ABÉCÉDAIRE by Sharon Kivland
‘ABÉCÉDAIRE rewards when met on its own terms: an immersion in the landscape rushing past, an attention to the crazy detail that both differentiates and connects it; an awareness at all times of the window which frames your view.’
Cold Fish Soup by Adam Farrer
‘Cold Fish Soup is like nothing else you will read this year: a lyrical and courageous exercise in uncovering one’s personal history, and one that takes the sword to its author’s contention that he inevitably makes everything about him.’
Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens
‘Fundamentally, though, it is that rare thing: a literary novel concerned with pleasure — of sex, and eating, and music, and the pleasures of a narrative, of escaping somewhere else, becoming someone else.’
Milk Teeth by Jessica Andrews
‘For a novel that is so sharp and often written with such linguistic utility, it isn’t at all sparse. Despite these moments in which the narration is given the control that the narrator so desires, this novel is full. In fact, fittingly, one might say it has real weight.’
Of Saints and Miracles by Manuel Astur (tr. Claire Wadie)
‘Of Saints and Miracles causes us to look at the world anew, guiding us sometimes gently, sometimes with ill-concealed impatience.’
The Cellist by Jennifer Atkins
‘The Cellist is an immersive portrait of an intriguing character; an ode to the complex creation of an artist.’
The Sidekick by Benjamin Markovits
‘The novel’s strongest points are in its scenes of the mundane everyday of suburban American life, imbued with a bittersweet nostalgia.’
Thirsty Sea by Erica Mou (tr. Clarissa Botsford)
‘With this book, which will appeal to fans of Jenny Offill and Meg Mason, Mou joins the ranks of contemporary female authors unafraid to delve into the uncomfortable and unsettling.’
Animals at Night by Naomi Booth
‘The soundtrack to Animals at Night, Naomi Booth’s new collection of short stories, comes from the wild creatures active at night — the coughing of foxes, scratching of rats, alien noises of pheasants. There is also something in the mix here that comes from the animal nature of people themselves, sensations that are amplified in the deep darkness of the night hours.’
A Door Behind A Door by Yelena Moskovich
‘A Door Behind a Door may disorient readers who prefer more conventional narrative structures, or disappoint those looking for satisfying resolutions, but it is a thrilling, intoxicating ride.’
Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
‘After the success of Kennedy’s short story collection The End of the World is a Cul de Sac, this is a hugely satisfying long-form debut from an increasingly essential writer. ‘
Thread Ripper by Amalie Smith (tr. Jennifer Russell)
‘Smith’s project feels at once expansive in its scope – the state of human connection and technologies, the tangled net of women’s histories – and yet so quiet and thoughtful in its singular voice.’
Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer
‘This is an impressive debut with a roaring spirit – an emotionally driven story that is fearlessly conveyed and hard to forget.’
The Half-Life of Snails by Philippa Holloway
‘Excels as an exploration of the geography of the human heart, which Holloway shows to be as difficult to navigate as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, for which there is no detailed and reliable map available.’
The Colony of Good Hope by Kim Leine (tr. Martin Aitken)
‘With its broad scope, myriad voices, interrogations of faith and nudges towards the subtext, The Colony of Good Hope seems not only to want to cast the reader back into the eighteenth century, but also to hold a mirror to the colonisers and their terrible delusions of grandeur.’
Emergency by Daisy Hildyard
‘Emergency is a book to be relished, its precise, subtle prose devoid of romanticism yet passionate in its own way. Hildyard’s writing is a feast for the senses: vivid and beguiling, pragmatic and unflinching, and deeply thoughtful.’
All the Lovers in the Night by Mieko Kawakami (tr. Sam Bett & David Boyd)
‘There’s alchemy in the way this author deals with banality and it’s as abundant here as it is in her earlier work.’
Girl Online by Joanna Walsh
‘Much like the internet itself, this book offers us no easy answers. Rather, it presents us with an energetic and often fun meditation on what it is to be a woman, or a girl, anonymous or otherwise, online.’
The Cove by Alice Clark-Platts
‘Succeeds as a well constructed escapist thriller and a decent holiday read.’
The Last Good Funeral of the Year: A Memoir by Ed O’Loughlin
‘The Last Good Funeral of the Year is a book that merits a second read, a second consideration, as surely all of us over the halfway point of our lives must give to the memories we treasure and the people from our past who have helped to shape the way we are today, as well as to O’Loughlin’s suggestion that laughter is the sanest response to the inevitability of ageing.’