PREVIEWER’S PERSPECTIVE Previewer’s perspective
Spring 2024 looks set for a smorgasbord of fantastic fiction
There are plenty of big fiction titles to look forward to in the next six months including offerings from Costa Novel Award winner Colm Tóibín and prolific US author Percival Everett
Alice O’Keeffe Books editor
W
elcome to the next six months in books! If I were to pick out just one “event” title from this preview, it would be Long Island (Picador),
the sequel to Colm Tóibín’s Costa Novel Award-winning Brooklyn. Based on the sales of the first book, which also benefited from the film adaptation starring Saoirse Ronan as Eilis Lacey, Long Island looks set to be that rare thing, a genuine literary bestseller. Another Irish writer surely destined for great things
is Kevin Barry with his fourth novel, The Heart in Winter (Canongate), a rebellious love story set in Bute, Montana, in 1891.
Expect a lot of fanfare to accompany the publication
of Percival Everet’s James (Picador), the US author’s 24th (yes, 24th!) novel, a retelling of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Huck’s friend, the enslaved Jim. Pan Mac is in the process of publishing Everet’s key backlist titles on the Picador imprint, six titles will land just ahead of James. There’s a new state-of-the-nation opus from Andrew O’Hagan, Caledonian Road (Faber), and the wonderful David Nicholls is back with second-chance romance You Are Here (Sceptre). Also look out for sophomore novels from Jo Hamya, The Hypocrite (W&N), and Costa First Novel Award winner Ingrid Persaud who returns with The Lost Love Songs of Boysie Singh (Faber). To crime, and while the cosy end of things shows no sign
of slowing sales—see the Reverend Richard Coles whose bestselling Canon Clement Mystery series continues with Murder at the Monastery (W&N)—there is also high-concept crime in the form of Stuart Turton’s The Last Murder at the End of the World (Raven Books), historical crime featuring Victorian con artists in Elizabeth Macneal’s The Burial Plot (Picador), and fans of Peter James’ long-running DS Roy Grace series will be intrigued by the standalone They Thought I Was Dead: Sandy’s Story (Macmillan). Will the disappearance of Mrs Grace finally be explained?
PERCIVAL EVERETT HAS PENNED HIS 24TH NOVEL
Lastly, to paperbacks. And there are more than usual in this particular preview. I try very hard to pick out only the truly unmissable so perhaps I have failed to be discerning enough—or are there just loads of great ones? Among those to pile high: Eleanor Caton’s Birnam Wood (Granta), Anne Enright’s The Wren, The Wren (Vintage), Ann Patchet’s Tom Lake (Bloomsbury), Daniel Mason’s North Woods (JMP), which really deserves a big reader- ship in paperback, Curtis Sitenfeld’s Romantic Comedy (Penguin) and not forgeting Jilly Cooper’s glorious Tackle! (Penguin). Happy bookselling!
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The Bookseller Buyer’s Guide Fiction
© Nacho Goberna
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