What to read in May – the best new books
Adult siblings, child cousins and tormented teenagers are the focus of this month’s unmissable new book releases.
Image credit: Saga Magazine
Adult siblings, child cousins and tormented teenagers are the focus of this month’s unmissable new book releases.
RRP £16.99 (Quercus)
Still mourning his mother, Johnny Voghel is going nowhere and not very fast, with a job in university admin (not as glamorous as it sounds) and a flatlining relationship. When his older half-brother, Lawrence, a charismatic human crisis, arrives from Chicago, Johnny plays it cool as he angles for Lawrence’s affections. Meanwhile, his house in Swiss Cottage fills up with a cast of brilliantly drawn characters.
Taking place over two weeks, against the background of the Olympics, this is a cracking debut from cultural journalist Robson, an exercise in sparkling repartee amid the North London summer doldrums.
RRP £9.99 (Eye Books)
School counsellor Jane, 41, advises troubled kids, while struggling with demons from her past. She knows the rule: you don’t get involved, right? But when a colleague, Kas, reveals how her childhood abuser has returned to torment her, Jane resolves to do the unthinkable.
An electrifying tale of revenge, by a psychotherapist author, and a warning of the damage wrought by the internet, Pandora’s box.
RRP £16.99 (Penguin Random House UK)
New England, summer 1989. When toddler Abi disappears on their hard-bitten late grandmother’s estate, and the parents are too busy drinking and bickering to notice, a bunch of cousins search all the outbuildings before venturing into the forest, where evil lurks.
A truly quirky debut, droll, smart, unsettling, capturing the surreal, fractured memories of childhood, by a poet author with a gift for simile.
RRP £20 (Penguin Random House UK)
Their septuagenarian artist father, Vic Kemp, has left for his Italian villa to marry 27-year-old Bella-Mae and produce his masterpiece. When they learn he has drowned, the deeply bonded four Kemp siblings, plagued by dark suspicions, set out to find the truth. But neither their stepmother nor any of their certainties will survive.
Fast-paced, savvy, emotionally driven, with shades of My Cousin Rachel.
RRP £16.99 (Elliott & Thompson Limited)
Swifts eat, sleep, mate on the wing, they hurtle 6,000 miles from Africa to nest right about now, heralds of summer, at grave risk of extinction. Bourne-Taylor walked, near naked, a thong-bird in painted plumage, to deliver a petition to Downing Street, now she wants us all to help.
A passionate, eloquent polemic from a conservationist so attuned to the natural world that is singing and dying all around us.
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For the Bake Off judge, the funniest festive season was the one when the lunch went completely wrong.
Jenni Murray is back behind the microphone as she chats to national treasures and household names.
The UK’s bestselling contemporary poet talks about finding huge success in later life and why Christmas is her lifeline.
The singer-songwriter on being diagnosed with ADHD at 70 and how she’s ageing on her own terms.
This frank documentary about the comedian’s European tour reveals the realities of travelling in your 80s.
The baking queen on celebrating her 90th birthday, her daily indulgence and why her husband Paul thinks “cooking is boring”.
The TV star chats about health, her love of sprouts and why she’s been proven right about the detox diet.
