The Cafe With No Name by Robert Seethaler | 13th February | £16.99

It is 1966, and Robert Simon has just fulfilled his dream by taking over a café on the corner of a bustling Vienna market. He recruits a barmaid, Mila, and soon the customers flock in. As Robert listens and Mila refills their glasses, romances bloom, friendships are made and fortunes change. And change is coming to the city around them, to the little café, and to Robert’s dream.  An unforgettable novel about how we carry each other through good and bad times, and how even the most ordinary life is, in its own way, quite extraordinary. (Translated from German by Katy Derbyshire)

Three Days in June by Anne Tyler | 13th February | £14.99

It’s the day before her daughter’s wedding and things are not going well for Gail Baines. First thing, she loses her job – or quits, depending who you ask. Then her ex-husband Max turns up at her door expecting to stay for the festivities. Just as Gail is wondering what’s next, their daughter Debbie discovers her groom has been keeping a secret.  All the questions about the future of the happy couple have stirred up the past for Gail and because the happily ever after is only part of the story, sometimes the younger generation has much to teach the older about secrets, acceptance and taking the rough with the smooth.

Black Woods Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivy | 4th February | £20

Birdie’s keeping it together, of course she is. But it’s a tough town to be a single mother. And then she meets Arthur, who is quieter than most men, but makes her want to listen; who is gentle with Emaleen, and understands Birdie’s fascination with the mountains in whose shadow they live. When Arthur asks them to make a home, just the three of them, in his off-grid cabin, Birdie’s answer, in a heartbeat, is yes. Out in the wilderness Birdie’s days are harsher and richer than she ever imagined possible. Here she will feel truly at one with nature. Here she, and Emaleen, will learn the whole, fearful truth about Arthur.

The Boy from the Sea by Garrett Carr | 6th February | £16.99

1973. In a close-knit community on Ireland’s west coast, a baby is found abandoned on the beach. The boy will become a source of fascination and hope for a town caught in the storm of a rapidly changing world.  Ambrose, a man more comfortable at sea than on land, brings Brendan into his home out of love. But it is a decision that will fracture his family and force him to try to understand himself and those he cares for. Set over twenty years, this is a novel about a restless boy trying to find his place in the world. It is an exploration of the ties that make us and bind us, as a family and community move irresistibly into the future.

The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths | 13th February | £22

Ali Dawson and her team investigate crimes so old, they’re frozen – or so their inside joke goes. Most people don’t know that they travel back in time to complete their research. The latest assignment sees Ali venture back farther than they have dared before: to 1850s London to clear the name of Cain Templeton, the eccentric great-grandfather of MP Isaac Templeton. Fearing for her safety in the middle of a freezing Victorian winter, Ali finds herself stuck in time, unable to make her way back to her beloved colleagues, and her son, Finn, who suddenly finds himself in legal trouble in the present day. Could the two cases be connected?

Life Hacks for a Little Alien by Alice Franklin | 13th February | £16.99

Little Alien doesn’t understand the world the way others seem to, and the world doesn’t seem to understand her either. Her anxious mum and meticulous dad, while well-intentioned, are of little help. But when she sees a documentary about the Voynich Manuscript – a mediaeval codex written in an unknown language and script – she begins to suspect that there are other people who feel just like her. Convinced that translating this manuscript will offer the answers she needs, she sets out on a journey that will show her a delicious taste of freedom. Perfect for fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and Remarkably Bright Creatures, this is a charming, witty and moving novel about what it feels like to grow up neurodivergent.

Salutation Road by Salma Ibrahim | 13th February | £16.99

One morning in South London, twenty-three-year-old Sirad boards her bus to work and finds herself transported to an alternate timeline in present-day Mogadishu. There she encounters an almost unrecognizable version of her family and comes face to face with her double, Ubah – the woman she could have been, had her parents never fled to London during the Somali Civil War. Back home in Greenwich, Sirad must go on with life, consumed by all she now knows. But then Ubah mysteriously appears in London, and Sirad begins to understand that nothing will ever be the same again…

The Unrecovered by Richard Strachan | 13th February | £16.99

A richly atmospheric gothic tale of madness, war and all-encompassing obsession set in Scotland.  Jacob Beresford had never set foot within Gallodean House’s crumbling walls until the death of his father. He is already haunted by his own demons but as the First World War staggers through its final months he uncovers unsettling details of his new home’s past, and the shadows seem to grow around him. Then he meets Esther, a young volunteer nurse serving at a country house requisitioned for use as a temporary hospital ward. There she assists one soldier whose life comes to intersect with both Esther and Jacob’s in horrifying and unexpected ways.

The City Changes It’s Face by Eimear MacBride | 13th February | £20

It’s 1995. Outside their window, the city rushes by. But in the flat there is only Stephen and Eily. Their bodies, the tangled sheets and the total obsession of new love. Eighteen months later, the flat feels different. Love is merging with reality. Stephen’s teenage daughter has re-appeared, while Eily has made a choice, the consequences of which she cannot outrun. Now they face a reckoning for all that’s been left unspoken – emotions, secrets and ambitions. Tonight, if they are to find one another again, what must be said aloud? Love rallies against life. Time tells truths. The city changes its face.

We Do Not Part by Han Kang | 6th February | £18.99

Kyungha travels from the city of Seoul into the forests of Jeju Island, after her friend Inseon is hospitalised and begs Kyungha to hasten there to feed her beloved pet bird, who will otherwise die. A snowstorm hits the island the moment Kyungha arrives and beset by icy wind and snow squalls, she wonders if she will arrive in time to save the bird. As night falls, she struggles to Inseon’s house where the long-buried story of Inseon’s family surges into light, in dreams and memories passed from mother to daughter, and in a painstakingly assembled archive documenting a terrible massacre on the island seventy years before. This novel is a hymn to friendship, a eulogy to the imagination and above all an indictment against forgetting.

These are just some of the exciting new releases in fiction for this month. To keep up to date with more recommendations and new releases, keep an eye on our socials, or join our newsletter.