudjic Asylum Road Bloomsbury, 20 January, pb, £8.99, 9781526617408
General fiction I loved this, an Editor’s
Choice in hardback. Told from the point of view of Anya, the story unfolds over three trips: a drive to Provence for a holiday with her distant boyfriend, a visit to his parents in Cornwall, and a trip back to Sarajevo to see her family. It transpires that Anya escaped Sarajevo during the war and now her long-suppressed memories are starting to resurface. A beautifully written and deeply unsettling exploration of trauma and a young woman on the edge.
Louise Welsh The Second Cut Canongate, 27 January, hb, £14.99, 9781838850869
Adventure, crime & horror
How exciting: a sequel to her CWA award-
winning début The Cutting Room, this is set in post- pandemic Glasgow, where auctioneer Rilke once again finds himself walking a fine moral line. When his old friend Jojo washes up dead, the police won’t investigate. Could this be because Jojo liked Grindr hook- ups and recreational drugs? If Rilke doesn’t find out what happened to Jojo, who will?
Sophie Hannah The Couple at the Table Hodder & Stoughton, 27 January, hb, £16.99, 9781529352818
Adventure, crime & horror
Simon Waterhouse and Charlie
Zailer are back in a twisty new psychological suspense tale which centres on six couples, one luxury resort and a seemingly perfect murder.
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