Summer’s finally here, bringing with it a clutch of new books begging to be devoured on sunny afternoons. With ongoing uncertainty over travel and the relaxation of Covid restrictions, the British coast and countryside have never looked so enticing. From essays to thrillers, we’ll be packing these new titles, which explore themes including race, privilege, ambition and LGBTQ+ rights and identity.
Lisa Taddeo’s bestselling portrait of the sexual and emotional lives of three women was the international publishing phenomenon of 2019. Now, in a feat of literary ventriloquism, the Three Women author’s first novel traces one woman’s journey from prey to predator. Joan’s life has been marked by male cruelty, but when she witnesses an act of violence, she flees New York for the Los Angeles hills. There she finds Alice, who helps her confront the traumatic past that has haunted her and gather the strength to retaliate. In this searing meditation on the consequences of living in a patriarchy, Taddeo conceives an unforgettable antiheroine.
(Bloomsbury, 24 June)
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Beth Ditto, Olly Alexander, Owen Jones, Wolfgang Tillmans, Tom Rasmussen and Shon Faye are just 6 of 35 voices gathered in this visionary essay collection that asks how we can build a better world for LGTBQ+ people. Edited by Queer Intentions author and Dazed beauty editor Amelia Abraham, its topics include transphobia and the UK media, pregnancy beyond gender, inclusive sex education and mental health services. With an international scope, from the US to Russia and Bangladesh, it is both a heartfelt call to action and an inspirational manifesto for change.
(Vintage, 3 June)
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The Devil Wears Prada meets Get Out in Zakiya Dalila Harris’s satirical thriller set in New York’s white-dominated publishing world. When another black girl, Hazel, arrives in the neighbouring cubicle, 26-year-old editorial assistant Nella Rogers imagines they’ll form an immediate bond. But after Nella becomes persona non grata and Hazel the office darling, aggressive messages pressuring Nella to leave start showing up on her desk. Could Hazel be responsible, or are other sinister forces at work? This scalpel-sharp debut combines insightful social commentary with page-turning mystery, and launches Harris as a dynamic new voice.
(Bloomsbury, 1 June)
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This sultry debut is suffused with the languor of Parisian drifting and Mediterranean sunshine. Leah, a young woman ‘ambitioned’ out of London, is weary of the waitressing and English classes with which she supports her life in Paris. She applies for a job assisting an author – Michael, once the toast of literary London, now a has-been with writer’s block. Meeting Leah gives Michael a jolt of inspiration, and he invites her to join his family in their rambling house in the south of France. There, she begins transcribing the diaries of his wanton youth in 1960s Soho, but soon finds herself unnerved. A witty and seductive meditation on the male gaze, desire and creative ambition.
(Tinder Press, 10 June)
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From the author of the no. 1 bestselling The Silent Patient comes another ingenious psychological thriller, in which Greek mythology, memory and psychoanalysis collide to riveting effect. Group therapist Mariana is struggling to come to terms with her husband’s unexpected death on a Greek island when she learns of the murder of her niece’s best friend at Cambridge University. Drawn into the investigation, Mariana discovers a dark knot of jealous rage lurking beneath the harmonious façade of St Christopher’s College – and at its centre, a charismatic don who holds a secretive group of students, The Maidens, in his thrall.
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 10 June)
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Among this year’s hottest literary debuts, Assembly explores Black British identity. Natasha Brown draws on her ten-year finance career in this piercing novel about a young Black woman who doggedly pursues a prescribed path to success, only to lose faith in her ambitions. Just as everything starts falling into place – a promotion, acceptance by her boyfriend’s upper-crust family – the narrator begins to question the very structures to which she has moulded herself. Brown highlights the high cost of conforming to a system shaped by colonial history, and references writers from Claudia Rankine to bell hooks. Challenging institutional racism in Britain, Assembly is a bold and inventive must-read.
(Hamish Hamilton, 3 June)
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