4 Books to read

The Memory Wood by Sam Lloyd: A compulsive page-turner where visceral horror meets Grimm fairytale. Elissa is determined she won’t die at the hands of her abductor; Elijah is struggling to keep up with the real world; and DS Mairead Maccullagh is trying to end the living nightmare of a child held captive. You’ll be tingling with hope and numb with dread.

The Water Dancer by Ta-nehisi Coates: Journalist Coates’ debut novel is thoroughly plotted, and deftly handles the devastation of slavery, if it often lacks pace. Hiram, son of a slave master on a Virginia plantation, has a gift for recollecting everything except for his mother – it’s a skill that becomes invaluable when he’s scooped up by those operating the Underground Railroad

Sex And Lies by Leila Slimani: A volume of interviews with women in the author’s native Morocco, where the law prohibits extramarital sex and homosexuality: Slimani focuses not on efforts to repeal this colonial-era legislation but on the dissonance created when sex is ever-present but unmentionable. Women’s liberation, she suggests, would be a liberation for Moroccan society as a whole.

The Lost Pianos Of Siberia by Sophy Roberts: Ostensibly, Roberts is on a quest to find a piano for a talented pianist she befriended in Mongolia. Siberia is the haystack to her needle; in the 19th century, this part of the world experienced ‘pianomania’ on an epic scale. The quiet but beautiful fortitude of Siberia lingers long after the final page.