New paperbacks out this month
Benjamin Wood (Author)
Thomas lives a slow, deliberate life with his mother in Longferry, working his grandpa’s trade as a shanker. He rises early to take his horse and cart to the grey, gloomy beach and scrape for shrimp, spending the afternoon selling his wares, trying to wash away the salt and scum, pining for Joan Wyeth down the street, and rehearsing songs on his guitar. At heart, he is a folk musician, but it remains a private dream.
When a striking visitor turns up, bringing the promise of Hollywood glamour, Thomas is shaken from the drudgery of his days and begins to see a different future. But how much of what the American claims is true, and how far can his inspiration carry Thomas?
Haunting and timeless, this is the story a young man hemmed in by his circumstances, striving to achieve fulfilment far beyond the world he knows.
Shari Lapena (Author)
The new gripping and addictive thriller from the No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author of EVERYONE HERE IS LYING.
Bryden and Sam have it all: thriving careers, a smart apartment in a luxury condo, supportive friends and a cherished daughter. The perfect life for the perfect couple.
Then Sam receives a call at his office. Bryden – working from home that day - has failed to collect their daughter from daycare.
Arriving home with their little girl, he finds his wife’s car in the underground garage. Upstairs in their apartment her laptop is open on the table, her cell phone nearby, her keys in their usual place in the hall.
Except Bryden is nowhere to be seen. It’s as if she just walked out.
How can she have disappeared from her own home? And did she even leave the building at all?
With every minute that passes – and as questions swirl around their community – Bryden and Sam’s past seems a little less perfect, their luxury condo less safe, their friends, neighbours and relatives no longer quite so reliable . . .
'A modern master of the psychological thriller.' STEVE CAVANAGH
'The queen of page-turners' ANDREA MARA
'Shari Lapena keeps you guessing until the very last page.' PAULA HAWKINS
'Shari Lapena is the undisputed queen of dysfunctional families.' CLARE MACKINTOSH
Rory Clements (Author)
THE CLOSER YOU GET, THE FURTHER YOU HAVE TO FALL . . .
Munich, 1936: All eyes are on the Bavarian capital for the upcoming Olympic Games. As athletes fight for gold and the Nazis fight for power, Detective Sebastian Wolff faces a battle of his own.
A famous actress has disappeared and Wolff has been ordered to find her, fast. But Elena Lang is no ordinary film-star: she is the mistress of Joseph Goebbels - Hitler's right-hand man in the party that Wolff despises.
But corruption runs deep in Munich and Elena is just the first to go missing. In a search that will take him from high society to the city's darkest corners, Wolff is about to learn just how easy the hunter becomes the hunted. This is a city on the brink of war, and some enemies are better left alone.
Walking the tightrope between justice and jeopardy, Evil in High Places is the gripping new historical thriller from the million-copy bestseller, Rory Clements.
Katie Kitamura (Author)
**LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2026**
**SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2025**
A GUARDIAN, INDEPENDENT and NEW STATESMAN Book of the Year
'Slick, sharp, strange and singular . . . You’ll gulp this novel down in one in-breath' SAMANTHA HARVEY, Booker Prize-winning author of Orbital
'A lightning bolt of a novel' FINANCIAL TIMES
'I’m not sure there’s anyone better writing in America today' ALEX PRESTON, Observer
One woman, the performance of a lifetime. Or two. An exhilarating, destabilising novel that asks whether we ever really know the people we love
Two people meet for lunch in a Manhattan restaurant. She’s an accomplished actress in rehearsals for an upcoming premiere. He’s attractive, troubling, young – young enough to be her son. Who is he to her, and who is she to him? In this compulsively readable, brilliantly constructed novel, two competing narratives unspool, rewriting our understanding of the roles we play every day – partner, parent, creator, muse – and the truths every performance masks, especially from those who think they know us most intimately.
Taut and hypnotic, Audition is Katie Kitamura at her virtuosic best.
Paige Toon (Author)
What if the person you love the most is the one you can’t have?
Grace has loved Jackson since she was fifteen – when they spent every childhood summer exploring France's breathtaking Ardèche region together. They were best friends, until life took its course and Jackson married someone else.
Years later, Jackson re-enters Grace’s life with an irresistible offer: her dream job in the very town where their story began. And he’s newly single.
As memories from those idyllic summers flood back, Grace encounters an old friend Étienne, who proposes a plan to help make Jackson jealous. But as their scheme unfolds, Grace finds herself questioning if the sparks between them might not be so pretend after all…
Unbeknownst to Grace, Étienne is harbouring a secret that could shatter her world.
Will learning the truth finally set her heart free?
Or is this the beginning of a love story bigger than she ever imagined?
______________
Praise for Paige Toon:
‘You’ll love it, cry buckets and be uplifted’ Marian Keyes
'Paige Toon makes me fall in love and then breaks my heart every time' Giovanna Fletcher‘Nobody writes angst and joy and hope like Paige Toon’ Christina Lauren‘Paige’s beautiful, emotional love stories sweep me away’ Beth O’Leary‘Warms your heart, shatters it in pieces, then puts it back together again and again’ Abby Jimenez‘Paige Toon breaks your heart then stitches it back together with expert hands’ Carley Fortune'A sweeping love story that is deep, complex and so, so riveting. I devoured this novel in one glorious gulp and still wanted more.' Jill Santopolo
Jojo Moyes (Author)
Lila Kennedy has a lot on her plate. A recently broken marriage, two wayward daughters, a house that is falling apart, and an elderly stepfather who seems to have quietly moved in. Not to mention a once promising writing career that is now in freefall. So when her real dad - a man she has barely seen since he ran off to Hollywood thirty-five years ago - suddenly appears on her doorstep wanting to make amends, it feels like the final straw.
But it turns out even the family you thought you could never forgive might have something to teach you: about love, friendship, and what it actually means to be family.
Nell Zink (Author)
As a Berlin night draws in around the pristine glass exterior of the Hotel Interconti, a ragtag group of friends, family, and potential lovers find themselves frustrated. By promise or threat, they have all gathered at a lavish celebration of an elderly author’s venerable career. But dinner is delayed, the speeches are a drag and the gang – a young trans teen and her father; an ageing publisher and his flakey date; a dog, a troubled heiress and an Arab Prince – begin to feel the pinch of boredom, hunger and horniness. Together they will make their bid for freedom, and will soon embark on an exhilarating odyssey through the city’s shadow and light. . .
Sophisticated, sexy and exquisitely funny, Sister Europe is the remarkable new novel from one of the most singular, brilliant writers working today: a vivid tale of growing up, growing old and getting down.
Oliver Lovrenski (Author)
,
Nichola Smalley (Translator)
Last night i got woke up by marco ringing, and he was crying, he said, he died ivor, he died, and i didnt need to hear who to know, i just hung up.
Ivor and Marco have been getting high since they were thirteen, started dealing at fourteen, by fifteen they were carrying knives. At sixteen years old, they hurtle from one trip to the next, one fight to the next, always watching their backs. Ivor dreams of getting out - finishing school, becoming a lawyer, marrying the girl he loves from the corner shop - but the path he's on only leads one way.
In flashes of firecracker prose, shot through with rare empathy, irrepressible wit and gut-punch pathos, Oliver Lovrenski gives voice to young men growing up in a brutal and chaotic world.
L. K. Steven (Author)
Two decades ago, the Bloodmoons ruthlessly murdered Saffron's parents, destroying her idyllic childhood. Hellbent on revenge, she lied her way into the elite Silvercloak Academy of detectives with a single goal: find a way to bring the Bloodmoons to justice.
But on the eve of her graduation, her deception is expose, and she's given only one option: go undercover and tear the Bloodmoons down from the inside.
Descending into a world where pleasure and pain are the most powerful currencies, Saff must commit some truly heinous deeds to keep her cover - and her life. Not only are there rival gangs and sinister smuggling rings to contend with, there's also her growing feelings for the kingpin's tortured son, and curious prophecy foretelling his death at Saff's hand.
With each day testing her loyalties further, Saff's web of lies becomes harder to spin. And when one false step could destroy everything and everyone she's ever loved...the mage who dedicated her life to vengeance might just have to die for it.
Taylor Jenkins Reid (Author)
***THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER***
'The read of the summer' SUNDAY TIMES
'A richly drawn page-turner' OBSERVER
'Beautifully written, immersive' THE TIMES
'Our favourite TJR novel yet' COSMOPOLITAN
'I absolutely adored this' BRYONY GORDON
READERS ARE SAYING...
'So emotional by the end that I could hardly speak' - Reader Review, 5*****
'Melted my heart by the end' - Reader Review, 5*****
'Taylor Jenkins Reid is the master of a really great love story' - Reader Review, 5*****
'Taylor Jenkins Reid's best book yet' - Reader Review, 5*****
An epic novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s space shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.
In the summer of 1980, Joan Goodwin begins training to be an astronaut at Houston's Johnson Space Centre, alongside an exceptional group of fellow candidates. As the new astronauts prepare for their first flights, Joan finds a passion and a love she never imagined and begins to question everything she believes about her place in the observable universe. Then, in December of 1984, on mission STS-LR9, everything changes in an instant.
Atmosphere is a soaring story about the transformative power of love - this time among the stars.
'Is there a popular fiction writer alive who conveys falling in love better than Taylor Jenkins Reid?'
DAILY MAIL
'Thrilling ... heartbreaking ... uplifting. ... I loved it'
KRISTIN HANNAH, author of The Women
'NASA? Space missions? The 80s? This is a collection of all the things I love. ... Thrilling'
ANDY WEIR, author of Project Hail Mary and The Martian
'Packs a hefty emotional punch'
MAIL ON SUNDAY
'Breathtaking'
HEAT
'Unputdownable'
GRAZIA
Caroline Lea (Author)
Villa Diodati, Lake Geneva, 1816.
Eighteen-year-old Mary Shelley has fled London with her lover, Percy Shelley, and her sister, Claire. Tormented by Shelley’s betrayals, haunted by the loss of their baby and suspicious of her sister’s intentions, Mary seeks a refuge.
But Lord Byron’s villa, lying under ash-shrouded skies, feels more like a trap.
When Byron suggests each guest write a supernatural tale, Mary is as drawn to the challenge as she is, unexpectedly, to Byron himself.
An idea begins to form in her mind . . . spilling out of her in thick, black ink.
A thing given life is before her. But is she in control, or is it?
Sophie Haydock (Author)
‘An immersive tale of muses, betrayal, sex and bad behaviour' Daily Mail
'Deliciously immersive . . . Think of [Haydock] as the art world’s answer to Philippa Gregory . . . I took Madame Matisse on a wet, grey holiday and it swept me into a world of startling, splashy colour' Spectator
A GUNSHOT. A BETRAYAL. THREE LIVES HANG IN THE BALANCE…
Growing up with liberal parents in Paris just before the turn of the century, Amélie is a free spirit. When she meets an enigmatic young artist, she is drawn to the life of colour and passion he seems to promise.
Together, they share struggles and triumphs, heartbreak and joy, until they arrive on France’s sun-soaked Riviera. With them comes Marguerite, Matisse’s headstrong but courageous daughter.
But there too they meet Lydia, a young Russian emigree, who has fled her homeland following the revolution. Lydia also has her dreams. Her passions. And her ambition.
As their lives entangle, each woman must ask herself: what is she willing to sacrifice to follow her heart?
'A stunning act of literary, historical and artistic reimagining, woven with incredible skill – and so beautifully written. It will stay with me for a long while' Donal Ryan
*****
What readers say:
‘Well I adored this. Beautiful and resilient female characters that came to life off the page vividly and passionately. A sweeping story spanning the years that was addictive and intriguing.
‘Features lush, evocative prose that draws readers into the emotional depths of its characters’
‘A triumph… this novel is a must-read for fans of historical fiction, art history, and anyone captivated by the voices of women long silenced by history.’
‘This epic tale takes us from the narrow, dirty streets of Paris to the days of the Russian Revolution, with some time in China, to the hot French Riviera of the 1930s and the French Resistance of World War II. It is rich, it is beautiful and on more than one occasion it made me cry’
‘The scope of this book is terrific. The writing is superb. The characters are totally, utterly believable, with all their biases and peccadilloes’
‘An extraordinary story, about Henri Matisse and his work of course, but more-so these three remarkable, resilient women’
‘Once again, Sophie Haydock claims the lead in my Book of the Year listing. I loved it’
William Boyd (Author)
Gabriel Dax, travel writer and accidental spy, is back in the shadows. Unable to resist the allure of his MI6 handler, Faith Green, he has returned to a life of secrets and subterfuge. Dax is sent to Guatemala under the guise of covering a tinderbox presidential election, where the ruthless decisions of the Mafia provoke pitch-black warfare in collusion with the CIA.
As political turmoil erupts, Gabriel's reluctant involvement deepens. His escape plan leads him to West Berlin, where he uncovers a chilling realisation: there is a plot to assassinate magnetic young President John F. Kennedy. In a race against time, Gabriel must navigate deceit and danger, knowing that the stakes have never been higher.
The Predicament, the second novel in the bestselling espionage trilogy starring Gabriel Dax, William Boyd weaves a masterful tale of suspense, loyalty, love and the dark temptations of spy craft.
Seán Hewitt (Author)
On the cusp of adulthood, James dreams of another life far away from his small village. As he contends with the expectations of his family, his burgeoning desire – an ache for autonomy, tenderness and sex – threatens to unravel his shy exterior.Then he meets Luke. Unkempt and handsome, charismatic and impulsive, he has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle on a nearby farm. Luke comes with a reputation for danger, but underneath his bravado lie anxieties and hopes of his own.With the passing seasons, the two teenagers grow closer and the bond that emerges between them transforms their lives. James falls deeply for Luke, yet he is never sure of Luke’s true feelings. And as the end of summer nears, he has a choice to make – will he risk everything for the possibility of love?
