ELLE BOOK CLUB

LITERARY EDITOR MARTA BAUSELLS PICKS THE BOOKS TO DEVOUR THIS MONTH

Our top picks to read this month, plus Alice Black, director of the Design Museum, reveals what’s on her bookshelf

ACTS OF INFIDELITY

by Lena Andersson

This is an author who is great at capturing

intelligent women who end up in terrible

relationships. In Andersson’s second

novel, playwright Esther Nilsson doesn’t

want to be an actor’s mistress, yet

somehow, over years of clandestine

meetings in bars, she becomes exactly

that. A thoughtful and sharp exploration of how our culture

views infidelity.

CHEMISTRY

by Weike Wang

This acclaimed novel focuses on a young

woman’s toxic relationship with stress, and landed author Wang a place in the

National Book Foundation’s ‘5 under 35’ writers. With pressure mounting from PhD deadlines, a marriage proposal and pushy parents, the

book’s unnamed narrator reaches such a stressful situation that she must leave everything behind. A beautiful, funny, eye-opening book.

THE WATER CURE

by Sophie Mackintosh

A hypnotic read about

three sisters (Grace, Lia and Sky) who have been kept apart from the rest of the world for their own safety. This extraordinary debut is a feminist, quasi-dystopian read – great for fans of Hot Milk, The Girls and The Vegetarian.

WHITE HOUSES

by Amy Bloom

This historical novel tells the story of Lorena

Hickok – the first female journalist to get a byline on the cover of The New York Times – and her friendship

and alleged love affair with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

WHISTLE IN THE DARK

by Emma Healey

The awaited novel from the author of Elizabeth is Missing

starts with the discovery of a girl who has disappeared for

days – and won’t reveal what happened. And then the strange behaviour begins. It’s as gripping as its predecessor.

FLORIDA

by Lauren Groff

The author of bestseller Fates and Furies (Obama is a fan) is back with her hotly anticipated first collection of stories. All set in her home state, expect storms, snakes and sinkholes,

but also complex characters filled with emotional conflicts

and questions.

DARLING

by Rachel Edwards

It was only a matter of time until we got the first Brexit thriller, and it’s oh so good. Edwards was moved to write this book –

about a white teenage girl who clashes with her black stepmother – after she experienced racial abuse following the divisive referendum.

MOTHERHOOD

by Sheila Heti

By the cult writer of the meta-fiction hit How Should a Person

Be and Women in Clothes, this reflection on motherhood, and all the doubts around it, will come at you with the warmth and raw honesty of a conversation with your best friend.