The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong 15th May (£20) One summer evening in the town of East Gladness, Connecticut, 19 year old Hai stands on a bridge, ready to jump, when he hears someone shout across the river. The voice belongs to Grazina, an elderly widow succumbing to dementia. Over the course of the year, the unlikely pair develops a life-altering bond. This is an unforgettable story of unexpected friendship and how far we would go to possess one of life’s most fleeting mercies: a second chance.
No Straight Road Takes You There by Rebecca Solnit 8th May (£16.99) Highways tend to be built across the easy routes and flat places, or the landscape is cleared away but to stick to these roads is to miss what else is out there. In her latest essay collection, Rebecca Solnit explores responses to the climate crisis, as well as reflections on women's rights, the fight for democracy, the trends in masculinity, and the rise of the far right in the West. Incantatory and poetic these essays argue for the long-term view and the power of collective action and offering us all a path out of the wilderness.
Objects of Desire by Neil Blackmore 15th May (£18.99) Hugo Hunter was the most celebrated gay novelist of the 20th century. But after decades of fame and excess Hugo finds himself running out of money. Out of nowhere, he receives an extraordinary lifeline: an offer from his longtime publisher. Two million dollars, for a memoir and a new novel. The money will solve all his problems – except for one thing. Hugo Hunter is an imposter. He stole both of his novels. Now, how far will he go to produce a third?
Gunk by Saba Sams 8th May (£16.99) Jules has been divorced from her ex-husband Leon for five years, but she still works alongside him at Gunk, the grotty student nightclub he owns in central Brighton. But then Leon hires nineteen-year-old Nim to work the bar – and her arrival jolts Jules awake for the first time in years. When Nim discovers she’s pregnant, Jules agrees to help. The months pass, and the relationship between the two women grows increasingly intimate and perplexing. What could the future – for Jules, Nim, and this unnamed baby – possibly look like?
My Name is Emilia Del Valle by Isabel Allende 6th May (£18.99) Emilia del Valle was always destined for great things. Abandoned at birth by her Chilean aristocrat father, Emilia comes of age in nineteenth-century San Francisco as an independent and fiercely ambitious young woman, decades ahead of her time. She will do whatever it takes to pursue her life’s passion for writing, even if it means publishing under a man’s name.
Parallel Lines by Edward St Aubyn 15th May (£20) It is summer. Sebastian is in treatment following a breakdown that has left him with a fragile hold on reality and a hunger to connect with the mother who abandoned him. His therapist, Martin, also faces challenges, including his adopted daughter Olivia’s tenuous relationship with her biological mother. Over a year, their fates collide in outrageous and poignant ways, revealing their destinies in a new light.
The Book of Records by Madeleine Thien 15th May (£20) Lina and her ailing father have taken refuge at an enclave called the Sea, a staging post between migrations, with only a few possessions, among them three volumes from The Great Lives of Voyagers encyclopaedia series. In this mysterious and shape-shifting building, pasts and futures collide. Lina befriends her unusual neighbours and through their stories, she comes to understand the role of fate in history and the way that ideas can shape the world.
Vianne by Joanne Harris 22nd May (£22) On a warm July evening, Sylviane Rochas scatters her mother's ashes in New York and lets the changing wind blow her to the French seaside town of Marseille. For the first time in her life, Vianne holds the future in her own hands. Charming her way into a job as a waitress in a local bistrot, she knows that she is not here to stay - when her child is born in a few months, she must be gone. As she discovers the joy of cooking, making recipes her own with the addition of bittersweet chocolate spices, she realises that it possesses its own magic in this town full of secrets.
Year of the Rat by Harry Shukman 8th May (£20) The British far right is working to dismantle our democracy. This shocking, eye-opening undercover journey reveals who they are, how they operate and how they are normalising extreme ideologies. Journalist Harry Shukman knows the dangers all too well: he's gone undercover to infiltrate these groups. Year of the Rat is a gripping and urgent exposé nail-bitingly tense, darkly absurd and utterly chilling.
The New Age of Sexism by Laura Bates 15th May (£20) At present, power remains largely in the hands of a few rich, white men. New AI-driven technologies, with misogyny baked into their design, are putting women in danger, their rights and safety sacrificed at the altar of profitability and reckless speed. In The New Age of Sexism Laura Bates takes us deep into the heart of this rapidly evolving world.
The Possession by Annie Ernaux 22nd May (£8.99) ‘The strangest thing about jealousy is that it can populate an entire city – the whole world – with a person you may never have met.’ These words set the framework for The Possession, a striking portrait of a woman after a love affair has ended. Annie Ernaux pulls the reader through every step of jealousy, of a woman’s need to know who has replaced her in a lost beloved’s life. Ernaux’s writing, characteristically gorgeous in its precision, depicts the all too familiar human tendency to seek control and certainty after rejection.
Speaking in Tongues by J.M. Coetzee 22nd May (£14.99) Language, historically speaking, has always been slippery. Two dictionaries provide two different maps of the universe: which one is true, or are both false? Speaking in Tongues explores questions that have constantly plagued writers and translators, now more than ever. This is a book about languages, what languages can and what they cannot do.
Shibboleth by Thomas Peermohamad Lambert 22nd May (£14.99) Want to make it among the wealthy, upper-class students at the University of Oxford? Then you'd better have something interesting to say when people ask about your identity. Luckily, Edward does. However, as he scrabbles to fit in, his new friends start to grow suspicious. How will they react when they realise he hasn't been entirely honest? Will Edward manage to carve out a space for himself at Oxford, or will the truth get in the way?
Pig by Matilde Pratesi 1st May (£16.99) Valentina struggles to live life without order. Every morning, she reads the note that her flatmate Clara has pinned on the fridge telling her what to wear and what to eat, before leaving for her job at a bookshop. Sometimes Vale's colleagues invite her to drinks, but she never goes. She knows that Clara wouldn't be happy if Vale socialised with others. But a chance encounter at the bookshop leads to an exciting opportunity. As Vale steps into the world of other people, Clara tightens her grip: she isn't yet ready to let go of her favourite prey.
Pig is a razor-sharp, disturbing novel about toxic female friendship unlike any other.
The Ladie Upstairs by Jessie Elland 22nd May (£16.99) Ann can't quite remember how or when she arrived at the grand Ropner Hall, but she loathes spending her days toiling in the dank kitchen. When a chance meeting with Ropner's Lady Charlotte leads to the opportunity to become her personal maid, Ann is convinced she has finally escaped her own version of hell. But has she? As Ann's new life above stairs takes a sinister twist, will it turn out that the terrors lurking up there are worse than the devils she knows below?
Spent by Alison Bechdel 22nd May (£20) In this hilariously skewering comic novel, Alison is existentially pained by a climate-challenged world and a country on the brink of civil war. In Spent, Bechdel presents a laugh-out-loud and passionately political work of autofiction.
plus the books you've been waiting to come out in paperback!
