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In brief - our guide to the books that authors have talked about at this year's festival: fiction in focus

Here’s our roundup of novels by speakers at the festival. We haven’t included everyone at the Author Fair, only people who have been part of panels, or talked about their book in a session, or Masterclass.


From Booker Prize-winners, to film adapted eco-fiction writers, to local independently published writers, we’ve met a plethora of amazing and talented writers this festival! Why not peruse our summary. Remember, writers get a small amount of money from each library borrow, so you could also see if your local library has a copy (and ask them, if not)!


If you buy via our Bookshop.org page we get a small percentage of the money, as does our nominated indie bookshop. Books are also available to order from local and online bookstores, and where they are independently published we’ve linked to there too.


And if you like the sound of a book by one of our authors below – why not have a dive into their other novels too?

 

Ecological disasters and dystopian futures



Hive April Doyle

Near-future Britain. Climate change has led to food shortages and civil unrest. Pollinating insects are in steep decline. Commercial bee farmer Victor Martin travels around the farms of Kent with his hives to pollinate fruit trees and crops. Local research entomologist Dr Annie Abrams is devastated when she’s ordered to give up her captive bee colonies – her life’s work - to join forces with Victor and ensure a harvest.  But the bees are dying.


The End We Start From Megan Hunter

As flood waters close over London, a woman gives birth to a child. Heartfelt and urgently original, The End We Start From is the compulsive debut novel from Megan Hunter. Days after giving birth, mother and child are forced to leave home in search of safety. The journey north with be dangerous – but new life and fresh hope push them on . . .


'Beautifully spare and haunting' - Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven

'Extraordinary. Megan Hunter's prose is exquisite' – Hannah Kent, author of Burial Rites


The Last Good Man Thomas McMullan

WINNER OF THE BETTY TRASK PRIZE

'A Scarlet Letter for our times' MARGARET ATWOOD

'An extraordinary and disquieting work of imagination, and as original as any novel I've read in recent memory' ROB DOYLE


Duncan Peck has travelled alone to Dartmoor in search of his cousin. He has come from the city, where the fires are always burning. In his cousin's village, Peck finds a place with tea rooms and barley fields, a church and a schoolhouse. Out here, the people live an honest life - and if there's any trouble, they have a way to settle it. They sit in the shadow of a vast wall, inscribed with strange messages. Anyone can write on the wall, anonymously, about their neighbours, about any wrongdoing that might hurt the community. Then comes the reckoning.


The Seawomen Chloe Timms

They say wickedness lies in the sea. To touch the water - to even look at it - will stir up the sin that naturally lives in the heart of each woman. The only path to salvation is obedience, marriage and motherhood. Those women on the isle of Eden who fail in their duty will be cast back into the dark water, without mercy.


When danger forces Esta beyond the shallows, she uncovers a different world. One of freedom and power. It sets her on a course to uncover a secret sunk beneath the waves and the truth that will tear Eden apart.


Fantastical visions



The Masquerades Of Spring Ben Aaronovitch

Meet Augustus Berrycloth-Young - fop, flaneur, and Englishman abroad - as he chronicles the Jazz Age from his perch atop the city that never sleeps. That is, until his old friend Thomas Nightingale arrives, pursuing a rather mysterious affair concerning an old saxophone - which will take Gussie from his warm bed, to the cold shores of Long Island, and down to the jazz clubs where music, magic, and madness haunt the shadows...

A Rivers of London novella.


Complete Darkness Matt Adcock

For centuries many have pondered the prospect of an afterlife and feared what came to be known as ‘hell’. In the near future, we map the elusive ‘dark matter’ around us, only to find out that it is hell itself, and it is very real…

As the satanic President Razour attempts to bring forward Armageddon to prevent humanity repenting, the fate of us all rests in the hands of Cleric20, a hedonistic loner with a chequered past, and his robot sidekick, GiX. See why this was voted as one of Den of Geek UK's Top Books of 2019.


Orphan Planet Rex Burke

 Indie Ink Awards winner, 2023

They needed some help. They woke up the wrong guy.

The colony ship, Odyssey Earth, is on a 17-year voyage across the galaxy to a new home. And Jordan Booth is exactly where he wanted to be – tucked up in hypersleep, with nothing to worry about until planetfall. However, Captain Juno Washington has other ideas. She’s got a quirky ship’s AI, Reeves, and a crew of loners and oddballs, but what she doesn’t have is anyone to look out for the Odyssey Earth’s six ship-born teenagers. When Jordan is revived and given the job, he’s far from happy about it. Then again, nor are the kids. Tight-knit, whip-smart, resilient – the last thing they need is a chaperone, and they make sure he knows it.


Icebreaker Steven William Hannah

A frozen, psychedelic post-apocalyptic Scotland. Shamanic science fiction, written in a unique voice, with a strong cast of memorable characters. A trilogy-spanning mystery that answers every question it raises. Cosmic horror, artificial intelligence, and questions of consciousness, perception and identity. Inside their walls, the people are safe from exposure to the unnamed horror that broke the world long ago; but now Bear, the last scientist in Forgehead, takes a case that threatens to throw that safety into question.


Wilthaven Oli Jacobs

Welcome to Wilthaven! A quiet English town that thrives on local produce, old fashioned values, and survival against the rule of an Eldritch Abomination. Here, you will enjoy endless walks, soothing sounds, forceful avatars, and the kind of joys that only an English township can bring! (Please note: this dossier has been compiled by the BPD based on materials found relating to P1983 - or Wilthaven as you know it. Treat every sentence, word, image, and syllable with the utmost paranoia. Be safe.) Wilthaven is a horror comedy by Oli Jacobs.


cover of The Famished Road
The Famished Road - Ben Okri

The Famished Road Sir Ben Okri

WINNER OF THE BOOKER PRIZE 1991

'So long as we are alive, so long as we feel, so long as we love, everything in us is an energy we can use’

The narrator, Azaro, is an abiku, a spirit child, who in the Yoruba tradition of Nigeria exists between life and death. He is born into a world of poverty, ignorance and injustice, but Azaro awakens with a smile on his face. Nearly called back to the land of the dead, he is resurrected. But in their efforts to save their child, Azaro's loving parents are made destitute. The tension between the land of the living, with its violence and political struggles, and the temptations of the carefree kingdom of the spirits propels this latter-day Lazarus's story. Despite belonging to a spirit world made of enchantment, where there is no suffering, Azaro chooses to stay in the land of the Living: to feel it, endure it, know it and love it. This is his story.


Steen Steve Russell

Demon Hunter. Demon King. Deadly Obsession.

While investigating a series of occult murders across Greater London, Steen, a disillusioned demon hunter, becomes entangled in a deadly game of deceit and demonic cunning. Together with his angel-capuchin partner, Raphael, the two race to identify the malevolent entity behind the killings, desperate to banish him back to Hell before more chaos and bloodshed ensue. Steen’s attempts to stop the demon’s violent ‘disasterpieces’ only draw the two closer together, their connection deepening in unforeseen and obsessive ways as Steen and Raphael do all they can to stop the creature’s grand demonic plans before London falls…

 

Troupe of shadows Jennings Zabrinsky

Throne stolen by her traitorous brother, chased to the edge of the world, Sellane has only her beloved sword, a penchant for ruthlessness, and four elite ‘blade dancer’ bodyguards to her name. Where once she lived a life of courtly duels, decadent feasts, and palace intrigue, she now finds herself weathering the dust of a wild frontier populated by pioneers and warlords. The food has run out, shelter is scarce, her followers are on the verge of mutiny, and she can’t even communicate with the inhabitants of this alien land: the humans. But when she captures Copper, a down-on-his-luck mercenary who happens to speak her language, she seizes a razor-thin opportunity to reverse her fortunes. Her band has the bladecraft, he claims to have the connections, and the frontier will never have enough mercenaries. But can her new ally be trusted? Can her old allies? Will her dysfunctional troupe tear itself apart before they’ve earned a single coin?


Fiction inspired by fact



Daughters of the Nile Zahra Barri

History's repetitions signal the rekindling of revolutionary spirit.

Paris, 1940: The course of Fatiha Bin-Khalid’s life is changed forever when she befriends the Muslim feminist Doria Shafik. But after returning to Egypt and dedicating years to the fight for women’s rights, she struggles to reconcile her political ideals with the realities of motherhood.

Cairo, 1966: After being publicly shamed when her relationship with a bisexual boyfriend is revealed, Fatiha’s daughter is faced with an impossible decision. Should Yasminah accept a life she didn’t choose, or will she leave her home and country in pursuit of independence?

Bristol, 2011: British-born Nadia is battling with an identity crisis and a severe case of herpes. Feeling unfulfilled (and after a particularly disastrous one-night stand), she moves in with her old-fashioned Aunt Yasminah and realises that she must discover her purpose in the modern world before it’s too late. Following the lives of three women from the Bin-Khalid family, Daughters of the Nile is an original and darkly funny novel that examines the enduring strength of female bonds. These women are no strangers to adversity, but they must learn from the past and relearn shame and shamelessness to radically change their futures.



Secret Street Louisa Campbell

One street in a royal town. Twelve people. Twelve secrets.

Known to all but herself as "Minty", royal-obsessed Araminta Cavendish pretends to be posh. Eighty-two, single and lonely, she plans to make friends and become her street's queen bee by organising a Platinum Jubilee street party. But when a last-minute knock on the door threatens to spoil everything, she discovers her neighbours have secrets of their own. Secret Street recounts the tale of Araminta as she sets out on a quest to find friends. Each friend she makes tells her their secret story, and each story gives Araminta a gift of knowledge that helps her learn the only way to find peace - and friendship - is to be herself.


Country Michael Hughes

"A fierce and suspenseful reimagining of Homer's Iliad set in mid-1990s Northern Ireland--a heart pounding tale of honor and revenge that "explodes with verbal invention, rapid juxtaposition, brutality and fun" (Times Literary Supplement).


Northern Ireland, 1996.

After twenty-five years of vicious conflict, the IRA and the British have agreed to an uneasy ceasefire as a first step towards lasting peace. But, faced with the prospect that decades of savage violence and loss have led only to smiles and handshakes, those on the ground in the border country question whether it really is time to pull back--or quite the opposite.

When an IRA man's wife turns informer, he and his brother gather their comrades for an assault on the local army base. But old grudges boil over, and the squad's feared sniper, Achill, refuses to risk his life to defend another man's pride. As the gang plots without him, the British SAS are sent to crush the rogue terror cell before it can wreck the fragile truce and drag the region back to the darkest days of the Troubles. Meanwhile, Achill's young protégé grabs his chance to join the fray in his place...


Inspired by the oldest war story of them all, Michael Hughes's virtuoso novel explores the brutal glory of armed conflict, the cost of Ireland's most uncivil war, and the bitter tragedy of those on both sides who offer their lives to defend the dream of country.


Psychological Thriller


front cover of Under Her Roof
Under Her Roof - AA Chaudhuri

Under Her Roof AA Chaudhuri

‘Intense, intricate and packed with intrigue...a thrilling and addictive read.’ B.A. Paris

When struggling writer Sebastian finds a room to let in a palatial Hampstead residence he cannot believe his luck. The rent is ridiculously cheap and he immediately feels a connection with his beautiful widowed landlady, Adriana.

Things take a dark turn when he finds out what happened to the last lodger. Could this be why the house is a fortress of security, and why Adriana seems so fragile? Adriana doesn’t want to talk about the death and sadness that seem to follow her wherever she goes and Sebastian has secrets of his own. Now someone is watching their every move and there is nowhere to hide.


Historical Thriller


cover of Estella's Revenge
Estella's Revenge by Barbara Havelocke

Estella's Revenge Barbara Havelocke

You know Miss Havisham... The world’s most famous jilted bride... This is her daughter’s story...

Raised in the darkness of Satis House where the clocks never tick, the beautiful Estella is bred to hate men and to keep her heart cold as the grave. She knows she doesn’t feel things quite like other people do but is this just the result of her strange upbringing? As she watches the brutal treatment of women around her, hatred hardens into a core of vengeance and when she finds herself married to the abusive Drummle, she is forced to make a deadly choice: Should she embrace the darkness within her and exact her revenge?

 

Historical Romance


An Unsustained Charge Janys Thornton

During the First World War, Alice McDonald escapes domestic service to work in the dockyard and play football with her friend Tilly in the Dockyard Stores Ladies team. Her former teacher Hattie West agrees to train the girls and Alice meets the stores’ manager John Phillips. Meanwhile, loner Victor Banks is attracted to Alice. When she repels his advances he attacks her. The assault only ends when Reggie Symonds enters the stores and Victor runs off. Alice complains to her supervisor and the police are called. But the magistrate throws out the case. Hattie decides to take justice into her own hands. Alice’s mother Maggie argues with Victor’s mother, who discovers that Maggie’s cousin Ivy has been jailed for prostitution. Victor starts stalking Alice again but Reggie begins to accompany her, and romance blossoms. The King announces a visit to the dockyard where the women plan to humiliate Victor. As a result, Victor is banished to Pembroke. But more tragedy is on the way…

 

Short story collections



The Man Who Married Himself Charlie Fish

The Man Who Married Himself and Other Stories by Charlie Fish will make you laugh, cry, tremble with fear, but above all – think. Stories that address life’s big questions: How can I be a good person? What is freedom? Is this penny trying to kill me?The definitive collection of the very best Charlie Fish stories, wonderfully illustrated by Yvette Gilbert.


As Long as it Takes Maria C McCarthy

As Long as it Takes gives voice to the lost generation of Irish women who sailed to England to look for work in the middle of the twentieth century. Maura Flaherty and her daughters struggle with identity, belonging, love, sexuality and grief - and dilemmas such as whether to like punk or Elvis. With no concessions to nostalgia or sentimentality, this deeply moving and beautifully written book, by a second-generation Irish writer, tells the interwoven stories of an immigrant family. 


A Tiny Act Of Rebellion Neil M Thorne 

"I constructed an idea in my head that there could be a world very much like our own, set in the future, where art and creativity are illegal. It came from a short story I wrote. The stories are really small and having them hidden beneath postage stamps and posted through the postal system under the eyes of this repressive regime.” The book has a mystery about it. Within the world of the book, who is writing these stories? Do the receivers know they are under the stamp? Questions Neil may answer one day, but not today. 


For copies contact Neil via Facebook - The Neon Bard.

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