Clear space on your bedside table; the ‘to read’ pile is about to grow. From the finale that’s been 10 years in the making to the bright young writers causing a buzz, these are the nine most exciting new books 2019 has in store.
Stop sulking over the anti-climatic second season of the The Handmaid’s Tale TV adaptation and start getting exciting about an actual sequel, which is not connected to the show and is actually written by Margaret Atwood. The Testaments takes us back to the dystopian world of the the best-selling 1985 novel.
It is narrated by three women and set 15 years after Offred’s enigmatic escape in the back of a van. In a press release addressed to readers, Atwood explained: ‘Everything you’ve ever asked me about Gilead and its inner workings is the inspiration for this book. Well, almost everything! The other inspiration is the world we’ve been living in’.
Due in September 2019. Click here to pre-order now.
Lyra Belaqua, the plucky child we rooted for through Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, and the gurgling baby in 2017’s long-awaited prequel La Belle Sauvage, is back and she’s all grown up.
The second installment in the Book of Dust trilogy picks up twenty years after baby Lyra’s rescue and ten years from the end of The Amber Spyglass. Lyra Silvertongue is an undergraduate on a journey through Asia and the Levant, and we expect her bravery and gift for decoding an alethiometer will be put to the test.
Due in 2019... date to be confirmed.
Hilary Mantel has kept us waiting for final novel in her double Booker winning Thomas Cromwell trilogy. There was Wolf Hall in 2009, Bring Up the Bodies in 2012, and finally 2019 promises the The Mirror and the Light. Capturing Cromwell’s fall from grace, it begins with him masterminding Anne Boleyn’s execution in 1536 and ends with his own beheading in 1540.
Mantel has shrugged off rumours that the long wait for this final book were due to reluctance to kill off Cromwell, and instead explained how she’s taking her time to ensure readers are not disappointed: ‘it is 10 years’ worth of effort and it is lovely to have the encouragement of people who are waiting for it, but that’s why I want to deliver them something that is the very best,’ she said.
Due in 2019... date to be confirmed.
Booker winner Ian McEwan ventures into the realm of Sci-Fi with a new book about artificial intelligence. Machines Like Me is a love triangle between a couple and their creation, a ‘synthetic human’ designed to be perfect. Set in a parallel version of 1980s London, it combines speculation and with a feasible moral dilemma.
Due on 18 April 2019. Click here to pre-order.
Marlon James’s Booker-winning A Brief History of Seven Killings, took us on an invigorating and extravagant trail following the lives of the gunmen who attempted to murder Bob Marley. In Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the the first book of a planned trilogy, James turns his Dickensian storytelling talents to ancient African mythology. Adventure, enchantment and tradition entwine to tell the story of a hunter seeking a lost boy.
Due on 28 February 2019. Click here to pre-order.
After hooking and horrifying us with the story of a murderous nanny, French writer Leïla Slimani confronts another uncomfortable taboo. Returning to the upper Middle Class Parisian backdrop of Lullaby, this new book explores the dangerous, destructive impact of sex addiction. Adèle has an enviable life – high-flying job, loving marriage, beautiful home – but she’s never satisfied.
Due on 7 February 2019. Click here to pre-order.
Max Porter's debut novel Grief is a Thing with Feathers may be a slim, slip of a book, but it certainly packs a punch. Expect similar potency, poetry and strangeness in his second book, Lanny, which tells the story of an English village where myth and reality merge through past and present.
Due on 7 March 2019. Click here to pre-order.
The reigning monarch of nature writing take us deep, deep down into the earth to explore the unseen wonders beneath our feel. From the startling blue depths of glacial crevasses to the subterranean communication networks in tree roots, Underland encompasses the whole world, over many millennia. With Macfarlane’s unparalleled ability to make natural sciences sing with humanity and life, Underland will offer a new perspective on planet earth.
Due on 2 May 2019. Click here to pre-order.
Ten years after he broke hearts and dominated beach reading with One Day, David Nicholls will publish his fifth novel. Sweet Sorrow is a coming-of-age novel that returns to many of Nicholls' favourite themes: first love, disappointment and doing things that nobody thinks is cool. Its focus is 'a turning point in the life of an unremarkable young man who is suddenly offered an opportunity to change his fortunes.'
'The hope,' Nicholls states, 'is that the reader will turn the pages and think, ‘yes, I remember exactly what that felt like'.'
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