SEASON HIGHLIGHTS


Fiona Mozley Hot Stew John Murray, 18 March, hb, £16.99, 9781529327205


General fiction Eagerly anticipated


second novel from the author whose début, Elmet, earned her a 2017 Booker Prize shortlisting. A “stew” is the archaic name for a brothel, and this is set in Soho, where increasing gentrification poses a threat to one such establishment. A “riotous” novel about sex and money, says John Murray.


Catriona Ward The Last House on Needless Street Profile Books, 18 March, hb, £12.99, 9781788166164


Adventure, crime & horror


This is a story about a serial killer, an


abused child and terrible trauma, which begins with Ted, an oddball living in a decrepit house. But nothing (and I mean nothing) unfolds quite as you think it will. Gripping, shocking and very sad in equal measure.


Rachel Joyce Miss Benson’s Beetle Black Swan, 30 March, pb, £8.99, 9780552779487


General fiction Now in paperback,


the latest from the author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is an irresistibly well-plotted tale of another epic journey undertaken by one lonely spinster, who follows her dream of travelling to the other side of the world. A gorgeous story about friendship, adventure and the importance of taking risks. I loved it.


Maggie O’Farrell Hamnet Tinder Press, 30 March, pb, £8.99, 9781472223821


Sagas, romance & historical


Winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Set in 1596,


this reimagines the story of Shakespeare’s lost son, Hamnet, who died aged 11. Nobody writes more movingly about intimate family relationships, especially children, than O’Farrell, who is that rarest of writers: a genuine literary/commercial crossover. Now in paperback.


April


Erin Kelly Watch Her Fall Hodder & Stoughton, 1 April, hb, £14.99, 9781473680838


Adventure, crime & horror


Latest thrilling suspense novel from the author


of He Said/She Said is set amid the demanding world of professional ballet. Ava Kirilova has reached the very top, and is preparing to play the dual leading role in “Swan Lake”,


14


Jeffrey Archer Turn a Blind Eye Macmillan, 1 April, hb, £20, 9781509851362


General fiction The third instalment in


the story of William Warwick follows Nothing Ventured and Hidden in Plain Sight. Warwick, now a detective inspector, is tasked with a dangerous new line of work: to go undercover and expose crime of another kind—corruption at the heart of the Met.


Douglas Stuart Shuggie Bain Picador, 15 April, pb, £8.99, 9781529019292


General fiction Winner of the 2020 Booker


Prize. This tells the story of Hugh “Shuggie” Bain, growing up in poverty in 1980s Glasgow, his relationship with his mother Agnes, whom he adores, and his doomed attempt to save her from alcoholism. Now in paperback.


Wilbur Smith, David Churchill Legacy of War Bonnier Zaffre, 15 April, hb, £20, 9781838772246


Adventure, crime & horror


A nail-biting story of courage,


bravery, rebellion and war is promised, in the action-packed sequel to Courtney’s War from the master of adventure fiction. The war is over, Hitler is dead— and yet his evil legacy lives on…


David Mitchell Utopia Avenue Sceptre, 15 April, pb, £8.99, 9781444799477


General fiction Charts the rise to stardom


Gwendoline Riley My Phantoms Granta Books, 1 April, hb, £12.99, 9781783783267


General fiction Latest from the very


talented and prize-winning author of First Love is narrated by fortysomething Bridget, who sees her mother Helen (“Hen”) just once a year. But why? An emotionally complex, caustic novel about the mother-daughter bond.


Nick Hornby Just Like You Penguin, 15 April, pb, £8.99, 9780241983256


The Bookseller Buyer’s Guide Fiction


of British psychedelic-folk-rock band Utopia Avenue in the late 1960s, a story of music, dreams, drugs and madness, love and grief. “This gaudy, swirling concept album of a novel resurrects a flamboyant era with vibrant flair and high- fidelity detail,” found the Times. Now in paperback.


Barbara Erskine The Dream Weavers HarperCollins, 15 April, hb, £14.99, 9780008195861


Sagas, romance & historical


The queen of timeslip historical fiction returns with a


tale that moves between Mercia, 775AD, where the ruthless King Offa makes marriage plans for his three daughters,


but there is someone watching who really wants to see Ava fall…


Mel Giedroyc The Best Things Headline Review, 1 April, hb, £12.99, 9781472256218


General fiction Début novel from the


comedian and presenter (and one half of comic duo Mel & Sue) is billed as a “funny, tender, timely story” about a family on the brink. Sally Parker’s husband has lost his business, their home and their savings in one fell swoop. And now the bailiffs are at the door…


General fiction In North London,


mother-of-two Lucy has separated from her useless cocaine-addict husband and is starting to date again. Set before and after the Brexit Referendum, with much to say about the divisions in contemporary London, this (at first) odd-couple romance is a delight. Now in paperback.


and 2021 on the English- Welsh borders, where a writer struggles to finish his book on the Anglo-Saxon king, and is disturbed by unsettling noises and visions.


Ben Kane Crusader Orion, 29 April, hb, £14.99, 9781409197799


Sagas, romance & historical


Second in the Lionheart series. 1189. The long-awaited


goal of Richard Plantagenet, the Lionheart, comes true as he is crowned King of England. Before he can set off on crusade and re-take Jerusalem from the Saracens, he must set his own kingdom in order.


Emily St John Mandel The Glass Hotel Picador, 29 April, pb, £8.99, 9781509882830


Adventure, crime & horror


The follow-up to Station Eleven traces


the lives of a disparate cast of characters before and after the collapse of an enormous Ponzi scheme in New York in 2008. The pace is slow, almost dream-like, but this is ambitious, imaginative and highly recommended. Now in paperback.


May


Oyinkan Braithwaite The Baby Is Mine Atlantic Books, 27 May, pb, £1, 9781838952563


Adventure, crime & horror


While I wait for the second novel from the


author of the brilliant My Sister, the Serial Killer, I shall assuage my impatience with this little gem, billed as a blackly funny piece of Lagos gothic about parenting and playboys, for the Quick Reads literacy programme.


Jhumpa Lahiri Whereabouts Bloomsbury Publishing, 4 May, hb, £14.99, 9781526629951


General fiction Anticipation will be high


for the latest novel from the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Man Booker Prize-shortlisted author. It is said to be a haunting portrait of a woman, her decisions, her conversations and her solitariness, set in an unnamed Italian city.


Rachel Cusk Second Place Faber & Faber, 6 May, hb, £16.99, 9780571366293


General fiction I’m an admirer of her writing,


both fiction and non-fiction, and this is billed as “a fable of human destiny and decline, enacted in a closed system of intimate, fractured relationships” and an examination of the possibility that art can both save and destroy us.


Ali Smith Summer Penguin, 6 May, pb, £8.99, 9780241973370


General fiction The glorious conclusion to


Beth O’Leary The Road Trip Quercus Publishing, 29 April, hb, £14.99, 9781529409055


General fiction I thoroughly enjoyed both


The Flatshare, my favourite romcom of 2019, and The Switch. The premise of this sounds great: Addie and her sister, en route to a wedding in rural Scotland, are obliged offer a lift to Addie’s ex Dylan and his friend, meaning they will all be trapped in a car for 400 miles…


Ruth Jones Us Three Black Swan, 29 April, pb, £8.99, 9781784162238


General fiction Jones follows the huge


success of her début Never Greener with this tale of three women, best friends since primary school, who find their friendship shaken to the core after an unexpected turn of events. Now in paperback.


Ali Smith’s Booker-shortlisted Seasonal quartet (in order: Autumn, Winter, Spring), now in paperback. “Few writers today can make a more compelling claim to singularity of innovation and sustained brilliance,” reckons the Times Literary Supplement. Quite.


Donal Ryan Strange Flowers Black Swan Ireland, 13 May, pb, £8.99, 9781784163044


General fiction The story of a family


in 1970s rural Ireland who are devastated by their (adult) only child’s sudden disappearance, and transformed by her miraculous return five years later. But where has she been, and why? Donal Ryan always goes to the top of my to-read pile. Now in paperback.


Lisa McInerney The Rules of Revelation John Murray, 13 May, hb, £14.99, 9781473668904


General fiction Her début The Glorious


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