The latest books to hit the shelves
The novels to read this summer, chosen by Jake Kerridge
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett (Bloomsbury, £8.99) Brother and sister Danny and Maeve often visit the Dutch House, sitting outside and staring at the mansion in Philadelphia where they grew up before their father died and their stepmother turfed them out. Together they plan their revenge in an unbearably honest study of the toxicity of family relationships that also has the feel of a fairy tale.
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo (Penguin, £8.99)
The novel that won the 2019 Booker Prize (or half the prize, sharing it with Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments) tells the riotous and moving stories of 12 black women living in Britain, ranging from a teacher to a banker and a farmer. Written in a unique, poetic style, it explodes myths and stereotypes about black Britons with glorious panache.
Machines Like Me by Ian Mcewan (Vintage, £8.99)
It’s the 1980s but not as we know it. Britain has lost the Falklands War, The Beatles are back together and Alan Turing has created robots that are almost full replicas of human beings. But what happens when the robots start to fall in love with humans? Ian Mcewan’s playful novel engages on an intellectual rather than emotional level but it’s written with such dazzling wit and skill that it’s unmissable.
Queenie by Candice Carty-williams (Trapeze, £8.99)
Queenie is a young Britishjamaican woman who decides to get over a bad break-up by dating as many men as possible, only to encounter a string of weirdos and racists. This is a serious book about the ways in which people of colour can be made to feel uncomfortable in modern Britain, but it’s also full of warmth and fun and the far-from-perfect heroine is a hilarious gem of a character.
The Beekeeper Of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri (Manilla, £8.99)
Inspired by the author’s experiences of working in refugee centres, this debut novel follows the fortunes of Syrian beekeeper Nuri and his blind wife Afra as they escape their war-ravaged homeland and head through Turkey and Greece to Britain. A harrowing adventure story that’s informative as well as immersive.
The Porpoise by Mark Haddon (Vintage, £8.99)
A rip-roaring retelling of
Pericles, Shakespeare’s messy jumble of a play, with a feminist twist. Mark Haddon doesn’t quite pull off all the risky experiments he attempts but this is still a magical book that might even improve on the Bard’s original.
Diary Of A Somebody by Brian Bilston (Picador, £8.99)
The “poet laureate of Twitter” has written a very funny debut novel about a divorced man with a soul-numbing job whose only respite from misery is writing poetry. There’s a perfunctory murder mystery plot but the jokes and the poems make it worth reading – they had me honking like a goose on a bed of nails.
How We Disappeared by Jing-jing Lee (Oneworld, £8.99)
Wang Di is an elderly Singaporean woman who has been recently widowed and regrets that she never told her
husband about the terrible events of her early life, which still burden her. Then an unlikely confidante comes into her life. This novel unflinchingly examines the horrific acts carried out in Singapore during the Second World War, but manages to be hopeful and uplifting, too.
Lanny by Max Porter
(Faber, £8.99)
In a commuter village near London, presided over by a roguish shapeshifting spirit called Dead Papa Toothwort, a young boy called Lanny develops mysterious powers. This is a dreamlike (and sometimes nightmarish) book, saturated in English history and folklore but also fully engaged with what’s happening in modern Britain.
Girl by Edna O’brien (Faber, £8.99)
In her 90th year, the great Irish writer has produced a novel about the militant Islamic group Boko Haram. This story of the kidnapping of a Nigerian teenage girl who suffers unimaginably brutal treatment and finds peace elusive after she escapes, is told in Edna O’brien’s customary beautiful prose.
Cherry by Nico Walker (Vintage, £8.99)
Currently serving a prison sentence for carrying out bank robberies in Ohio, Nico Walker draws heavily on his own life for his debut novel, in which the unnamed narrator undergoes terrible experiences as a US Army medic in Iraq and turns to crime. Not just a (mostly) true story but a very well-written one (and the film is on its way).
Half A World Away by Mike Gayle (Hodder, £8.99)
Noah, a successful barrister who was adopted aged two, has a shock when his biological sister Kerry, a cleaner and single mother, tracks him down. The differences between their lives make for both cracking comedy and serious social commentary. Another fine example of Mike Gayle’s patented mixture of humour and heartbreak.
The Confessions Of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins (Penguin, £8.99)
The winner of the Costa First Novel Award is a fascinating take on the hoary old genre of the Gothic chiller. Frannie is a slave on a Jamaican plantation when she is brought to Georgian London to work as a servant. But she finds herself accused of murdering her employers in Sara Collins’ thought-provoking tale that’s twistier than a corkscrew.
The Secret Guests by BW Black (Penguin, £8.99)
BW Black is a pseudonym for the great John Banville who here imagines what might have happened if the young princesses Elizabeth and Margaret had been secretly evacuated to rural Ireland during the Second World War. It’s a buoyant, often exciting, account of a dark time and gorgeously written.
To Calais, In Ordinary Time by James Meek (Canongate, £9.99)
Set amid an earlier pandemic, this novel sees three very different characters in 14th-century England hoping to escape the onset of the plague by accompanying a band of archers to France. Written in a compelling pastiche of medieval English, this is a strange, sometimes surreal, but always riveting book.
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann (Galley Beggar, £13.99)
It’s an intimidating prospect: a book of more than 1,000 pages that mostly comprises one never-ending sentence detailing the meandering thoughts of an American housewife as she reflects on her life and the state of the world while baking and shopping. But for those brave enough to take the plunge, it’s a uniquely rich and rewarding read.
Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-akner (Wildfire, £8.99)
This first novel by one of America’s sharpest journalists is the story of hapless Jewish doctor Toby Fleishman, raising his two children alone and discovering the joys of casual sex after being abandoned by his wife. Although at first we see the world through Fleishman’s eyes, contradictory voices gradually emerge in this cunningly constructed and acidly funny debut.
Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls (Hodder, £8.99)
The author of One Day tells the story of a teenage boy who reluctantly takes part in an amateur production of Romeo And Juliet to impress a girl. David Nicholls casts his familiar spell, providing a mixture of frequent belly laughs and achingly poignant moments in his depiction of characters who seem as real as your own friends and family.
Available in paperback from August 6.