The Novelists
Paperbacks
Sarah Hall
Faber
Helm
- In three words
- A wind's biography.
- In thirty
- The helm is a mischievous gust that has been having its way with Cumbria since long before wind gauges existed. These are some of its greatest hits, but will climate change spell the end of its reign?
- Sarah Hall's thing
- The Lake District as a laboratory for human experience.
- The press says
- "As fascinating as it is challenging" (Washington Post)
Sergei Lebedev
Apollo
The Lady of the Mine
- In three words
- Ukrainian mine mystery.
- In thirty
- Four intertwined stories on the history of events at a sealed up mine in occupied Ukraine. Events both inside and around the abandoned shaft resonate long after the last piece of coal has been dug.
- Sergei Lebedev's thing
- The signals still given off by rusting Soviet industry.
- The press says
- "Striking beauty and unsettling violence." (Jewish Book Council)
Nell Stevens
Scribner
The Original
- In three words
- Artist contemplates impostor.
- In thirty
- With her parents in an asylum, in 1899 painter Grace is sent to live with chilly relatives. When a man claiming to be their son returns, presumed lost at sea, it falls to misfit Grace to work out exactly what is going on.
- Nell Stevens' thing
- Sharp-eyed nineteenth century female observers.
- The press says
- "Endlessly intriguing." (The Observer)
Nell Zink
Penguin
Sister Europe
- In three words
- Award guests escape.
- In thirty
- After sharing their cultured and provocative opinions with each other at an interminable literary award ceremony in Berlin, the guests flee the tedium in search of some nocturnal excitement.
- Nell Zink's thing
- Public performance vs. private self.
- The press says
- "You may feel you are in an absurdist play." (New York Times)
Charlotte Runcie
Borough Press
Bring the House Down
- In three words
- Wronged actor's revenge.
- In thirty
- At the Edinburgh festival, a critic gives a one-woman show a bad review, then sleeps with her. On discovering the insult, she incorporates it into her show. His humiliation goes viral.
- Charlotte Runcie's thing
- Debut! The challenge of being an objective critic.
- The press says
- "A turbulent and harrowing ride." (Chicago Review of Books)
Katie Kitamura
Vintage
Audition
- In three words
- Actress meets "son".
- In thirty
- On meeting a young man for lunch in New York, an actress learns that he thinks he might be her son. She knows that such a thing is not possible, so what is all this elaborate performance about, then?
- Katie Kitamura's thing
- The deceitful ways we present ourselves to others.
- The press says
- "A tension that coils tightly." (The Nation)
Emma Pattee
Borough Press
Tilt
- In three words
- Earthquake while pregnant.
- In thirty
- The big one hits as a woman due to give birth is shopping at a Portland, Oregon IKEA. Suddenly deprived of all of civilisation's conveniences, she walks home amid the carnage.
- Emma Pattee's thing
- Debut! The fragility of all of our foundations.
- The press says
- "A winning sense of gallows humour." (Washington Post)
Rob Franklin
Simon & Schuster
Great Black Hope
- In three words
- Black professional arrested.
- In thirty
- A gay young Black man, arrested in the Hamptons in possession of a speck of coke, is saved from career humiliation by family money. But his real attention is on getting to the bottom of the "overdose" death of his closest friend.
- Rob Franklin's thing
- Debut! The intersection of race and privilege.
- The press says
- "Smart and scintillating." (Kirkus)
Rebecca Wait
Riverrun
Havoc
- In three words
- Epidemic panics boarders.
- In thirty
- A new girl arrives at a barely functioning girl's boarding school, as does the academy's first ever male teacher, as does a hysteria-spreading and science-confounding contagion. Macabre and funny.
- Rebecca Wait's thing
- Small groups trapped by circumstance.
- The press says
- "St. Trinian's on steroids." (The Guardian)