Books to Look Out For: Summer / Autumn 2015

The second half of 2015 will see new novels from big names including Scarlett Thomas, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Attwood, Jonathan Franzen and more. While these titles will generate lots of press attention, there are also plenty more intriguing new releases for readers to look out for. Here's a small preview of some of the books I'm looking forward to: let me know any I've missed in the comments.

Ros Barber: Devotion (Oneworld, August)

Ros Barber’s follow-up to her Desmond Elliot Prize-winning debut The Marlowe Papers swaps poetry for prose and the sixteenth century for the near future. Focussing on the relationship between a teenage girl accused of killing 15 students on a college trip and the psychologist sent to evaluate her sanity; Devotion is an ideas-driven psychological thriller which explores the conflict between religion and science.

John Higgs: Stranger Than We Can Imagine (W&N, August)

Billed as an alternative history of the twentieth century, John Higgs’ latest non-fiction book looks at the intellectual and artistic developments of the past century in an attempt to explain how we ended up in the present day ‘adrift in a network of constant surveillance, unsustainable competition, tsunamis of trivia and extraordinary opportunity’. Looking beyond the grand narrative of World Wars and Depressions, Higgs’ intriguing account takes in figures like Robert Anton Wilson, Gauguin and Emperor Norton, and explains postmodernism through the medium of Super Mario.

Patti Smith: M Train (Bloomsbury, November)

M Train is the second volume of punk icon Patti Smith’s memoirs. Following on from Just Kids (2010), which detailed her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe, M Train sees Smith travel to the graves of her inspirations Jean Genet, Arthur Rimbaud and Yukio Mishima, while meditating on art, creativity and loss. Like Bob Dylan, Patti Smith writes beautifully evocative, intelligent and thoughtful prose, and this promises to add a surreal element too, as she discusses the artistic process with an ‘astral cowpoke’.

Dan Rhodes: When The Professor Got Stuck in the Snow (Aardvark Bureau, October)

Previously only available in a tiny, self-published edition, Dan Rhodes’ short satirical novel is going to be one of the first releases on Scott Pack’s new Aardvark Bureau imprint. Mainstream publishers refused to touch it, fearing a possible lawsuit from Richard Dawkins, so it’s great to see it find a home on a new indie label.

Andrew Michael Hurley – The Loney (John Murray, August)

A British horror story in the tradition of The Wicker Man, The Loney sold out its original print run through Tarturus Press, and has been picked up by John Murray for a mass market release. Beginning when the body of a young child is found during winter storms, the plot focusses on events which took place during an Easter pilgrimage in 1976. Featuring miracles, strange rites and tightly kept secrets, The Loney revitalises a traditional horror story form, drawing comparisons with Robert Aickman.

Lauren Holmes: Barbara the Slut and Other People (4^th Estate, August)

This debut novel looks at family relationships, female sexuality and power through the stories of a woman who chooses to sell sex toys rather than pursue the career in law that her father had planned for her, another who prefers her pitbull to her holiday romance, and a young woman fighting against her school’s slut-shaming culture. Holmes’ short fiction shows a sharp, witty voice, making Barbara the Slut… a definite one to watch.

Darran Anderson - Imaginary Cities (Influx Press, July)

A work of creative non-fiction, Imaginary Cities is an imaginative exploration of urban spaces. Taking in opium dens, impossible skyscrapers, marauding golems and subterranean dwellings, Imaginary Cities claims that the Situationists lacked ambition when they claimed that beneath the paving stones laid the beach: there might be a lot more down there than that.