LATEST TITLES

EUREKA by Anthony Quinn, Jonathan Cape, £14.99 (ebook £9.99)

SET to the soundtrack of The Beatles in London’s swinging Sixties, Anthony Quinn’s Eureka is chock-ablock with sex, drugs and rock n roll, gangsters, arson, unrequited love and the decriminalisation of homosexuality.

Gregarious screenwriter Nat Fane is where he loves to be – at the centre of attention. Through him we meet aspiring actress Billie Cantrip, journalist Freya Wyley, German wunderkind film director Reiner Werther Kloss and gangster kingpin Harry Pulver, as well as a host of other film types.

The story follows the filming of Nat’s latest screenplay fuelled by acid trips and written almost scene by scene as they’re filming it. The drama of Nat’s script parallels the drama of his own life, so closely that characters and stories seem to merge into one.

Immersive and compelling.

HOW TO STOP TIME by Matt Haig, Canongate, £12.99 (ebook £6.74)

THIS fantasy/ adventure centres on Tom Hazard, a man who is more than 400 years old, ages at an incredibly slow rate, and has sworn not to fall in love with a normal “mayfly” human.

Trapped in the past as he mourns his centuries-old first love, Rose, Hazard meets Camille, who sparks a process of self-discovery in which he questions what it is to really live. He reflects on his time as a lute player for Shakespeare, a crew member on Captain Cook’s voyage, and a jazz pianist bumping elbows with F. Scott Fitzgerald in a boozed up corner of Paris.

Despite spanning continents and time, his most challenging terrain is internal, as he comes to accept himself as he is.

This is a refreshing exploration of how to make peace with one’s past selves and future possibilities in a world where moments seem to rush past faster than ever.