SECTION SPONSOR Flame Tree


set in a silent convent in 1950s Italy.


Roger Sanders Ted’s Cafe Beachy, 21st June, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781999728359 David Tanner, ex-journalist baby boomer, and mates dissect the news at Ted’s Cafe. Can David find love, happiness in retirement and make sense of an uncertain post-Brexit future with coronavirus?


Lynsay Sands, Hannah Howell My Immortal Highlander Zebra, 23rd February, pb, £7.50, 9781420153347 New York Times bestselling powerhouse authors return to the windswept Highlands of 16th-century Scotland in the captivating story of identical twin brothers.


Lynsay Sands Meant to Be Immortal Gollancz, 29th April, pb, £8.99, 9781473230545 An immortal barely escapes a raging fire only to kindle a sizzling passion with his potential life mate.


Cristina Sandu The Union of Synchronised Swimmers Scribe, 10th June, pb, £9.99, 9781913348236 Uncanny novella by Finnish-Romanian author about all-female synchronised swimming team who use their Olympic visas to escape the Iron Curtain. Published to coincide with the summer Olympics.


Marisa de los Santos I’d Give Anything William Morrow, 10th June, pb, £10.99, 9780062844491 Ginny’s best friend’s father, a firefighter, dies in a blaze that many believe a notoriously troubled local teenager started.


Patricia Scanlan A Family Reunion Simon & Schuster, 4th March, pb, eb, £7.99, 9781398501065 When four feisty women from the same family get together at a family reunion anything can happen.


Fiona Scarlett Boys Don’t Cry Faber & Faber, 6th May, hb, eb, £12.99, 9780571366071 Devastatingly honest story of two brothers and how one of them will face growing up without the other.


Orville Schell My Old Home


Bantam Dell,, 9th March, hb, £23, 9780593315811 Experienced observer of China gives us a novel that recounts the familiar but still mesmerising events from the rise of Mao Zedong to the Tiananmen Square uprising.


Stephanie Scott What’s Left of Me is Yours Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 18th March, pb, £8.99, 9781474610896 Within the Tokyo underworld there’s an industry that exists to break up marriages. But when Kaitaro Nakamura is hired to seduce Rina, something unexpected happens.


Antonio Scurati M


4th Estate, 29th April, hb, eb, £16.99, 9780008363192 International bestseller. A startling look into the fascist mindset, a portrait of unrelenting determination and an impeccable work of historical fiction.


Robert Seethaler, Charlotte Collins (tr) The Field Picador, 18th March, hb, eb, £14.99, 9781529008050 Bestselling and Man Booker International- shortlisted Seethaler tells the story of a town through the voices from its graveyard. A moving story about life, death and human connection.


Anna Seghers, Margot Bettauer Dembo (ed) The Dead Girls’ Class Trip NYRB Classics, 11th May, pb, eb, £13.99, 9781681375359 New translation of the best and most provocative short stories by the author of the existential thriller Transit and anti-fascist novels including The Seventh Cross.


Jan-Philipp Sendker The Heart Remembers Polygon, 6th May, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781846975820 When orphan Bo Bo discovers the story of his parents’ love, which threatens to break down in the whirlwind of political events, he embarks on a journey to find them.


Victor Serge, Ralph Manheim Last Times NYRB Classics, 6th April, pb, £15.99, 9781681375144 Story of displacement and resistance during the early days of the Nazi occupation of France.


Clare Sestanovich Objects of Desire Picador, 22nd July, hb, eb, £12.99, 9781529053555 Eleven stories of sly and disarming power about womanhood and families. An astonishing début by a young New Yorker editor and bold new literary voice.


Mira Sethi Are You Enjoying? Bloomsbury, 27th May, hb, eb, £14.99, 9781408895085 Début short story collection by a young writer from Pakistan: provocative, funny, disarmingly original tales that upend traditional notions of identity and peer into the vulnerable workings of the human heart.


Neema Shah Kololo Hill Picador, 18th February, hb, eb, £14.99, 9781529030501 Set in Uganda in 1972, an extraordinarily moving début that tells the story of one family’s escape, when Amin forces them to leave.


Mary Shelley, Sarah Faulkner Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus Flame Tree, 16th February, hb, £10.99, 9781839644771 Gorgeous collector’s edition of the classic with a new introduction, two short stories, Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound, a biography and a glossary of gothic, Victorian and literary terms.


Jim Shepard Phase Six riverrun, 18th May, hb, £16.99, 9781529415070 pb, eb, £14.99, 9781529415087 Spare and taut novel about a disastrous pandemic that reads like a fictional sequel to our current crisis.


Carol Shields, Margaret Atwood The Republic of Love World Editions, 4th February, pb, eb, £11.99, 9781912987207 Heartfelt tale of two of life’s unlucky lovers—Fay, a folklorist, and Tom, a radio talk-show host—that flies the flag for ordinary love between ordinary people.


Kyung-Sook Shin Please Look After Mother Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 4th March, pb, £8.99, 9781474621687 Combining a unique setting with universal themes, Please Look After


GENERAL FICTION


Mother is a beautifully rendered novel about sacrifice, guilt and the ties of family love.


Maggie Shipstead Great Circle Doubleday, 27th May, hb, eb, £14.99, 9780857526809 Monumentally powerful epic weaves together the astonishing lives of a daredevil female aviator and the Hollywood rebel who will play her on screen.


Lola Shoneyin The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives Profile, 4th February, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781788167581 A modern classic— Shoneyin’s début is a portrait of a clamorous household in the midst of upheaval.


Barrie Shore A Book At Bedtime Matador, 28th February, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781800460812 Jack Carter struggles through the ritual of making breakfast for his wife Eva, whose dementia confines her body to her bed and her mind to a world of its own.


Eithne Shortall Three Little Truths Corvus, 4th February, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781786496201 A BBC Radio 2 Book Club pick. In one close-knit community there are secrets and lies behind every closed door.


Lionel Shriver The Motion of the Body Through Space Te Borough Press, 15th April, pb, £8.99, 9780007560813 From the Orange Prize- winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin comes one of the Times’ Best Books for Summer 2020.


Abi Silver The Rapunzel Act Lightning, 15th April, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781785632266 Thought-provoking courtroom drama. In their fourth case, Burton and Lamb defend an ex-footballer trans woman accused of murdering her wife in a televised trial which becomes a national event.


Martin Silverstone Budgie Wore My Jacket Book Guild, 28th April, pb, eb, £9.99, 9781913551773 Satirical, funny, observational story of popular culture. It’s a nostalgic teenage rite of passage, a romantic tragi- comedy and a quest to score acid.


John Simpson


Our Friends in Beijing John Murray, 10th June, hb, eb, £18.99, 9781473674530 Explosive political thriller.


David M Sindall Playing the Pools RedDoor Press, 11th March, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781913062484 Roddy Doyle meets “The Full Monty” in a story of hopes, dreams, love, betrayal and the football pools.


Nalini Singh Alpha Night Gollancz, 18th February, pb, £8.99, 9781473228139 Bestselling author returns to her breathtaking Psy-Changeling Trinity series with a mating that should not exist.


Curtis Sittenfeld Rodham Black Swan, 10th June, pb, eb, £8.99, 9780552776608 How might things have turned out for the Clintons, for America, for the world itself if Hillary Rodham had really turned down Bill Clinton.


Aleksandr Skorobogatov Russian Gothic Old Street, 9th June, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781910400906 A modern masterpiece of Russian fiction in the tradition of Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground and Gogol’s Diary of a Madman. “A dark masterpiece of the absurd” —Femina magazine.


Karin Smirnoff, Anna Paterson My Brother Pushkin Press, 4th February, pb, eb, £12.99, 9781782275695 A publishing phenomenon from Sweden: a novel about uncovering family secrets, abuse, trauma and resilience.


Ali Smith Summer Penguin, 6th May, pb, eb, £8.99, 9780241973370 Dazzling and unforgettable conclusion to Smith’s tour-de-force, Man Booker-shortlisted Seasonal quartet.


Donald Smith Folk Tales from the Garden Te History Press, 1st May, hb, eb, £12.99, 9780750995689 Stories told in and about gardens, from the smallest back yard to the largest country estate.


Ken Smith More Tales From My Welsh Village Y Lolfa, 19th March, pb, eb, £9.99, 9781784618261 Humorous novel based on the outrageous antics of local pub characters in the South Wales Valleys. Sequel to the very popular Tales from My Welsh Village, now in its fourth impression.


Nikki Smith Look What You Made Me Do Orion, 1st April, hb, £14.99, 9781409193029 Emotionally and psychologically impactful, this is the new gripping thriller from Smith about a perfect family with a lot to hide.


Sammy HK Smith Anna Solaris, 25th May, hb, eb, £16.99, 9781781089095 Anna is a possession. Owned by the man named Will, she is cared for and protected. But when she falls pregnant Anna finds the strength to run.


AG Slatter


All the Murmuring Bones Titan, 9th March, pb, eb, £8.99, 9781789094343 For fans of Naomic Novick and Katharine Arden a dark gothic fairy tale from award-winning author.


Jane Smiley The Strays of Paris Mantle, 18th February, hb, eb, £16.99, 9781529052978 A small boy and a racehorse set upon a curious partnership in this beguiling tale that explores the true meaning of friendship, love and freedom.


Shawn Smucker The Weight of Memory Revell, 26th July, pb, eb, £10.99, 9780800735319 In this suspenseful and introspective story the past and the present mingle like opposing breezes, teasing out the truth about life, death and sacrifice.


Richard Smyth The Woodcock Fairlight, 20th May, hb, £14.99, 9781912054985 When an American whaler arrives in a coastal town the peace of its


February 2021–July 2021 35


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