Literary Fiction
Anthony Cummins
ORBITAL
by Samantha Harvey
(Cape £14.99, 144 pp)
One of our most consistently surprising novelists rips up the rulebook again, taking us into space in the company of six astronauts circling Earth on the International Space Station. A boldly imaginative meditation on time and the nature of existence.
THE BLACK EDEN
by Richard T. Kelly
(Faber £20, 464 pp)
SET in Scotland between the 1950s and 1980s, this pacy panorama of politics and petroleum follows five men whose paths are shaped by the discovery of North Sea oil. Kelly’s eye for the nitty-gritty of life on the rigs is among the thrills of this action-packed ensemble narrative.
L-R: ORBITAL by Samantha Harvey (Cape £14.99, 144 pp); THE BLACK EDEN by Richard T. Kelly (Faber £20, 464 pp)
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY
by Laurent Mauvignier
(Fitzcarraldo £16.99, 504 pp)
A rural French household finds itself under armed siege in this unsettling tale of family secrets violently unearthed. The horror unfolds in agonisingly glacial slo-mo as Mauvignier’s twisty sentences pinpoint every last thought of captives and perpetrators alike.
KIT
by Megan Barker
(Cheerio £12.99, 160 pp)
Fusing prose and poetry, this poignant debut follows the painful turns in a passionate, decades-long male-female friendship, as youthful high-jinks give way to the hurly-burly of married parenthood. A wrenching study of depression, but also a joyous ode to life.
L-R: THE BIRTHDAY PARTY by Laurent Mauvignier (Fitzcarraldo £16.99, 504 pp); KIT by Megan Barker (Cheerio £12.99, 160 pp)
Stephanie Cross
BIOGRAPHY OF X
by Catherine Lacey
(Granta £18.99, 416 pp)
Purportedly written by the widow of an iconoclastic celebrity, ‘X’, this fictional biography documents in scholarly yet gripping fashion X’s endless reinventions, her collaborations with the likes of David Bowie and Tom Waits, her ambition and her cruelty. There are plenty of twists, but the biggest is that it’s set in a world where the American South seceded. Singular, dizzying and brilliant.
ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER
by Rose Tremain
(Chatto & Windus £16.99, 192pp)
Fall head-over-heels this Christmas with this beautiful tale of swooning first love. At just 15, Marianne is smitten by Simon and swiftly loses her innocence in a Morris Minor (it is the 1950s after all). But thereafter all goes wrong. Hers is a life shaped in the shadow of heartbreak and Tremain’s bravery and brilliance in making from it something other than a tragedy is pure genius.
L-R: BIOGRAPHY OF X by Catherine Lacey (Granta £18.99, 416 pp); ABSOLUTELY AND FOREVER by Rose Tremain (Chatto & Windus £16.99, 192pp)
CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS
by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
(Harvill Secker £18.99, 384 pp)
A graphically violent satire that takes aim at the institutionally racist American justice system won’t be everyone’s cup of tea — but few others this year have touched Adjei-Brenyah for ideas and ambition. Add in commanding storytelling and you have perhaps the most indelible novel of 2023.
Claire Allfree
RESTLESS DOLLY MAUNDER
by Kate Grenville
(Canongate £16.99, 256 pp)
Forbidden by her father from becoming a teacher, young Dolly Maunder instead established herself as a highly successful hotelier in early 20th century Australia. Yet she could also be difficult and cold. The masterful Grenville addresses the question of why this brilliant, frustrated woman struggled to express love to her children with clarity and compassion in a swift, thoroughly absorbing book.
L-R: CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Harvill Secker £18.99, 384 pp); RESTLESS DOLLY MAUNDER by Kate Grenville (Canongate £16.99, 256 pp)
THE MANIAC
by Benjamin Labatut
(Pushkin Press £20, 368 pp)
This beguiling novel tells the story of mathematician Johnny von Neumann, a pivotal contributor to the Manhattan Project. To read it is to almost feel your brain crack open as Benjamin Labatut summons the horrors and the wonders of science and technology, not least those of AI, whose nihilistic potential is made explicit in the final chapter.
THE BEE STING
by Paul Murray
(Hamish Hamilton £18.99, 656 pp)
Paul Murray was robbed when it came to the Booker this year: his saga about a family scrambling for survival in recession blasted Ireland in 2008 is one of the novels of the year. Told from the perspective of four members of the Barnes family, and unspooling back in time to reveal a host of buried sentences, this effortlessly enjoyable novel overflows with human detail.
L-R: THE MANIAC by Benjamin Labatut (Pushkin Press £20, 368 pp); THE BEE STING by Paul Murray (Hamish Hamilton £18.99, 656 pp)
Historical
Eithne Farry
IN MEMORIAM
by Alice Winn
(Viking £14.99, 400pp)
A smash-your-heart-to-smithereens debut from Alice Winn as she tells the story of two schoolboy soldiers, who attempt to survive the slaughter of the trenches and keep their secret love alive in the face of such horror and brutality. Cinematic in scope and emotionally intimate, it viscerally describes the violence of conflict while beautifully capturing the brave hopefulness of the duo’s relationship.
CLYTEMNESTRA
by Costanza Casati
(Michael Joseph £16.99, 480 pp)
Fiery, furious and alight with murderous revenge, Casati’s debut retells the story of Clytemnestra, decried in the Odyssey as the weak and faithless killer of her husband, Agamemnon. Casati offers the female perspective on the old, patriarchal tropes of the Greek myths, as empathetic, courageous Clytemnestra vows vengeance on her murderous enemies.
73 DOVE STREET
by Julie Owen Moylan
(Michael Joseph £16.99, 400 pp)
Woodbine cigarette smoke, post-war London fog and the smell of damp wallpaper in small rooms set the mood in Moylan’s evocative second novel. It hones in on the lives of three damaged but resilient working-class women; nervy Edie Budd, on the run from a dangerous past, fellow lodger Tommie, who loves the seedy Soho nightlife, and redoubtable landlady Phyllis.
Contemporary
Sara Lawrence
TACKLE!
by Jilly Cooper
(Bantam £22, 448 pp)
A new book from Cooper is huge news, especially when it stars iconic protagonist Rupert Campbell-Black. Now 60, but as sexy as ever, Rupert buys the rubbish local football club as a favour to his glamorous daughter Bianca. It’s stuffed with secondary characters fans will remember from previous books. Fabulous.
OVER SHARING
by Jane Fallon
(Michael Joseph £16.99, 400 pp)
It was on her 40th birthday that Iris’s husband told her it was over between them and a couple of days later she found the other woman online. Maddie is a stunning Instagram influencer with 700,000 followers. Four years later, Iris remains obsessed with Maddie and consumed with desire for revenge. Compelling.
GOOD MATERIAL
by Dolly Alderton
(Fig Tree £18.99, 352 pp)
A brilliantly observed portrait of a break-up, which examines how miserable it is to become obsessed with the unknown reasons a relationship has ended. Andy can’t understand why Jen no longer wants to be with him. The more he thinks about it the madder he feels but he can’t stop. Addictive.
Popular
Wendy Holden
EVERYBODY KNOWS
by Jordan Harper
(Faber & Faber £8.99, 416 pp)
I devoured this Hollywood thriller, whose heroine Mae is in ‘black bag’ PR. She cleans up bad celebrity stories, and boy are they terrible. Teen actor deaths, bent politicians, sex, drugs, murder. Mae never judges — until someone she loves is killed. I turned the pages so fast my hands were a blur.
MY HUSBAND
by Maud Ventura
(Hutchinson Heinemann £16.99, 272 pp)
You’ve got to love a novel about posh French people. The unnamed heroine is obsessed with her alpha-male husband. She even has affairs to attract his attention. But there’s something not quite right about him: what’s going on? This glamorous, suspenseful, sexy page-turner is full of super-chic Parisian lifestyle detail.
L-R: EVERYBODY KNOWS by Jordan Harper (Faber & Faber £8.99, 416 pp); MY HUSBAND by Maud Ventura (Hutchinson Heinemann £16.99, 272 pp)
WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS IN THE LIBRARY
by Michiko Aoyama
(Doubleday £12.99, 256 pp)
It’s been a rotten year, so spark joy with this. Each character in these linked short stories has a problem. A young shop assistant feels imprisoned in her job; a shy, workless man is stuck at home with his mother; the career of a high-flying editor is ruined by parenthood — but their local librarian has life-changing suggestions.
WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS IN THE LIBRARY by Michiko Aoyama (Doubleday £12.99, 256 pp)
Classic Crime
Barry Turner
CALL FOR THE DEAD
by John le Carré
(Penguin £9.99, 176 pp)
In le Carré’s first novel we are introduced to George Smiley, whose shambolic life belies a formidable intelligence. Having cleared a civil servant for security, the man is found dead. Suicide is assumed, but when Smiley embarks on his own investigation he finds more than he bargained for. This is le Carré at his best.
A CHATEAU UNDER SEIGE
by Martin Walker
(Quercus £22, 366 pp)
Police chief — and ace cook —Bruno Courrèges is in celebratory mood for a local enactment of a medieval battle. But when one of the participants, a pioneer of new technology, suffers a near-fatal knife wound, Bruno is hot on a thrilling case that threatens the good life in rural France.
DEATH OF AN AUTHOR
by E.C.R. Lorac
(British Library Classic Crime £9.99, 240pp)
A bestselling author keeps his identity secret from all but his secretary. Speculation is rife when she reports her employer missing. A shoal of red herrings diverts the police from a logical if unexpected solution. A triumph of ingenuity.
Short Stories
Eithne Farry
OUR STRANGERS
by Lydia Davis
(Canongate £20, 368 pp)
Lichens, tiny insects, solitary reading, train journeys, overheard conversations, dissolving friendships and matrimonial irritations make up the subject matter of Davis’s delicious short stories. Davis has a wonderfully economical writing style, brilliantly showcased in these 144 offbeat, funny, occasionally sad, but drolly observant tales.
GAMES AND RITUALS
by Katherine Heiny
(4th Estate £16.99, 240 pp)
Here are bad relationship choices, marriages on the wane and friendships that wander far from the ideal, derailing the lives of her disarming characters, who are as funny and flawed and relatable as their scattershot choices. It’s Heiny’s enviable knack of combining the painful with the poignant that makes this collection hilarious and heart-breaking.
IF I SURVIVE YOU
by Jonathan Escoffery
(4th Estate £14.99, 272 pp)
Smart, savvy and snappy, If I Survive You unfurls the lives, lies and loves of a Jamaican family who head to Miami in the hope of a better life in eight funny, furious stories. Ferocious weather, fractious relationships and financial struggles skewer their every chance in this superb collection.
Thrillers and Crime
Geoffrey Wansell
RESURRECTION WALK
by Michael Connelly (Orion £22, 416pp)
Retired LAPD cop turned private investigator Harry Bosch teams up with his half-brother, the Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller, to defend a woman imprisoned for killing her ex-husband, a sheriff’s deputy. This is Connelly at his glittering best; full of twists and insights, it grips like a hungry python.
THE WATCHMAKER’S HAND
by Jeffery Deaver (HarperCollins £22, 464pp)
Quadriplegic forensic investigator Lincoln Rhymes and his wife try to track down who is behind a string of collapsing cranes creating panic across Manhattan, while all the time a lone assassin is lurking in the shadows trying to kill him. The master-plotter Deaver cranks up the tension to fever pitch.
Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly (Orion £22, 416pp) and The Watchmaker’s Hand by Jeffery Deaver (HarperCollins £22, 464pp)
HOLLY
by Stephen King (Hodder & Stoughton £25, 448pp)
First appearing in King’s Mr Mercedes in 2014, Holly Gibney has matured into one of the storyteller’s most memorable creations — a resourceful private investigator. Here, she confronts married octogenarian academics, who are also serial killers. Horror lurks in plain sight.
THE CHRISTMAS JIGSAW MURDERS
by Alexandra Benedict (Simon & Schuster £14.99, 352pp)
When a set of jigsaw pieces are left on her doorstep, renowned crossword creator and puzzle solver Edie O’Sullivan overcomes her loathing of Christmas to piece together a mystery, insisting that she solves the puzzle before more people die. It’s Agatha Christie on acid, deliciously nasty and fun.
Holly by Stephen King (Hodder & Stoughton £25, 448pp) and The Christmas Jigsaw Murders by Alexandra Benedict (Simon & Schuster £14.99, 352pp)
THE SQUARE
by Celia Walden (Sphere £20, 320pp)
Computer adviser Colette services the needs of the wealthy residents in a desirable West London square and discovers their secrets — knowledge which helps when a new arrival is killed in the square gardens. Taut, twisty and thrilling, it proves conclusively that journalist Walden has a great future in crime.
PAST LYING
by Val McDermid (Sphere £22, 464pp)
Two crime writers, one established the other less so, play chess with one another and often discuss the perfect murder. When the more successful one dies he leaves behind a manuscript that outlines their plan. So begins this elegant story from McDermid, who richly deserves the title of queen of crime.
EYE FOR AN EYE
by M. J. Arlidge (Orion £14.99, 544pp)
What would happen if the true identity of notorious convicted criminals granted ‘lifetime anonymity orders’ were to be leaked to the Press? Would that encourage a lynch mob, or would it be natural justice? Arlidge asks this tense moral question in a story that opens with a sex offender being killed.
Sci-fi and Fantasy
Jamie Buxton
IRON FLAME
by Rebecca Yarros (Piatkus £22, 640pp)
After the massive reset at the end of Fourth Wing, Violet (aka Violence) Sorrengail is still flying high on her mighty — and mightily sarcastic — dragon. But fear not, levels of fighting, rebelliousness and all-round sexiness are still sky-high, though now an age-old enemy is testing traditional loyalties.
SUMMER FISHING IN LAPLAND
by Juhani Karila (Pushkin £12.99, 352pp)
I loved this off-kilter tale of myth and mundanity — a deep dive into a morass of Finnish folklore and small-town life. A coming-home story and a comingto-terms story of grief and monsters, as Elina must face down old transgressions to catch a pike and save a life.
Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros (Piatkus £22, 640pp) and Summer Fishing in Lapland by Juhani Karila (Pushkin £12.99, 352pp)
INFINITY GATE
by M.R. Carey (Orbit £18.99, 512pp)
A bona-fide sci-fi blockbuster where AI and quantum-leaping have combined to create a lethal, cosmic mess. Caught up in the mayhem are a Nigerian sex-worker, a disembodied scientific genius and a clever rabbit — because in an infinite universe, anything is possible. Huge complexity, awesome story-telling, utterly gripping.
INK BLOOD SISTER SCRIBE
by Emma Törzs (Century £16.99, 416pp)
Here be blood magic, secret libraries, a major, magical conspiracy and sisters, one with powers that put her family’s life at risk. This is a scorchingly good debut with a grand geographic sweep, an excellent variation on spell-casting, hugely satisfying family dynamics and surprisingly gory episodes of quite squirm-inducing efficacy.
L-R: INFINITY GATE by M.R. Carey (Orbit £18.99, 512pp); INK BLOOD SISTER SCRIBE by Emma Törzs (Century £16.99, 416pp)
Debuts
Sara Lawrence
WEIRDO
by Sara Pascoe (Faber £14.99, 368pp)
Hilarious and heart-breaking, this stars Sophie who works in a pub and Chris who likes to drink in them. He turns up in Sophie’s bar and she can’t believe her eyes — they’ve got serious history but he doesn’t seem to recognise her. Sophie’s internal monologue is juxtaposed against the reality of what’s happening. Sensational.
PLAYING GAMES
by Huma Qureshi (Sceptre £16.99, 320pp)
Ever since their mother died, youngest sister Mira has taken up a lot of eldest Hana’s headspace. Mira struggles financially and has no inspiration for the play she’s planning. Hana’s life appears sorted, but she’s having a hard time privately. Mira overhears Hana arguing and starts writing. It’s brilliant on siblings, secrets and storytelling itself.
SOMETHING BLUE
by Alex Sarkis (Ultimo Press £14.99, 352pp)
Set in Sydney’s diverse Western suburbs, this tender comingof-age story also functions as a love letter to the glorious, foliage-filled melting pot of its location. Lebanese-Australian Nicole is heartbroken and trying to get her life back on track, but is feeling suffocated by the interference of her noisy family. Nuanced and evocative.
