The Best New Books to Read this Season

By Lucy Brooks on 13/2/2023

Strengthen your resolve to read more with our selection of the most enticing new books this season has to offer.

Really Good, Actually, Monica Heisey

As the screenwriter of seven time Emmy award-winning series Schitt’s Creek, Monica Heisey has proven comedy clout. Her much-hyped debut novel crackles with all one-liners and lovable characters you'd expect. Really Good, Actually follows newly divorced 29-year-old Maggie as she struggles to pay her rent, despairs over a pointless PHD and attempts to embrace casual sex. Instead of 'happily ever after', this is a celebration of chaos and making mistakes that will make all hapless millennials flinch with recognition. Bitterly and brutally observant, you can tell the story draws on Heisey's own experience as a young divorcee. It’s rare to find a book with comedy and depth in equal measure; Really Good, Actually is just what you need to add sauce to dry days and sparks to flat winter evenings.

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Published 17 Jan

Age of Vice, Deepti Kapoor

Thriller and family saga combine in this vibrant tale of New Dehli's corrupt elite. Deepti Kapoor captures the drama with epic detail and Shakespearean flourish, drawing us into three lives that intersect: there's the hapless heir, the watchful servant and the journalist on a morality mission. This is a story for those who want action and excitement, delivered with literary finesse.

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Published 3 Jan

Drinking Games, Sarah Levy

The next big ‘quit-lit’ book, Drinking Games explores the role alcohol plays in millennial culture. But there is nothing dry or preachy about this sobriety memoir. Journalist Sarah Levy writes with verve and candour about the highs and lows of her New York life, reflecting on the interplay between socialising and drinking. Whether you’re sober, keen to cut down on weeknight margaritas, or just curious about the cultural significance of alcohol, this is a refreshing and thought-provoking read.

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Published 20 Feb

A Spell of Good Things, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀

Baileys Prize finalist Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ explores two different sides of Nigeria in a thoughtful state-of-the-nation novel. On the one side there is Eniola, a gangly boy who dreams of leaving behind odd jobs and poverty for a brighter future. On the other side of society is Wuraola, a bright young doctor with the security and love of a wealthy family behind her. When unexpected violence throws Eniola and Wuraola together, the culture clash provides an insightful reflection of politics, power and the ability to connect across divides.

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Published 9 Feb

Victory City, Salman Rushdie

Rooted in 14th century India, Salman Rushdie's new book revolves around women gaining power in a patriarchal world. Completed before the Booker-winning author was stabbed 17 times on stage last August, Victory City is an epic that spans 250 years and connects the goddesses to the mortals. Rich with romance and mythological power, it showcases the masterful story-telling of one of our greatest living writers.

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Published 9 Feb

Birnam Wood, Eleanor Catton

Booker-winning author of The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton, returns with a literary thriller about gardening. Borrowing its title from Macbeth, Birnam Wood follows a guerrilla gardening group who clash with an eccentric billionaire on New Zealand's South Island. Cultivating the land on an abandoned farm, the gardeners must confront face their own ideaolgies, while puzzling over the hidden motives of their benefactor. The pace and intensity of a thriller combine with Catton's artful and intricately-mapped prose, for a story that will absorb and nourish.

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Published 2 Mar

Shy, Max Porter

Shy gives us a short, sharp vignette of suffering and possibility as we spend a few hours in the mind of a boy who has escaped from a home for disturbed young men. Max Porter, the award-winning writer of Grief is a Thing with Feathers, turns his poetic prose to envisaging the pressures and voices and urges and fears that fill this child's head.

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Published 6 Apr

Old Babes in the Wood, Margaret Atwood

If a novel is too much of a commitment, lose yourself in 15 short stories demonstrating the boundless breadth of Margaret Atwood’s imagination. From a confused snail to an alien who re-tells fairy tales, Old Babes in the Wood promises enchanting, invigorating fiction - in manageable bite-sized chunks.

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Published 7 Mar

Romantic Comedy, Curtis Sittenfeld

As her loyal followers will attest, Curtis Sittenfeld has a knack for observational comedy and vividly-wrought characters. The author of Prep and American Wife turns her talents to the small screen. TV writer Sally pokes fun at the way that average but charming men get to date total knock-outs, while the equivalent never happens for women. But then comes the meet-cute, as a pin-up pop star with a taste for supermodels suddenly takes an interest in Sally. Expect warmth, comedy and a wry send up of social dating norms.

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Published 6 Apr