This month, our friends at Gloucester Road Books share new releases they’re particularly excited about…
A note from the team: “Our primary aim is that the shop be a fascinating place to explore. We have a significant focus on titles published by small independent presses.
There are lots of really brilliant small publishers putting out incredibly exciting books, and we want to help get these out into the world.” Visit the website for more details on book launches, talks and other events at the shop.
Click on the books to pre-order or buy.
gloucesterroadbooks.com; @gloucester_rd_books;
184 Gloucester Road, Bishopston, BS7 8NU.
Open Monday and Tuesday 9.30am-5pm;
Wednesday to Saturday 9.30am-6pm
James, by Percival Everett, Mantle, out now
The release of James in paperback is approaching! One of our favourite reads of 2024, Percival Everett brings his wild genius imagination to the world of Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn, reframing our perspective as readers to centre the experience of James, the enslaved man known as Jim from the original novel. This is an adventure story very much in the mode of Twain’s, but as we have come to expect from Everett, it is much more besides.
You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue, Harvill Secker, out now
You Dreamed of Empires is a fictionalised account of a meeting between the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés, and Moctezuma, leader of the Aztec, empire in what is now Mexico City, but was at the time the extraordinary floating city of Tenoxtitlan. There is plenty of political intrigue here, on both sides, and the novel is pyrotechnically rich with sensory experience. It was one of the most extraordinary books I read last year, and now out in paperback. Savour it!
Love in Exile by Shon Faye, Allen Lane,
out 6 February
Faye provides an insight into a loveless experience of the world and what that can do to a person who feels there is something inherently wrong with them. At once deeply personal and importantly universal, this promises to be an illuminating and guiding text that argues for more, deeper, connections.
Show Don’t Tell, by Curtis Sittenfeld, Doubleday, out 27 February
A collection of short stories with characters no less familiar or complete than those you’d find in Sittenfeld’s novels. This collection promises to be gloriously entertaining and tender – the perfect chunks to sink into after a chaotic holiday season. Sittenfeld writes about the essential stuff of life, the messy, wonderful, bewildering essence of human relationships.
Gender Theory by Madeline Docherty, John Murray, out now
Madeline Docherty’s novel, Gender Theory blends the confusion and longing of teenage self-discovery with the more literal pain of coming to terms with chronic illness. The second-person narrative allows us to immerse ourselves in the raw vulnerability, and the blurred boundaries of female friendship felt all too familiar. A searing debut.
