New Summer Book Releases
Summer is the time a lot of us manage to fit in some well needed reading time: by the pool, at the beach, or maybe at a picnic. If you’re ready to read something hot off the press, but not sure where to start, we suggest five of the best new releases that have just graced the shelves or will do very soon…
Either/Or - Elif Batuman (May 24)
Bautman’s second novel focuses on a Havard student mining her own life for scraps of material to fill her semi-autobiographical creative writing. Love, lust and life itself is pondered and shaped as the protagonist tries to work out the meaning of all that has happened to her, and its relevant literary value. Funny, nostalgic and very smart - will have you cracking up on the beach!
Yerba Buena - Nina LaCour (May 31)
Yerba Buena is LaCour’s first adult novel, with a number of successful sapphic young adult tales already to her name. In this offering, she introduces a slow burn, complicated love story between Sara and Emilie, who are trying to overcome their pasts in order to be together. A beautiful tale of two women struggling to find their place in the world.
Life Ceremony: Stories - Sayaka Murata (July 5)
This collection of short stories translated from Japanese to English probe intimacy and individuality. Mixing grotesque tales of bodily horror with those of gentle first infatuations, the stories range from the shocking to the beautiful, showing the full expanse and mastery of Murata’s imagination.
The Women Could Fly - Megan Giddings (Aug. 9)
This feminist dystopian novel imagines a world in which women are mandated to be married by 30 or forced to submit to a life of monitoring and rules. Jo, the protagonist, is fearfully watching the days tick forward to her 30th birthday. That is until she is given a mysterious request from her long-lost mother, who disappeared when she was a child and was surrounded by rumours of witchcraft. Strange, exciting and full of pointed hints that this future is not too far away from our reality, this will definitely bring some intrigue to your summer.
Afterlives - Abdulrazak Gurnah (Aug. 23)
Germany’s brutal colonisation of East Africa (what is known as Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda today) is an atrocity with little presence in the public consciousness. Gurnah’s novel exposes these horrors for what they really were, focusing on three young friends and survivors who return home after being spereated by war and slavery. A sensitive, heart wrenching look at the cost of survival and the effects of colonialism.
