International fiction
Travellers by Helon Habila
A unnamed narrator accompanies his artist wife who’s been awarded a fellowship in Berlin. She is American, he is Nigerian. After a miscarriage they both feel unmoored; they both react differently: his PhD is floundering, Gina has become immersed in…
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Colson Whitehead’s first novel since his Pulitzer prize-winning The Underground Railroad, The Nickel Boys is historical fiction. Whitehead based the setting on the Dozier School for Boys and drew on interviews with former students to write this novel. Whitehead…
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak
In the last few minutes of her life, Leila’s mind begins to recall some of the most important moments of her existence. Each moment is accompanied by the distinct memory of an exquisite food and the personal events that are…
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
This generous novel is not for fans of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love. Rather, it is for readers that want to be taken on a glorious, fictitious adventure through the 1940s and beyond. Set in New York, the narrative…
Big Sky by Kate Atkinson
‘It was a good day when you saved someone’s life. Even better when you didn’t die saving them.’ Lately, that’s the kind of day happening quite often in the life of private investigator Jackson Brodie. In fact, a bit more…
This Brutal House by Niven Govinden
This Brutal House felt slightly dystopian before I realised I was immersed in the language of drag queens, vogue balls, runaways, and sex workers in New York City. It’s a novel peopled by characters who are battling to live a…
Frankissstein: A Love Story by Jeanette Winterson
Jeanette Winterson returns with another adaptation – this time with Mary Shelley’s much loved gothic horror novel, Frankenstein, drawn into a past-and present narrative about animation, artificial intelligence, bodies and gender.
Our protagonist is transgender man and gifted surgeon…
Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan
In Machines Like Me, Ian McEwan imagines a world in the past that is also the future. Britain has lost the Falklands War and driverless cars are the norm. Alan Turing, the great scientist, is also still alive and…
The Doll Factory by Elizabeth Macneal
In this unusual, yet confidently written debut, Elizabeth Macneal transports the reader to London, 1851. The London of Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray and Wilkie Collins, where the finishing touches are being put on the Crystal Palace, the site of…
The Farm by Joanne Ramos
Golden Oaks is a farm in upstate New York where women (mostly women of colour) are paid to act as ‘hosts’ (surrogates) carrying babies for wealthy clients. The story of The Farm is told by four different women: Ate, Jane…
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