READS
2024 PROMISES TO BE AN EXCITING YEAR OF FIRST-TIMER FICTION. HERE ARE OUR PICKS…
The House Of Broken Bricks by Fiona Williams
(Faber, £14.99, out 18th January)
The theme of identity crisis runs throughout this beautifully woven tale of Tess and Richard, a mixed-race couple raising their 10-year-old fraternal twins of different colours in a crooked house in the Somerset Levels. Brilliantly told from four different perspectives and across four seasons; as the impact of Max and Sonny’s contrasting appearances starts to weigh on their lives, so do the vines that creep over their family home.
Green Dot by Madeleine Gray
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £18.99, out 1st February)
The hype around Australian author Madeleine Gray is hard to ignore, with writers from Caitlin Moran to Elizabeth Day earmarking this brilliantly funny and observant debut as a must-read. At 24, Hera doesn’t know where she’s headed – then she meets Arthur, a middle-aged married journalist and, despite her preference for dating women, she finds herself relishing the cliché of their affair.
The List Of Suspicious Things by Jennie Godfrey
(Hutchinson Heinemann, £14.99, out 15th February)
Inspired by Godfrey’s own childhood in late 1970s Yorkshire, this quirky mystery is also part coming-of-age story. Miv is 12 and convinced the crimes of the Yorkshire Ripper will prompt her father to move her family down south, so she and best friend Sharon decide to make a list of all the suspicious people and
