Cosy reads for longer nights...
Sandwich – Catherine Newman (Doubleday, out now)
I loved this author’s first novel, We All Want Impossible Things, and this novel also features a sensitive, queer daughter, an unflappable husband and a heroine who makes everything about herself – but is at least aware of it. Torn apart by anticipatory grief for her children and parents, neurotic, menopausal fifty-something Rachel – ‘Rocky’ – despairs of herself sometimes. As she infuriates and nurtures her family with sandwich lunches at Cape Cod, she makes peace with a decision she made long ago. Rocky learns that if she didn't feel things so strongly, life would lose its taste – and isn’t grief the price we pay for love?
Lifting Off – Karen McLeod (Muswell Press, out now)
The author of In Search of the Missing Eyelash (recently re-released; go get it)! and creator of ‘rubbish lesbian poet,’ Barbara Brownskirt goes back to her roots in this account of being a flight attendant for British Airways. Trying to reconcile her love-hate relationship with performance, working-class roots and desire for partying, culture and adventure has its highs and lows, and Karen eventually has to step back, ask herself who she really is, start writing and begin the next act of her life. An extraordinary memoir that’s struck a chord with many. We love Karen!
Long Island Compromise – Taffy Brodesser-Akner (Wildfire, out now)
With hints of Philip Roth, Tom Wolfe and Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections, this darkly funny book explores the ramifications of a Long Island businessman’s kidnapping in 1980, and its effect on his three children. Full of hilarious detail (potentially lethal microwaves, the insane turreted architecture of rich Americans’ houses, extreme fitness regimes, bossy decorators) and erotic deviance – even the title is a reference to a sex act – this rich, balls-to-the-wall novel from the author of Fleishman is in Trouble is a lip-smacking assault on minimalism and political correctness.
Private Rites – Julia Armfield (Fourth Estate, out now)
This compelling new work by the author who won the Polari Prize for Our Wives Under the Sea is once again an exploration of queer, sensual themes that delve into marriage and the connections between individuals. Set during the final months of a crumbling civilization, the novel draws parallels to Maggie Gee's The Flood, Cloud Atlas, and the blackly humorous Quiz Broadcast sketches by David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Three sisters, compared to 'King Lear and his dyke daughters,' confront their father's architectural legacy while trying to ignore the fact that the impending apocalypse does not diminish the everyday frustrations of life, such as working in a nearly empty café, virtual therapy sessions, fabricated reality TV, and the challenges of love.
You’re Embarrassing Yourself – Desiree Akhavan (Fourth Estate, out now)
Desiree Akhavan has written a deeply felt, luminous memoir that's strongest on the experience of being the child of immigrants, 'like being born a widow,' where sorrow and loss is baked into life. Tall, with size 11 (UK 9) feet, she struggles to fit in at a top New York prep school where the playground games are inspired by the film Clueless (and she isn't allowed to play). But things change - and by thirty-nine, she's won Sundance, directed two well-regarded films and is contemplating motherhood. A book about growing up, work wives, how relationships change with time, dodgy dating, regrettable haircuts and more.
Madwoman – Chelsea Bieker (Oneworld, out now)
Clove, in her thirties with two children, addicted to clean eating and shopping for Paltrow-esque trinkets, she finds her past catching up with her when she receives a letter from a women's correctional facility. And why is she so drawn to the mysterious Jane at the Whole Foods-style market – is this love, or does she know this woman already? A cut above the usual domestic thrillers, this precisely written account of a thirtysomething woman's unravelling and remaking herself is a summer must-read.
The Grand Scheme of Things – Warona Jay (Footnote Press, out now)
Eddie, a queer aspiring playwright from an African family, needs a foot in the door. After a series of microaggressions and sometimes outright aggressions, she recruits lovable posh boy Hugo to pose as the writer of her play. The two become entangled with smarmy theatrical agent Helen, whose 'diversity initiatives' mask a successful devotion to gatekeeping. An important addition to the crop of publishing, media and theatre satires that ask hard questions about what people will really do for success – and love.
Here One Moment – Liane Moriarty (Michael Joseph, out now)
On a flight, a neatly dressed, silver-haired woman enters a trance and starts telling the passengers the dates, times and causes of their deaths. The passengers react in various ways; some sanguine, some hysterical, some disturbed. Then the first deaths start.
This book poses the question, 'If you knew when you were going to die, what would you do differently?' Another cracker from the Australian powerhouse author, Here One Moment is a witty and surprisingly moving exploration of the butterfly effect, the multiverse and what we're here for, that explores those themes more successfully than some heavier novels on mortality.
Revisionaries: What We Can Learn from the Lost, Unfinished, and Just Plain Bad Work of Great Writers – Kristopher Jansma (Quirk Books, out 15th October)
A delightful book about revision and about authors suffering from addiction or depression, biting off more than they could chew or trying to write the right book in the wrong time – and a searching look into why they might have made the choices they did. Austen, Plath, Highsmith, Fitzgerald, Baldwin, Wright and Foster Wallace all make appearances. Revisionaries is playful, original, a literary thriller in disguise and possibly a cure for writer’s block. The perfect Christmas gift for the writer in your life.
The Proof of My Innocence – Jonathan Coe (Penguin, out 7th November)
What a mash up! This book, featuring a sinister cabal of far-right Tory nightmares, set during the 50-day premiership of Liz Lettuce Truss, is a satirical delight with a heart. Twentysomething Phyl Maidstone returns to her parents’ house from university and starts trying to write a book. She's torn between three popular 'very now,' genres - cosy crime, 'dark academia' and autofiction, so what transpires is told in all three genres, with dizzying overlays of folk songs, cult films and even episodes of Friends. So entertaining that I'm not quite sure it should be legal.
Follow these legends @KarenMcLeod_ @muswellpress @taffyakner @JuliaArmfield @akhavandesiree @chelseabieker @KristopherJans @jonathancoe
That's it from me this quarter. Hope you're excited for Christmas and the 2024 roundup!
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