Our friends at Gloucester Road Books present their pick of the fresh pages being published this month which should be top of your ‘to read’ list…
The Leveret by Anna Goldreich – Penguin Books – paperback published June 18
This story of queer love promises to be a heartbreaking and nuanced exploration of the differing forms grief can take. After suffering a misscarriage Phoebe and Clare move to the countryside, both are grieving with Phoebe trying to reassimilate into a community she left a long time ago, and Clare fixating her love onto something new; a baby hare she finds in the forest. In tender but unsettling prose, this novel comes highly anticipated for its moving and uniquely-told story.
The Disco at the End of the World by Nathan Tavares – Titan Books – paperback published June 16
This sounds like a delightfully weird gambol through time and space. Set in the 1970s of an alternate reality, and moving between alien encounters on moon bases to fighting fascism in the Queer discos of Los Angeles, this genre-hopping novel sounds like the perfect antidote to the trying times we find ourselves in.
The Cuckoo’s Lea: The Forgotten History of Birds and Place by Michael J. Warren – Bloomsbury – paperback published June 4
Through etymology, history, and early literature, Michael J. Warren traces our connections to birds and place across England. In deciphering old place names for land dispossessed of their original use, Warren uncovers the parallels of a medieval world hidden in phrases and still existing in plain sight. He identifies toponyms that refer to cranes, crows, eagles, hawks, owls, and cuckoos, addressing the emotional and imaginative capacity of our relationship to birds and place and the shifting base of language we use to describe them.
Make Strange by Niamh Campbell – Wiedenfeld & Nicolson – hardback published June 4
Right from her first novel, the Irish writer Niamh Campbell established herself as a fiercely intelligent and accomplished stylist, capturing contemporary Irish life with astonishing accuracy. Make Strange is her third novel and takes on the subject of motherhood through an unsettling dislocation of a child asking ‘Mama, do you remember when I died?’ We can expect a rich story of contemporary family life and the pasts that come to haunt them told through Campbell’s signature descriptive and vivid prose.
The Aquatics by Osvalde Lewat – translated by Maren Baudet-Lackner – Cassava Republic Press – hardback published June 4
Set in a fictional country named Zambuena, this novel explores the social and political disturbances of a post-colonial African society. Katmé is the wife of a wealthy and ambitious public figure and finds herself at the crux of conflicting values. Her mother’s grave is to be exhumed with the proposal of a new highway and her friendship with a gutsy, Queer artist risks her husband’s position in a country where homosexuality is outlawed. Lewat’s debut novel promises to be an emotive and brazen study of the liberal plundering of Africa and the friction between tradition and progressive ideals.
Visit Gloucester Road Books‘ website for more details on book launches, talks and other events at the shop. @gloucester_rd_books | 184 Gloucester Road, Bishopston, BS7 8NU | Open Monday and Tuesday, 9.30am-5pm; and Wednesday to Saturday, 9.30am-6pm
