Source Code by Bill Gates
The Microsoft founder has written a memoir about his early years, from childhood until his decision to drop out of Harvard and start a company. It’s the first in a planned trilogy, but, given it covers the least-known stretch of his life, it’s likely to be the most revelatory.
Minority Rule by Ash Sarkar
Minority Rule is a fearless and clear-eyed dissection of how protest and collective action is under assault in the modern world, and how an irrational fear of minorities is being used to misdirect the public from their true enemies: hedge fund managers, press barons, landlords and corporations.
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie hasn’t published a novel since 2013’s brilliant Americanah – understandably, the success of her defining manifesto We Should All Be Feminists pulled her in the direction of non-fiction. Dream Count, then, is a hotly anticipated return to fiction. As with her previous work, it has a broad sweep, chronicling the lives of four Nigerian women of whom two live in America. Love, death, motherhood.
Flesh by David Szalay
David Szalay’s has long been on the literary radar, making Granta’s 2013 list of best young British novelists, and being shortlisted for the Booker Prize for his 2016 novel All That Man Is. His latest is called, simply, Flesh. It follows an introverted 15-year-old boy in Hungary who gets entangled with his older, female neighbour – then later ends up as one of London’s international super-rich. As the title suggests, it’s a book partially about how sex and physical attraction can be the conductor of our lives, a subject that matches Szalay’s trademark sparse, elegant prose style perfectly.
Universality by Natasha Brown
Assembly, Natasha Brown’s debut, was a taut examination of race and class in modern England, drawing on her former career as a banker. Her follow-up, Universality, goes into the world of media, looking at a journalist whose long-read about a bizarre attack – a man is beaten with a gold bar on a farm in Yorkshire – goes viral, with troubling consequences.
John and Paul: A Love Story in Songs by Ian Leslie
Ian Leslie has done the impossible, and breathed new life into one of the world’s most studied bands. Specifically, he’s looking at John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and how – in an inspired bit of framing – their sublimely successful creative partnership in songwriting wasn’t all that different to a romance.
Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever by Lamorna Ash
Inspired by the abrupt embrace of religion by two friends, Lamorna Ash has investigated how many young people are now turning towards faith, not away from it. Don’t Forget We’re Here Forever takes in every facet of this, from youth festivals put on by evangelicals to monasteries on Scottish islands. Along the way, she touches on her own relationship to religion too.
The Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong
A 19-year-old is tempted away from a suicide attempt at the edge of a bridge by an elderly, dementia-struck widow. With little else to do, he becomes her carer, and they develop an unlikely but unbreakable relationship.
The Genius Myth by Helen Lewis
Atlantic journalist Helen Lewis’s first book, 2020’s Difficult Women, rescued key feminist icons from the varnish of history and presented them in all their imperfect glory. For her second, Lewis takes aim a similarly reductive way we categorise notable people: in this case, the super talented. Does the idea of ‘genius’ really serve figures like da Vinci and Austen, or for that matter, modern day titans like Stephen Hawking or Elon Musk? And what does the way we hand out (and withhold) that label say about society?
Men in Love by Irvine Welsh
A new book by Irvine Welsh is always an event, but when it’s an instalment in the Trainspotting series, you’re firmly in throw-a-sickie terrority. The Scottish author has already revisited Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie before, in 2002’s Porno – about the lads in early middle age – and 2012’s origin story prequel Skagboys, both of which rank among his finest works. Tantalisingly, the new novel will pick up immediately after the iconic original novel’s last scene and will follow the four as they attempt to kick heroin and settle down.
Deep End by Ali Hazelwood
Ali Hazelwood is known for her romance novels, such as the popular The Love Hypothesis and Not in Love. Her next release delves into love in the world of competitive sports. Scarlett Vandermeer is a dedicated junior at Stanford University trying to get into medical school and a student-athlete specialising in platform diving.
She has no time for relationships. Lukas Blomqvist the golden boy, a swim captain and world champion who thrives on discipline. They seem to have nothing in common until a well-guarded secret slips out and changes everything. So Scarlett and Lukas make an arrangement, a temporary fling. But when Olympics pressure builds up, their relationship takes a turn and Scarlett realises that staying away from Lukas is impossible changing what she knows about herself and her future.
The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami
From the renowned Arab-American novelist Laila Lalami comes a novel set in a dystopian future where even our dreams are being watched.
Sara has just landed at LAX when agents from the Risk Assessment Administration (RAA) inform her that she will soon commit a crime. Using data from her dreams, the RAA’s algorithm has determined that she is at risk of harming her husband and she must be kept under observation for 21 days. The agents transfer Sara to a retention centre, where she is held with other inmates, all of them women trying to prove their innocence from crimes they are yet to supposedly commit. Then a new resident arrives, leading Sara down a path that sees her face the companies that are taking away her freedom.
Isola by Allegra Goodman
This novel is based on a true story from the 16th century. Marguerite is a young woman destined for a life of prosperity as the heir to a chateau with its own village and land. But everything changes when she is orphaned and her guardian, Jean Francois de la Rocque de Roberval – a volatile older man she has never met – takes control of her assets and future.
Alone and afraid, Marguerite begins a relationship with De Roberval’s servant. The two start meeting secretly when they are discovered by De Roberval who, as punishment, maroons them on a small island. Marguerite is now at the mercy of nature and must learn to survive in the wilderness on her own.
The Talent by Daniel D’Addario
Hollywood is preparing for the biggest night of the year and five actresses hope to win the prize of the night. Adria is the grand dame of the movie industry; Bitty is attempting to control a nervous breakdown; Contessa, a former child star wants the world to take her seriously; Davina wants to make a name for herself in Los Angeles after leaving the London stage; and Jenny, who has always come second to Adria.
This debut novel from Variety chief correspondent Daniel D’Addario is set to be a delicious look into the build up towards the awards season and how the women who are in the business of being perceived and revered are forced to confront truths about themselves.
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The novel follows the lives of four Nigerian women – Chiamaka, Zikora, Omelogor and Kadiatou – and explores themes of love, longing, and self-discovery. Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer who, in the midst of the pandemic, recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices. Zikora, her best friend, is a successful lawyer in the midst of heartbreak turns to the last person she thought she needed. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who is now unsure how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is raising her daughter in America is facing a hardship that will threaten all she has worked to achieve.
All the Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman
Exploring motherhood, parenting challenges and the pressures of fitting in, Harman’s darkly comedic novel follows the story of Florence Grimes, a 31-year-old single mother and former pop star.
Florence is attempting to clear her 10-year-old son Dylan’s name when he becomes the prime suspect in the disappearance of his classmate, Alfie Risby a bully and heir to a frozen food empire, during a school trip. Despite her lack of any investigative skills and her disdain of the other mothers from Dylan’s private school, Florence decides to investigate the case herself and prove her son’s innocence.
Goddess Complex by Sanjena Sathian
Sanjana Satyananda is a 39-year-old woman trying to recover her life after leaving her husband, Killian, at a commune in India when they disagree about having children. She is determined to resurrect her career and get her divorce finalised, but then gets the news that Killian has gone missing. As Sanjana tries to track him down, she is faced with the choices she didn’t take in life and begins to wonder what her life might have been if she’d chosen parenthood.
The Manor of Dreams by Christina Li
This story is told in dual timelines and spans three generations. It begins with the death of actress Vivian Yin, who rose to fame in the 1980s and then disappeared from the spotlight at the height of her career, living out the rest of her life as a recluse.
Now that she has died, her daughters expect to inherit her Southern California garden estate but, in a last-minute change to the will, the house has passed on to another family instead. In hopes of staking their claim, both families move into the mansion and now Vivian’s daughters must find out what happened to their mother during the last weeks of her life.
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Taylor Jenkins Reid has made a name for herself with a run of best-selling novels, including The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & The Six. This year she’s taken her writing back to the setting of the 1980s Space Shuttle programme, with a love story set within it’s high-pressure confines.
Physics and astronomy professor Joan Goodwin has long been fascinated by stars, which prompts her to apply to be one of the first women scientists to join Nasa’s Space Shuttle programme. She is selected, and joins a crop of fellow candidates on the programme, where they strike up life-changing relationships as they prepare to take on their first flight.
Katabasis by RF Kuang
Alice Law is a determined student who has sacrificed almost everything to achieve her dream: to be one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick and to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world.
But then her plans come to a halt when he dies in a magical accident that is possibly her fault. The professor may be dead, but that’s not going to stop Alice from getting her recommendation and secure the future of their academic careers. And that’s exactly the same conclusion her academic rival Peter Murdoch has come to. Now they have to work together to rescue the soul of their adviser.
