This month’s best books

LOVE IN ALL ITS GUISES FEATURES IN LITERARY EDITOR SARRA MANNING’S FAVOURITE READS FOR MARCH…

Before My Actual Heart Breaks by Tish Delaney (Hutchinson, £14.99, out 18th February)

I wasn’t expecting this debut, set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, to turn into the most exquisite love story, but it did, and I was besotted. Mary Rattigan lives on a farm in the middle of nowhere, and is at the mercy of her tyrannical mother until she falls pregnant at 16. She’s married off to the enigmatic John and moves to his farm. Years later, she finds herself taking stock of a life and a love interrupted.

Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson (Viking, £12.99, out 4th February)

He’s a photographer, she’s a dancer. They have an immediate, insistent attraction, which could be the real thing until he shuts down and shuts her out. Open Water is both a lyrical, tender story about hot, sticky London nights spent falling in love and a devastating and often brutal account of what it means to be a young British Black man. Caleb Azumah Nelson is one to watch.

No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (Bloomsbury, £14.99, out 14th February) This book is unlike anything I’ve ever read. It starts as a satirical account of the life of an unnamed social media influencer, who is permanently plugged into ‘The Portal’, but when she’s called home due to a soul-wrenching family tragedy, we see the real, raw woman emerge from behind the likes and the #ads. It’s a story that can and will shatter your heart into a million pieces.

London, Burning By Anthony Quinn (Little, Brown, £14.99, out 25th February)

I love Anthony Quinn’s novels, and London,

Burning didn’t disappoint. Set in the winter of 1976, when most public workers were on strike and the IRA were at large, this novel weaves together the stories of Vicky, a young police officer, Hannah, a journalist, Callum, an academic, and Freddie, a bon viveur and theatre director, whose lives coincide with dramatic consequences.

Asking For A Friend by Andi Osho (HQ, £8.99, out 4th February) A sparky, sassy romcom with friendship at its centre is what we all need right now, and actor and comedian Andi Osho’s debut novel delivers on all fronts. Pals Jemima, Meagan and Simi find themselves single and looking for love in all the wrong places. So they decide to ditch the dating apps and meet people IRL, but as they’ve each made such a hash of dating, they’re going to set each other up. Because who knows you better than your best friends, right? Right?