A powerful island drama

A pick of the best new fiction and non-fiction releases

FICTION

THE COLONY Audrey Magee

Faber & Faber, £14.99 (ebook £7.99).

The Colony is set on a remote island off the west coast of Ireland in 1979, where an Englishman and a Frenchman have come to spend their summer. The Englishman, Mr Lloyd, is an artist who wants to paint the cliffs, and the Frenchman, JP, is a PhD student writing a linguistical study on the Irish language – dying out everywhere but on the island.

The story of conflict and resentment breeding between Mr Lloyd, JP, and the island dwellers, is interspersed with the gruesome details of what is happening back on the Irish mainland during the Troubles. The story of art and identity is told in beautiful and colourful prose, often verging on the poetic, a gorgeous and powerful novel that will stick with you.

9/10

(Review by Frances Wright)

WHEN WE WERE BIRDS Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

Hamish Hamilton, priced £14.99

(ebook £9.99).

Ayanna Lloyd Banwo warns at the start of her debut novel, When We Were Birds, that the island of Trinidad is real – but everything else in her novel is fiction.

Writing in the local dialect, Lloyd Banwo welcomes the reader into a rich mixture of the real and fantasy landscapes of Trinidad.

The narrative alternates between Darwin, a young Rastafari man forced by hardship to take up work as a gravedigger, and Yejide, who we first see as a young girl questioning her grandmother about their family connection to corbeau – mythical death-spirits.

Lloyd Banwo gives each of her protagonists an authentic voice, and we feel their conflicts and urges deeply. The supporting characters are movingly drawn, too. As the novel rushes Darwin and Yejide towards its dramatic conclusion, you almost wish for more time with them all, and the enigmatic world Lloyd Banwo has created.

8/10 (Review by Joshua Pugh Ginn)

DEVOTION Hannah Kent

Picador, priced £14.99 (ebook £8.49). Devotion is a modern classic, on par with heart-wrenching love stories such as Wuthering Heights and Pride And Prejudice.

It tells the story of an achingly beautiful love and a brutal search for freedom, with the epic landscapes as pressing and foreboding as the thoughts and feelings weighing on main character Hanne. Hanne, 15 years old, prefers being in nature than hanging out with girls her own age – until she meets Thea, and finds acceptance. This moving tale is told from Hanne’s perspective, and features a twist so brilliantly done, it will leave you gasping for breath.

8/10

(Review by Sophie Corcoran)

NON-FICTION

BLOCK, DELETE, MOVE ON LalalaLetMeExplain

Bantam Press, priced £12.99 (ebook £9.49). Weren’t dating apps meant to make meeting people and falling in love easier? Sadly, the Tinder age – despite all the romances it has sparked – has just added new layers of doubt, deceit and even danger to the minefield of modern courtship.

The witty and streetwise Block, Delete, Move On from rising Instagram star LalalaLetMeExplain, an anonymous agony aunt and social worker, is an official guide to avoiding the pitfalls and red flags that if ignored, can lead to ghosting, gaslighting and worse forms of abuse.

While it is squarely aimed at women who date men, there are empowering tips for anyone looking to find love and avoid pain, and her exploration of persistent toxic male attitudes is sobering.

The Kate Kennedy Procession is an annual tradition at the University of St Andrews, originating in the adoration by students of the niece of Bishop Kennedy, founder of St Salvator’s College. Kate, the most beautiful woman of her day, is played by a first-year male student. This picture is from a new coffee table book called St Andrews Photographs by Fergus Wilkie. It’s available on www.fototank.com