We're back with more bookseller recommendations! Today, Brighton bookseller, Ellen, takes us through some of her favourite recent reads, and some new and upcoming releases she is looking forward to!
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I often find myself drawn to tales of the strange and uncanny, two of my absolute favourite books being Irene Sola’s When I Sing, Mountains Dance and Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. I love stories with somewhat morally ambiguous or unreliable narrators, who reveal themselves more as the book goes on – especially combined with some elements of magical realism, or a gothic setting. Appropriately for the season, my recommendations reflect all of these aspects!
Currently reading: Ghost Chilli by Nikkitha Bakshani
Always one to judge a book by its cover, I was immediately intrigued by that of Hagstone, and from the first line of the blurb I was hooked. A tale imbued with a sense of wildness and mystery, Hagstone is set on a remote island, and told from the perspective of Nell, an occasionally reclusive inhabitant, as her work as an artist takes her into the isolated commune of women who have fled there. Beautifully written, vibrantly atmospheric and increasingly unsettling as the story progresses, this is a book I have been recommending to anyone I can!
Order a copy of Hagstone here!
Whale Fall by Elizabeth O’Connor
Whale Fall is at its heart a coming-of-age story, one steeped in isolation and heartbreak. Following Manod, a young woman growing up on a remote Welsh island in the interwar period, through hope, betrayal, and loss. This book is haunting and beautifully tragic, and I’m looking forward to more from the author.
Order a copy of Whale Fall now!
Private Rites by Julia Armfield
As soon as it arrived in the shop, I grabbed myself a copy of Private Rites. Having read Our Wives Under the Sea, I was eager to dive into more of Julia Armfield’s captivating storytelling. Set in a world not so far in our future that has been utterly transformed by climate change, Private Rites looks at the relationship between three siblings, who as well as navigating the changing world around them, are also navigating their strained familial ties. There is a sinister undercurrent throughout the book which kept me in constant anticipation of the revelatory moment, and I wasn’t disappointed. This is a book I would recommend to anyone, but particularly to fans of Hagstone by Sinead Gleeson, and Jenny Hval’s Paradise Rot.
Order a copy of Private Rites now!
Heading into autumn, I felt compelled to (finally) read a modern gothic classic: Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire. Unsettling, disturbing, and full of thoroughly unlikeable characters – what more could you want in a vampire novel? At its core it is a fascinating reflection of the darkest parts of human nature, and a must-read for those intrigued by the bizarre and macabre.
We have a beautiful first edition of the book here at Goldsboro Books Brighton - one I find myself yearning for!
UK First Edition of Interview With The Vampire
Anticipated reads...
There are so many new and upcoming titles I can't wait to get my hands on, here are just a few I am particularly impatient for!
William is a new kind of ghost story, where the haunting is not from another world, but from inside your home. Inside your head . . .
We were never destined to have anything - so you know what we did?
We took it anyway.
In Poor Girls, Clare Whitfield exposes the criminal underbelly of 1920s London - but this isn't a morality tale, it's an adventure for the willingly wicked.
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Gliff is a novel about how we make meaning and how we are made meaningless. With a nod to the traditions of dystopian fiction, a glance at the Kafkaesque, and a new take on the notion of classic, it's a moving and electrifying read, a vital and prescient tale of the versatility and variety deep-rooted in language, in nature and in human nature.
