Fiction pick The cover quote from Marian Keyes that adorns this debut says: “The most fun I’ve had reading in the longest time,” and there seems no better way to describe the experience of tearing through this funny, inventive, and wonderfully original book. The novel centres on Lauren, who comes home one night to find her husband in her flat. Except she’s never met him before. She soon realises that her attic is providing an endless supply of men for her – send one husband up and another comes down – and with each, her life changes around her. But when she can switch through options so easily, how does she know which husband is the right one ? A clever exploration of modern dating, it has lots to say about love, life and satisfaction – and is utterly hilarious in the process. (Chatto & Windus, £16.99) Nonfiction pick Behind every great paperback is the long line of people who helped get it into our hands. This ‘History of the Book in 18 Remarkable Lives’ charts the extraordinary tales of the individuals who have shaped our experiences of reading more than many of us realise, from the likes of Benjamin Franklin , who was once a jobbing printer, to John Baskerville’s wife Sarah Eaves, who made a crucial contribution to the history of type, and the man who bound Shakespeare’s First Folio (and then disappeared). This really is the loveliest of books and you will never take for granted reading a physical copy again. (Bodley Head, £25) Memoir pick On 12 August, 2022, the Booker-Prize winning author Salman Rushdie was on stage in
New York about to give a lecture when he was stabbed multiple times, leaving him blind in one eye. Writing about this experience for the first time, Rushdie reflects on the traumatic events of that day and their aftermath. Despite tackling a topic as grim as being the subject of attempted murder, this memoir celebrates art, love and resilience, demonstrating how they can triumph over hate, violence and acquiescence. And as with anything that this author turns his pen to, Knife does so with sheer storytelling brilliance. (Jonathan Cape, £20) Thriller pick Dark academia seems to be having quite the moment in publishing, but The Four is one of the very best from an exciting new voice. This thriller revolves around four scholarship pupils who are outsiders in an elite boarding school – and a chain of events that unravel all four of their lives with utterly devastating consequences. It explores power, revenge, loyalty, privilege, and guilt, and spools out in front of you like a high-octane TV drama. One warning: clear your diary before you pick up this novel, as once you’ve read a handful of pages you will be hooked. (HQ, £16.99) Best of the rest Margot is single, 34, and about to make one of the biggest decisions of her life. To find out what led up to this point, As Young as This gives us snapshots of her life told through every relationship she has had since she was 17. This buzzy debut is a beautiful look at how love shapes us. (Fig Tree, £16.99) The debut collection from 2023’s winner of the
BBC National Short Story Award is every bit as witty and biting and brilliant as ‘Comorbidities’, the central story which earned her that accolade. This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things looks at how
Women are expected to behave, and what happens when they don’t oblige. (Phoenix, £16.99) Read Next After reading this book, you will never underestimate a teacher again The author of Call Me By My Name , which inspired the film starring Timothée Chalamet, returns with a novel about a group of
Friends on holiday in the Amalfi coast, and their encounter with a mysterious stranger. Another sensual, melancholic novel. (Faber, £12.99) Three wildly different women all want new lives, but one person is about to teach them a lesson. The interwoven stories in this Sunday Times bestseller’s new psychological thriller come together to make a book you read with your heart in your mouth. (Wildfire, £16.99) A break-up sends Anna into a minor midlife crisis in which she swaps her glamorous life in Manhattan for a small
Irish town – and back into the arms of an old flame named Joey Armstrong. No one does the minutiae of love and life quite like Keyes . (Michael Joseph, £22) In a not-too-distant future, a young girl called Silvia becomes obsessed with an enigmatic older woman. The author of The Tiger’s Wife , which won The Orange prize for Fiction in 2011, has done it again with this rich, dreamlike novel. (W&N, £20) A reworking of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn couldn’t be in better hands than with this Booker shortlisted author. Told from the enslaved Jim’s perspective, James is a brutal, powerful read. (Mantle, £20) The author of We Need to Talk About Kevin t akes aim at cancel culture with a satirical novel set in a world where no one is allowed to be intelligent anymore – and Pearson, our heroine, seems to be the only one brave enough to question it. (Borough Press, £22) When foot-and-mouth disease devastates their community, Steve and William, two Cumbrian sheep farmers, fight to survive. Beguiling and darkly humorous, The Borrowed Hills is a searing exploration of real events that took place in 2001. (John Murray, £16.99) It is the Spanish Golden Age, and young servant girl Luzia Cotado gets noticed for her magical powers. This thrusts into a new world of fortune – but here she must also hide her Jewish lineage lest she face the wrath of the Inquisition. (Viking, £20) The titular household is a new refuge designed for “fallen” women – whether they are former petty thieves, prostitutes or financially destitute, this cottage offers the girls a second chance. But is everything as it looks? Another atmospheric historical read from the author of The Familiars. (Bonnier, £16.99) Daphne and Miles are the two exes of a newly loved-up couple, who form an unlikely friendship when they come together to hatch a plan. When it comes to funny and uplifting romances, Emily Henry never misses. (Viking, £18.99) Marnie and Michael are both lost in their own way, until they end up on an epic journey together, walking the coast-to-coast path in Cumbria and Yorkshire. You Are Here is a gorgeous and funny story about love, life and second chances – and is every bit as wonderful as One Day , the novel which made Nicholls famous. (Sceptre, £20) From a mother to a sex worker to a student and an artist, the lives of 10 people collide in this ingenious, heady book about sexual encounters in the modern world. Deftly told, The Start of Something is the kind of book you want to go back and re-read the minute you finish it. (Orion, £18.99) From the Costa First Novel Award winning author of Love After Love comes a brilliant novel about four women who are connected by a man who controls each of them – the notorious gangster Boysie Singh. (Faber, £18.99) The author of The Year of the Runaways has already been shortlisted twice for the Booker Prize and it would come as little surprise if he makes it a third with The Spoiled Heart . Set on the outskirts of the Peak District, is a captivating story of identity, community and inequality. (Harvill Secker, £18.99) A sprawling, rich family saga, Real Americans charts several generations of the Chen family – from Lily, whose parents fled Mao’s
China to find a better life in
New York City, to Nick, Lily’s son who is beginning to question his long-lost father. (Hutchinson Heinemann, £16.99) When Sophia was on the precipice of adulthood, she went on holiday to Sicily with her father. Now, in 2020, he takes a seat in the audience of his daughter’s play – which, to his surprise, recounts what happens on that very trip . The Hypocrite is a brooding, taut novel. (W&N, £18.99) When a young woman wakes up the morning after a party with cuts and bruises over her body, she plots revenge with a fellow woman who has also suffered at the hands of the same man. This is a blistering, almost unbearably tense read. (Sceptre, £16.99) The
Australian born
Hollywood star – known primarily for her
comedy acting in films such as Pitch Perfect and Bridesmaids – lifts the lid on her life. Beneath the glamour of
Brad Pitt related anecdotes, there are also reflections on fertility, sexuality, and self-image. (HarperCollins, £25) If you want to know what Bowie was really like, just ask his hairdresser (who was responsible for that red spiky Ziggy Stardust coiffure). The highs and lows of her life with the star is recounted with both joy and refreshing honesty, making this book a worthy addition to the hundreds of Bowie books out there already. (Faber, £20) Carol Atherton has been a secondary school English teacher for 30 years, and while many of the books she has taught have remained the same, their significance is constantly evolving. This is a gorgeous tribute to teachers and the power of literature. (Fig Tree, £18.99) A kind of memoir presented as a series of reviews, the journalist and columnist’s latest book is filled with witty observations about modern life. From his critique on the McDonald’s Chicken Big Mac to a take on paper cuts, it is a surprisingly readable chronicle of a life. (Mudlark, £16.99) What does it mean to be a “sociopath”? This memoir gives us a glimpse, and its author who has received that very diagnosis shows us it might not be what you expected. The journey to understanding herself makes for an illuminating read. (Pan Macmillan, £18.99) In a world where western narratives have poorly chalked up Africa’s history to simply one of slavery and colonialism, Badawi heads out on a corrective journey. Visiting 30 of the continent’s countries and interviewing everyone from historians to anthropologists, this is an eye-opening book. (WH Allen, £25) What does it mean to be English? While patriotism might now provoke connotations of empire or
Brexit , the former Green Party leader offers a different outlook by drawing on some more joyful aspects of the nation’s past. A perfect read for a divided Britain. (Hutchinson Heinemann, £22) The prize-winning social historian has turned her attention to cats and how the Edwardian artist Louis Wain, known for his paintings of anthropomorphised kittens, helped
Britain fall in love with felines. The kind of book you didn’t know you ought to read. (Fourth Estate, £22) ****************************************** Andrew O’Hagan returns with a state-of-the-nation epic (Photo: Christina Jansen) Scottish author Andrew O’Hagan first began writing his new state-of-the-nation doorstopper Caledonian Road a decade ago. “I was reading a lot of big novels, the ones that keep you going for weeks, and thought ‘where are they now?’ Weren’t we living through the most interesting times imaginable?” he says. “I could see these vivid characters moving through London, slowly revealing their connections to each other: Politics. Money. Power. Technology.” It wasn’t until a particular day, however, when he was in the National Gallery , that the idea for an actual book took shape. “I saw an articulate Scottish man, tall, middle-aged, well-groomed, standing in front of one of the Vermeers,” he recalls. “He was speaking knowledgeably to a young student, but the student was arguing back, questioning all his assumptions. There was something electric in the relationship – and that was the spark that ignited Caledonian Road .” The result is an epic, Dickensian-like novel about power, scandal, crime, secrets and privilege. Its protagonists are Campbell Flynn, a 52-year-old academic who has just written a hit biography of Vermeer, and Milo Mangasha, his student sidekick, but the book has a sprawling cast list made up of rappers, oligarchs, activists, DJs, migrants, actors and more. “London was being rinsed by dodgy ‘investors’, successive governments were being compliant, the internet was changing the way we understood society, the aristocracy and the
Royal Family were tottering, liberals were at war with themselves, and yet I could hear these very human characters,” he remembers. “I could hear their secrets and their comedy and their pain, and I thought — find it, write it, and work as if we are in the early days of a better nation.” Including a pause to write Mayflies , the moving story of male friendship which was later adapted into a BBC drama, Caledonian Road took 10 years of hard work. “Campbell Flynn, my central character, was facing a huge fall from grace, and I felt for a few years that he was like an alternative self of mine,” he says of that time. “But it was an amazing experience, the preparation – months at the Old Bailey, weeks at garment factories in Leicester, then getting to know the worlds of south
London rappers, the houses of aristocrats, the private clubs, the lives of the super-rich, the trail of migrants to Britain from across the world.” O’Hagan is now the author of seven novels, three of which have been nominated for the Booker Prize. But while his oeuvre is one you can imagine that, in centuries to come, future generations will study, discuss and learn from, the author’s ambitions aren’t so lofty. He says: “As writers, we yearn to open up the human picture if we can, but for me the main joy is in creating books that might supply readers with the thing I’ve loved all my life – genuine reading pleasure.” ‘ Caledonian Road’ by Andrew O’Hagan is published by Faber at £20