Reading Radar - Fresh Of The Press
The latest novels that should be on your radar this April.
This April, dive into a fresh selection of newly released novels spanning genres from slice-of-life fiction to timely dystopian novellas. These captivating stories delve into themes of sexual awakening, heartbreak, resistance, and the intricate dance of human connection.
Immerse yourself in not to distant dystopian futures, where republicans reign and into quiet corners of the world where small acts of kindness spark powerful change. Within these pages, you'll find tender explorations of first love and wickedly imaginative retellings filled with longing, decay, and deadly flora.
This remarkable collection invites you into untold stories of resilience and self-discovery - tales that celebrate the quiet strength of compassion and the bold defiance of those who choose to stand firm when our freedoms and humanity hang in the balance.
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Cat's people by Tanya Guerrero
A cosy, introspective and heartfelt novel - Cat’s People is a uplifting tale covering themes of found family, kindness and connection. Unlikely friendships will blossom as five strangers - brought together through small acts of kindness and a little black cat enchant readers of all ages. The perfect read for cat lovers or those in need of a feel good story.
‘A stray cat brings together five strangers over the course of one fateful summer in this heartwarming novel about love, found family, and the power of connection.
Núria, a single-by-choice barista with a little resentment for the “crazy cat lady” label, is a member of The Meow-Yorkers, a group in Brooklyn who takes care of the neighbourhoods stray cats. On her volunteering days, she starts finding Post-it notes left by a secret admirer in an area where she feeds her favourite stray - a black cat named Cat. Like most felines, he is both curious and observant, so of course he knows who the notes are from. Núria, however, is clueless.
Are the notes from Collin, a bestselling author and self-professed hermit with a weakness for good coffee? Are they from Lily, a fresh-out-of-high school Georgia native searching for her long-lost half sister? Are they from Omar, the beloved neighborhood mailman going through an early midlife crisis? Or are they from Bong, the grieving widower who owns Núria’s favourite bodega?’
Purchase Cat’s People by Tanya Guerrero and add it to your #tbr list here
Eat The Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin
Little shop of horrors with a queer twist - Eat the ones you love is a delightfully wicked young adult novel inspired by a beloved story. This novel has a little bit of everything: monsters, malls, and minimum wage. A glorious novel infused with wit, horror and heart that will have you devouring each insatiable page.
‘This is a story about desire, dreams, decay―and working retail at the end of the world.
After losing her job and her fiancé and moving back from the city to live with her parents, Shell Pine needs some help. And according to the sign in the window, the florist shop in the mall does too. Shell gets the gig, and the flowers she works with there are just the thing she needs to cheer up. Or maybe it's Neve, the beautiful shop manager, who is making her days so rosy?
But you have to get your hands dirty if you want your garden to grow―and Neve's secrets are as dark and dangerous as they come. In the back room of the flower shop, a young sentient orchid actually runs the show, and he is hungry ... and he has a plan for them all.
When the choices are to either bury yourself in the warmth of someone else's fertile soil, or face the cold and disappointing world outside―which would you choose? And what if putting down roots came at a cost far higher than just your freedom?’
Purchase Eat The Ones You Love by Sarah Maria Griffin and add it to your #tbr list here
Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt
A stunning debut novel from the acclaimed young Irish poet Seán Hewitt, reminiscent of Garth Greenwell and Justin Torres in the intensity of its evocation of sexual awakening. A tender novel about how a first love can shape a whole life - a beautiful coming of age tale.
‘Set in a remote village in the north of England, Open, Heaven unfolds over the course of one year in which two teenage boys meet and transform each other's lives.
James—a sheltered, shy sixteen-year-old—is alone in his newly discovered sexuality, full of an unruly desire but entirely inexperienced. As he is beginning to understand himself and his longings, he also realizes how his feelings threaten to separate him from his family and the rural community he has grown up in. He dreams of another life, fantasizing about what lies beyond the village's leaf-ribboned boundaries, beyond his reach: autonomy, tenderness, sex. Then, in the autumn of 2002, he meets Luke, a slightly older boy, handsome, unkempt, who comes with a reputation for danger. Abandoned by his parents—his father imprisoned, and his mother having moved to France for another man—Luke has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle on their farm just outside the village. James is immediately drawn to him "like the pull a fire makes on the air, dragging things into it and blazing them into its hot, white centre," drawn to this boy who is beautiful and impulsive, charismatic, troubled. But underneath Luke's bravado is a deep wound—a longing for the love of his father and for the stability of family life.
Open, Heaven is a novel about desire, yearning, and the terror of first love. With the striking economy and lyricism that animate his work as a poet, Hewitt has written a mesmerizing hymn to boyhood, sensuality, and love in all its forms. A truly exceptional debut.’
Purchase Open, Heaven by Seán Hewitt and add it to your #tbr list here
Bitter Texas Honey by Ashley Whitaker
Whitaker’s debut novel is a painful, hilarious and offbeat novel filled with larger than life characters, nimble prose and deadpan delivery which will leave you wildly entertained as she mercilessly makes assessment of the political, moral, and cultural roots of America’s current divide. An uncompromising timely read - one to add to your #tbr pile this year.
‘The Royal Tenenbaums meets Fleabag in this hilarious and dizzyingly smart debut about an over-the-top evangelical Texan family—and the daughter at its centre racing to finish her very important novel before her ex-boyfriend finishes his.
It's 2011, and twenty-three-year-old Joan West is not like the rest of her liberal peers in Austin, nor is she quite like her Tea Party Republican, God-loving family. Sure, she listens to conservative talk radio on her way to and from her internship at the Capitol. But she was once an America-hating leftist who kissed girls at parties, refused to shave, and had plenty of emotionless sex with jazz school friends—that is until a drug-induced mania forced her to return to her senses.
But above all Joan is a writer, an artist, or at least she desperately wants to be. Always in search of inspiration for her novel, she catalogs every detail of her relationships with men—including with her former muse slash current arch nemesis Roberto—and mines her very dysfunctional family for material. But when her beloved, credit card debt–racked cousin Wyatt finds himself in crisis, Joan's worldview is cracked open and everything comes crashing down.
Funny, whip-smart, and often tender, Bitter Texas Honey introduces us to the unforgettable and indefatigable Joan West: ambitious, full of contradictions, utterly herself. As she wades through it all—addiction, politics, loss, and, notably, her father's string of increasingly bizarre girlfriends—we witness her confront what it means to be a person, and an artist, in the world.’
Purchase Bitter Texas Honey by Ashley Whitaker and add it to your #tbr list here
ATAVISTS by Lydia Millet
Often described comic, erudite, humane - Millet’s one of the most original voices in fiction today. Delve into these short intertwined stories that evoke the joy and alienation between generations and classes in the era of mass overwhelm. A blunt assessment of our refusal to deal with the ecological catastrophes we have created and a tender portrait of human beings with all their foibles. Sharply observed, beautifully rendered, and heartbreaking.
‘From Lydia Millet comes an inventive new collection of short fiction. Atavists follows a group of families, couples, and loners in their collisions, confessions, and conflicts in a post-pandemic America of artificially lush lawns, beauty salons, tech-bro mansions, assisted-living facilities, big-box stores, gastropubs, college campuses, and medieval role-playing festivals.
The various "-ists" who people these linked stories - from futurists to insurrectionists to cosmetologists - include a professor who's morbidly fixated on an old friend's Instagram account; a woman convinced that her bright young son-in-law is watching geriatric porn; a bodybuilder who lives an incel's fantasy life; a couple who surveil the neighbours after finding obscene notes in their mailbox; a pretentious academic accused of plagiarism; and a suburban ex-marathoner dad obsessed with hosting refugees in a tiny house in his backyard.’
Purchase ATAVISTS by Lydia Millet and add it to your #tbr list here
The Mademoiselle Alliance by Natasha Lester
A passionate, fiery tribute to a historical woman so extraordinary she almost defies belief. An incredible story of courage, devotion, and daring - The Mademoiselle Alliance is a moving, powerful homage to the French Resistance.
‘In this stunning work of historical fiction, the New York Times bestselling author of The Paris Orphan brings to life the true story of Marie-Madeleine Fourcade, who led one of the largest and most effective resistance networks in France during World War II.
Marie-Madeleine is not the kind of woman who goes through life sitting down, and it's a trait that not everyone is a fan of—including her husband. But what's a beautiful eighteen-year-old girl in Morocco to do if not drive in car rallies, learn to fly planes, and dabble in intelligence work for the French government?
Years later, when she returns to France after the breakdown of her marriage, she expects things to settle down a bit. But a chance meeting with a mysterious man codenamed Navarre turns her life upside down. An equally passionate patriot, he asks her to help him influence those who don't yet understand that France is on the brink of war with Nazi Germany. Her efforts are a tremendous success, and her life in the resistance begins.
When war finally does erupt, Navarre is arrested and imprisoned, leaving their Alliance network without a leader. Marie-Madeleine finds herself stepping into the role, heedless of the many men who doubt her ability to do so.
Running a spy network is exceptionally complicated, and capture and death are always only a heartbeat away for both Marie-Madeleine and the agents under her care. But she rises above expectations at every turn, achieving seemingly impossible feats of espionage that help turn the tide of the war. But the most impossible, and dangerous, of them all? Falling in love.
Natasha Lester beautifully brings Marie-Madeleine Fourcade's story to life in this powerful, heartbreaking tale of resilience that reminds us all of what it means to cherish those we love and fight for them with every breath.’
Purchase The Mademoiselle Alliance by Natasha Lester and add it to your #tbr list here.
Plum by Andy Anderegg
For fans of Sarah Rose Etter and Scott McClanahan, Plum is a darkly beautiful, unflinching novel about modern girlhood in the internet age, the daily toll of trauma, and the limits of love. Plum is a truly original, tender, and heart-searing novel about the secrets we keep, all the ways a soul can be broken, and the lies we have to tell ourselves to move on.
’Told entirely in the second person, Plum follows J as she grows from kid to teen in a house ruled by her alcoholic dad and complicit mother. Her older brother is sometimes wonderful, sometimes gross, and he's her only hope of getting out. J's world is one of nail polish, above-ground pools, and drive-thrus—and of violence, carelessness, and so many rules. J covets the peace that comes when she slips on her headphones, turns on her handheld radio, and dreams of how she and her brother can make their escape.
When her brother leaves home and disappears, so does J's best chance to flee her parents' chaotic orbit. Alone and angry, J reaches through her computer screen for the life she wants: blonde hair, glittering nails, attention, freedom. As she stumbles into adulthood with no template to follow, J must figure out how to build a family for herself full of the love she deserves. In her brutally compelling debut, Anderegg turns her singular gaze on the generational patterns of addiction and abuse.’
Purchase Plum by Andy Anderegg and add it to your #tbr list here.
The Beauty Of The End by Lauren Stienstra
What would society do if they knew the human species would go extinct? What would society allow? What lengths would people go to, to have a child? This work of speculative fiction delves into these questions.
Readers seeking a dystopian tale of science fiction that has some similarity to stories like The Handmaid’s Tale, Children of Men, and Station Eleven may want to give this novel a try.
‘In this provocative work of speculative fiction, two sisters navigate the complex moral terrain of reproductive ethics, individual freedoms, and society's duty to a future facing imminent extinction.
Charlie Tannehill and her twin sister, Maggie, are just eight years old when an unfortunate scientific discovery upends their world―and the world order. The revelation? Extinction, encoded in every creature's DNA. The expiration date for humans? Only four generations away.
A decade later, unsure of what tomorrow holds, Charlie and Maggie enroll as counselors in a government-run human-husbandry program. By offering cash rewards for reproduction, they hope to forestall humanity's decline and discover a genetic mutation that might defeat it. While Charlie struggles with the ethical implications of the work, Maggie makes unspeakable sacrifices to improve her odds of success―but such unchecked ambition could come at a greater cost than even she realizes.
Torn between her own morality, her love for her sister, and the pressures of a vanishing civilisation, Charlie must search deep within to decide what she's willing to sacrifice―for herself, for Maggie, and for society―to salvage hope for the whole of humankind.’
Purchase The Beauty Of The End by Lauren Stienstra and add it to your #tbr list here.