LATEST TITLES

FICTION OLIVE, AGAIN by Elizabeth Strout, Viking, hardback £14.99, ebook £9.99 ★★★★★

A GRACEFUL, quietly poignant follow up to Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Olive Kitteridge. However, you needn’t have read the original (or watched the show) to enjoy it.

A collection of stories, Strout uses the brusque, imperious Olive as coat hanger on which to drape tales of Crosby, Maine. Olive is getting old, has succumbed to a new husband and busies herself being nosy, interfering and abrupt. Her interactions with others, in their pure ordinariness, are piercingly tender and touching, while some are just amusing.

THE AGE OF ANXIETY by Pete Townshend, Coronet, hardback £20 (ebook £9.99). ★★★★★

THE WHO guitarist and songwriter debuts his first novel, a work over 10 years in the making. This deeply articulate book centres upon Louis, an art dealer who narrates the story, and his rock star godson Walter. Louis’ wonderfully descriptive and witty narration guides you through multiple layers of characters and mythical hallucinations in a fantastical story that certainly does not baulk from dark and adult subject matter.

NON-FICTION FINDING CHIKA by Mitch Albom, Sphere, hardback £14.99, ebook £9.99 ★★★★★

A CELEBRATION of a life that was much too short – that of Chika Jeune. Born in Haiti, Chika came to Mitch Albom and his wife Jeanine’s orphanage after her mother’s death. But then, aged five, she was diagnosed with a rare and inoperable brain tumour. Albom brought her to America to seek treatment, and the book follows the efforts he and Jeanine go to, to try and save her. This is frank, at times upsetting, and very moving, but somehow what you remember is how surprisingly funny and hopeful it is – and Chika too.