New Paperbacks: June
Blog · Posted May 28, 2024
There are lots of new paperbacks arriving on our shelves in June.
FICTION
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett | 6th June | £9.99
It’s spring and Lara’s three grown daughters have returned to the family orchard. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of the film star with whom she shared a stage, and a romance, years before. Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents lead before their children are born.
The Fraud by Zadie Smith| 6th June | £9.99
One of Sarah’s 2023 Books of the Year. In her first historical novel, Zadie Smith transports the reader to a Victorian England transfixed by the real-life trial of the Tichborne Claimant, in which a cockney butcher lays claim to the Tichborne baronetcy, with his former slave Andrew Bogle as star witness.
Our Strangers by Lydia Davis | 6th June | £9.99
In Our Strangers, conversations are overheard and misheard, a special delivery letter is mistaken for a rare white butterfly, toddlers learning to speak identify a ping-pong ball as an egg and mumbled remarks betray a marriage. In the glow of Davis’s keen noticing, strangers can become like family and family like strangers.
Orbital by Samantha Harvey | 27th June | £9.99
A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments and test the limits of the human body. But mostly they observe. So far from earth, they have never felt more part – or protective – of it. They begin to ask, what is life without earth? What is earth without humanity?
But The Girl by Jessica Zhan Mei Yu| 13th June | £9.99
Irreverent, witty and wise, But the Girl is a coming-of-age story about not wanting to leave your family behind. What if the story of becoming yourself is not about carving out a new identity, but learning to understand the people who made you who you are?
POETRY
The Cat prince & Other Poems by michael Pedersen | 6th June | £10.99
The third collection from prize-winning poet, and author of Boy Friends, Michael Pedersen. Pedersen croons to the beauty and devastation of love, loss, friendship, cats and careless joy. Equal parts tender and trenchant, raw and ribald, plangent and smutty, these poems exhibit an emotionally charged, fantastical playground of language and lore.
NON-FICTION
Nothing Ever Just Disappears by Diarmuid Hester | 6th June | £12.99
Nothing Ever Just Disappears brings to life the stories of seven remarkable figures and illuminates the connections between where they lived, who they loved, and the art they created. It shows that a queer sense of place is central to the history of the twentieth century, and powerfully evokes how much is lost when queer spaces are forgotten.
Hitler, Stalin Mum & Dad by Daniel Finkelstein| 6th June | £10.99
From longstanding political columnist and commentator Daniel Finkelstein, a powerful memoir exploring both his mother and his father’s devastating experiences of persecution, resistance and survival during the Second World War.
Rural by Rebecca Smith | 6th June | £10.99
In this beautifully observed book, Rebecca Smith traces the stories of foresters and millworkers, miners, builders, farmers and pub owners, to paint a picture of the working class lives that often go overlooked. This is a book for anyone who loves and longs for the countryside.
A Thread of Violence by Mark O’Connell | 6th June | £9.99
When O’Connell sets out to unravel the mysteries still surrounding Malcolm Macarthur’s crimes in 1982, he tracks down Macarthur himself, now an elderly man living out his days in Dublin and reluctant to talk. As the two men circle one another, O’Connell is pushed into a confrontation with his own narrative: what does it mean to write about a murderer?
O Brother by John Niven | 6th June | £9.99
One of Roz’s 2023 Books of the Year. John Niven’s little brother Gary was fearless, popular, stubborn, handsome, hilarious and sometimes terrifying. After years of chaotic struggle against the world took his own life at the age of 42. Tracking the lives of two brothers in changing times O Brother is a tender, affecting and often uproariously funny story.
These are just some of the exciting new paperback releases for this month. To keep up to date with more recommendations and new releases, keep an eye on our socials, or join our newsletter.