8 New Books To Read This Month
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Trio by Johanna Hedman
Thora, August and Hugo come from different worlds: one an art school dreamer, one a wealthy scion of the old elite, and one an ordinary boy from out of town. But over the course of two summers in Stockholm, they are drawn together. The novel starts years later, when Hugo, long estranged from Thora and August, is visited by their daughter – who has questions about her parents she believes only Hugo can answer – and the memories of those luminous days come flooding back. Modern but timeless, The Trio is a novel about the path not taken, the people we might have become, and the relationships that shape and haunt us long after they end.
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Amy & Lan by Sadie Jones
Amy Connell and Lan Honey are having the best childhood, growing up on a West Country farm – three families, a couple of lodgers and plenty of animals to befriend. Their parents are best friends too. Originally from the city, they're learning about farming: growing their own vegetables, milking the goats, slaughtering chickens and scything the hay. The adults are far too busy to keep an eye on Amy and Lan, and the pair would never tell them about climbing on the high barn roof, or what happened with the axe that time, any more than their parents would tell them the things they get up to – adult things, like betrayal – that threaten to bring the whole fragile idyll tumbling down.
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The Bastard Factory by Chris Kraus
Chris Kraus – the woman behind the phenomenon I Love Dick – is back with The Bastard Factory, which tells a story of betrayal and self-delusion spanning the years 1905 to 1975, taking readers from Riga to Moscow, Berlin to Munich, and all the way to Tel Aviv. Hubert and Konstantin Solm are brothers, born in Riga at the beginning of the 20th century. As the two brothers climb the rungs of society – working first for the government in Nazi Germany, then as agents for the Allied Forces, and eventually becoming spies for the young West Germany – their adopted sister Ev will be their constant companion, and eventually a lover to them both. The passionate love triangle that emerges will propel the characters to terrifying moral and political depths.
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How To Live When You Could Be Dead by Dame Deborah James
At the age of 35, Deborah James was blindsided by incurable bowel cancer – and was given a less than 8% chance of surviving five years. More than five years later – and just months after her untimely death – her book How to Live When You Could Be Dead shows readers how to build a positive mindset and, through this, think about what they could do if they believed they could do anything they want. To honour her memory, Ebury will donate £3 from the sale of each copy sold in the UK to the Bowelbabe Fund for Cancer Research UK.
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The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
Following her award-winning Hamnet, Maggie O’Farrell’s latest historical thriller is set in 1500s Florence. Lucrezia is free to wander her palazzo at will, wondering at its treasures. But when her older sister dies on the eve of marriage to Alfonso d'Este, heir to the Duke of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust into the limelight. Alfonso is quick to request her hand in marriage, and her father to accept on her behalf. Having barely left girlhood, Lucrezia must now make her way in a troubled court where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her husband himself. Is he the playful sophisticate he appears before their wedding or the ruthless politician even his formidable sisters seem to fear? As Lucrezia sits in uncomfortable finery for the painting to preserve her image for centuries to come, one thing becomes worryingly clear. In the court's eyes, she has one duty: to provide the heir who will shore up the future of the Ferrarese dynasty. Until then, for all her rank and nobility, her future hangs entirely in the balance.
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I’m Sorry You Feel That Way by Rebecca Wait
From the author of the Waterstones Book of the Month Our Fathers comes a compelling domestic comedy about complex family dynamics, mental health and the intricacies of sibling relationships. For Alice and Hanna, growing up is a trial. There is their mother, who takes a divide-and-conquer approach to child-rearing, and their father, who takes an absent one. There is also their older brother Michael, whose disapproval is a force to be reckoned with. There is the catastrophe that is never spoken of, but which has shaped everything. As adults, Alice and Hanna must deal with disappointments in work and in love as well as increasingly complicated family tensions, and lives that look dismayingly dissimilar to what they'd intended. Together they must look for a way to repair their own fractured relationship, and decide whether life is really anything more than a tragedy with a few hilarious moments thrown in.
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Truly, Darkly, Deeply by Victoria Selman
Twelve-year-old Sophie and her mother Amelia-Rose move from Massachusetts to London where they meet the charismatic Matty Melgren, who quickly becomes an intrinsic part of their lives. But as the relationship between the two adults fractures, a serial killer begins targeting young women with a striking resemblance to Amelia-Rose. When Matty is eventually sent down for multiple murders, questions remain as to his guilt – questions which ultimately destroy both Sophie and Amelia-Rose. Nearly 20 years later, Sophie receives a letter from Battlemouth Prison informing her Matty is dying and wants to meet. It looks like Sophie might finally get the answers she craves. But will the truth set her free – or bury her deeper?
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Life Ceremony by Sayaka Murata
From the author of international bestseller Convenience Store Woman comes a collection of short stories. An engaged couple fall out over the husband's dislike of clothes and objects made from human materials; a young girl finds herself deeply enamoured with the curtain in her childhood bedroom; people honour their dead by eating them and then procreating. Published in English for the first time, this exclusive edition also includes the story that first brought Sayaka Murata international acclaim: 'A Clean Marriage' tells the tale of a happily asexual couple who must submit to some radical medical procedures to conceive a longed-for child.
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