This month’s best books
THERE’S HUMOUR, HEARTBREAK AND HAUNTINGS IN LITERARY EDITOR SARRA MANNING’S FAVOURITE NEW RELEASES
The Office Of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans
(Picador, £14.99, out 4th March)
A stellar collection of stories; each one left me feeling like I’d been sucker-punched. With wit and precision, Evans explores what it means to be Black in a world made for white people and how it feels to be teetering on the edge of society. Standouts for me were Boys Go To Jupiter, about a girl who goes viral for wearing a Confederate flag bikini and the eponymous novella, about a woman who corrects facts in a post-truth world.
The Split by Laura Kay
(Quercus, £14.99, out 18th March) When Ally is callously dumped by her girlfriend, she returns home to Sheffield with a broken heart and her ex’s cat, Malcolm. Also recently rejected and returned is her childhood friend, Jeremy, and together they concoct a plan to get their exes back, which involves signing up their unfit bodies for a half-marathon. This ferociously funny book about family, friendship and finding yourself will give you a warm glow.
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi (Viking, £14.99, out 4th March) Gifty is a neuroscientist researching depression and addiction, which has ripped her family apart. But science doesn’t have the answers; Gifty must unravel the story of how her parents emigrated from Ghana to Alabama for a better life, only to find prejudice and hardship. Exquisitely written with a lightness of touch despite its difficult themes; this novel is a triumph. The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex
(Picador, £14.99, out 4th March)
The Maiden is an imposing lighthouse surrounded by sea on all sides, which makes it even more shocking when all three of its lightkeepers vanish, though its doors are locked from the inside. Twenty years later, the women who were left behind are still haunted by the ghosts of the men they lost, but the truth may be stranger than anyone could guess in this riveting, creepy mystery novel.
Unsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
(Fig Tree, £14.99, out 25th March)
Jeanie and Julius Seeder are 51-year-old twins who live in extreme poverty in a forgotten Wiltshire backwater and are sheltered from the real world by their mother, Dot. But when Dot dies, the twins are forced to confront not just the modern-day 21st century, but also the secrets that Dot had been keeping from them. This is an atmospheric thriller that’s both heartbreaking and heartwarming.