SECTION SPONSOR Flame Tree


Groundbreaking anthology showcasing the wealth of literary talent and best contemporary writing in the North of England.


SJ Norbury Mrs Narwhal’s Diary Louise Walters, 16th May, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781916112315 A middle-aged woman battles to save both her marriage and her husband’s crumbling ancestral home. Funny, moving and charming.


Graham Norton Home Stretch Coronet, 29th April, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781473665163 In his compelling new novel, Norton demonstrates his keen understanding of the power of stigma and secrecy with quietly devastating results.


Eva Nour, Agnes Broome The Stray Cats of Homs Black Swan, 15th April, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781784164928 Unforgettable début novel inspired by the true story of one boy’s extraordinary life in Syria.


Joyce Carol Oates The (Other) You Ecco Press, 4th March, hb, £20, 9780063035201 Powerful reckoning over the people we might have been if we’d chosen a different path. From a master of the short story.


Joyce Carol Oates Cardiff, by the Sea Head of Zeus, 8th July, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781800241411 Collection of four never- before-seen novellas. In these psychologically daring, chillingly suspenseful pieces, Joyce Carol Oates writes about women facing threats past and present.


Conor O’Callaghan We Are Not in the World Doubleday, 18th February, hb, eb, £14.99, 9780857526854 A man drives a haulage lorry from England to France, his daughter with him. A story of grief, shame and of love in all its complex and glorious manifestations.


Ross O’Carroll-Kelly Braywatch Penguin, 29th April, pb, eb, £8.99, 9780241984772 Ross has got a new job and it’s making him question everything he thought he knew.


Jamie O’Connell Diving for Pearls Doubleday, 6th May, hb, eb, £14.99, 9780857527486


Fates collide and lives are shattered in this début novel. O’Connell weaves a delicate web of intertwining stories, combining dark wit and devastating emotional truth.


Carlene O’Connor Murder in an Irish Bookshop Kensington, 23rd February, hb, £21, 9781496730794 In O’Connor’s seventh instalment of her Irish Village Mystery series, the opening of a new bookstore in Kilbane becomes the closing chapter of an author’s life.


Daniel O’Connor Nothing Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 24th June, hb, £14.99, 9781474615303 Mash-up of Max Porter, Kafka’s Metamorphosis and “It’s a Wonderful Life”. A short, strange, unforgettable novel and a deeply humane portrait of a disintegrating mind.


Sheila O’Flanagan The Women Who Ran Away Headline Review, 4th March, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781472254818 Intriguing and life- affirming new novel from author of Her Husband’s Mistake and The Missing Wife.


Sheila O’Flanagan Untitled Headline Review, 27th May, hb, £18.99, 9781472272621 Delphine Martens is a woman who feels she’s got it all. But not everyone in her life agrees.


Ivan Monalisa Ojeda Biuty Queens Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1st June, pb, £12.99, 9781474621793 The lives of trans Latinx come alive in this cocktail of bleakness and joy de vivre that depicts a community living on the wrong side of the American dream. With an introduction by Pedro Almodovar.


Alice O’Keeffe Skylark Coronet, 10th June, hb, eb, £17.99, 9781529303407 Their ideals brought them together but how closely should you follow your heart?


Elizabeth Okoh The Returnees Hodder & Stoughton, 4th February, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781529380569 Unforgettable tale of female friendship, love


and mistaken identities in modern Nigeria from an exciting new voice in women’s fiction.


Beth O’Leary The Road Trip Quercus, 29th April, hb, eb, £14.99, 9781529409055 Hilarious new novel from international bestselling author.


Louise O’Neill After the Silence riverrun, 10th June, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781784298920 A story whose twists and turns will unsettle, disturb and leave the reader devastated.


Colm O’Regan Ann Devine: Handle With Care Transworld Ireland, 8th April, pb, eb, £7.99, 9781848272491 Triumphant second novel in heartwarming Ann Devine series from author of the Irish Mammies books.


Huw Osborne (ed), Mihangel Morgan (ed), Kirsti Bohata (ed) Queer Square Mile Parthian, 1st June, hb, eb, £20, 9781913640248 Groundbreaking volume makes visible a long and diverse tradition of queer writing from Wales. Spanning genres from ghost stories and sci-fi to industrial literature and surrealist modernism.


Andi Osho Asking for a Friend HQ, 3rd February, pb, eb, £8.99, 9780008245795 Three best friends are going to solve their relationship woes once and for all.


Christopher Owen America Awaits Us, My Lovely, and Other Stories Matador, 28th March, pb, £8.99, 9781838595487 Ranging in location, time and subject matter including desertion within the family, life in a children’s home in the early 1900s and a travelling salesman and his dog.


Lauren Oyler Fake Accounts 4th Estate, 4th February, hb, eb, £12.99, 9780008366520 Wry, provocative and very funny début about identity, authenticity and the self in the age of the internet.


Libby Page The 24-hour Cafe Orion, 18th February, pb, £8.99, 9781409175261 Uplifting, emotional


GENERAL FICTION


reading group fiction about friendship, belonging and never giving up on your dreams, set over a single day.


Libby Page The Island Orion, 10th June, hb, £12.99, 9781409188261 From the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Lido comes a positive new story about friendship, community and finding where you truly belong.


Ra Page (ed) The Cuckoo Cage Comma Press, 22nd July, pb, eb, £12.99, 9781912697403 A new generation of British superheroes. From the statue- toppling Bristolian with otherworldly powers, to the Essex resident protecting public spaces, stories that capture essential truths about British society today.


Enrico Palandri, Marilia Mazzeo, Samantah Lenarda, Ginerva Lamberti et al The Book of Venice Comma Press, 15th April, pb, eb, £9.99, 9781910974094 Brings together 10 short stories about and from the iconic city of Venice and showcases the work of some of Italy’s most exciting writers. Part of the Reading the City series.


Christine Palmer, Alice Ahearn, Tobias Steed Jack Be Nimble TSB, 1st March, pb, eb, £9.99, 9781911673040 Love story set in Derbyshire and Burgundy spans tumultuous social changes from World War II to now. At its heart: the pursuit of truth, the spectre of the past, and second chances.


Helen Paris Lost Property Doubleday, 15th April, hb, eb, £12.99, 9780857527295 Meet Dot Watson, 2021’s unforgettable heroine of this poignant, funny and heartwarming début novel. She just needs to be found.


Valeria Parrella Almarina Hodder & Stoughton, 22nd July, hb, eb, £12.99, 9781529352412 Beautifully written story about the relationship between a teacher and a young Romanian girl serving time at Nisida, Naples juvenile prison.


Glenn Patterson Where Are We Now?


Sarah Penner The Lost Apothecary Legend Press, 2nd March, hb, eb, £14.99, 9781789558975 The life of a modern-day young woman converges with an 18th-century female apothecary who secretly dispenses poisons to liberate women from the men who have wronged them.


Hannah Persaud The Codes of Love Muswell Press, 4th March, pb, £7.99, 9781916360242 Wonderfully compelling novel looks unflinchingly at the power of sexual attraction and what can happen when people give in to their desires.


Apollo, 1st April, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781838932008 Topical novel about lost love, growing older and the realities of life in a society that is still coming to terms with 30 years of violence.


Philip Pavlović For the Love of Roman Book Guild, 28th April, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781913551780 Follows a young man who has everything to live for yet only wants to die and a man who has lost everything yet is desperate to live.


Cecilia Pavon, Jacob Steinberg Little Joy Semiotext (E), 13th April, pb, £14.99, 9781635901405 Translated by Pavon’s own poetic protege Steinberg, Little Joy collects the best of Pavon’s short stories written between 1999 and 2020, originally published in three volumes in Spanish.


Nicky Pellegrino Tiny Pieces of Us Orion, 30th March, pb, £8.99, 9781409179016 Heartbreakingly romantic and deeply moving, Tiny Pieces of Us explores the wholly unexpected ways our lives can become entangled. For fans of Jojo Moyes and Jodi Picoult.


Tracie Peterson Destined for You Bethany House, 5th April, pb, eb, £9.99, 9780764232343 When tragedy brings Gloriana and Luke together they soon find their lives inextricably linked. If they survive the trials ahead could it be possible they’re destined for each?


Simon Petherick, Tobias Steed (ed) Like Fire Unbound TSB, 4th March, pb, eb, £9.99, 9781911673026 London 2018 is experiencing a heatwave. A disparate cast of characters are drawn together under the gaze of a mystic as they try to survive.


Mike Phillips, Bernardine Evaristo The Dancing Face Penguin, 4th February, pb, £8.99, 9780241482674 Sensational and original art heist thriller about the high-stakes theft of a priceless African artefact and its bad consequences. Part of the Black Britain: Writing Back series.


Gervase Phinn A Class Act Hodder & Stoughton, 18th March, hb, eb, £16.99, 9781473650701 Third in delightful Top of the Dale series set in a Yorkshire village follows on from Phinn’s Dales and Little Village School series.


Paul Pickering Elephant Salt, 15th April, pb, £9.99, 9781784632250 A precocious teenage exile from revolutionary Russia sets down his adventures on paper, beginning with his first ball in St Petersburg and how he frees a huge African elephant.


Ellie Pilcher What Planet Can I Blame This On? Hodder Studio, 3rd June, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781529363722 The stars are not in position and Krystal Waite is determined to make them fall in line.


Edgar Allan Poe, Judith John Tales of Mystery and Imagination Flame Tree, 16th February, hb, £9.99, 9781839642173 Beautiful Flame Tree Classics collection compiles Edgar Allan Poe’s most terrifying and otherworldly works.


Jackie Polzin Brood


February 2021–July 2021 33


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