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London. — Many of us have felt a more pressing need to find our own corner of heaven over the last two years, and some have found theirs between the covers of a book.
Despite the fragility of the wider economy, £1,1 billion has been spent on 128 million books in the UK since mid-March, when market analysts Nielsen resumed their data reporting. That figure is up 9 percent from the same period in 2019.
The juggernaut that is Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club books has led this drive forward, with both novels dominating the best-seller lists. Meanwhile, 30 of the top 50 bestselling books of 2021 were written by women.
These green shoots of optimism are of course set against a backdrop of continued uncertainty. But with hope in our hearts, let’s look at just some of the new titles for 2022 that might nonetheless give the horizon a rosy glow.
Marian Keyes — ”Again, Rachel”
On and off the page, Marian Keyes’ beguiling affability and fearless honesty about the crappy side of life have won her an army of worldwide fans. Her 15 titles include Sushi For Beginners, Anybody Out There, Grown Ups and her most successful, 1998’s Rachel’s Holiday.
In Keyes’ first sequel, Rachel, the party girl who partied her way into rehab, is back — and sorted. Life’s good. But circumstances and emotions are never that simple, and as ghosts from her past begin to resurface, Rachel battles to hold her nerve.
Douglas Stuart — ”Young Mungo”
Just how do you follow a major award-winning debut? If you’ve got grit, you get straight back in the saddle, which is precisely what Booker Prize-bagging Shuggie Bain author Douglas Stuart has done.
Like his debut, Young Mungo is set in Glasgow, where Stuart grew up, and takes on an unflinchingly tough, and deeply human, storyline. Set against the backdrop of 1980s working-class life, it follows two young men who live in constant fear of revealing they are in love with each other. The threat of violence lurks around every corner. Can they survive? Better still, can they escape?
Published on 14 April.
”Jennifer Egan — The Candy House”
This is the long-gestating sibling novel to Jennifer Egan’s 2011 Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit From The Goon Squad, which unfolded via 13 interrelated stories and saw Egan time-shifting and genre-bending.
Now it’s 2010 and brilliant tech entrepreneur Bix Bouton develops Own Your Unconscious, a means of accessing every memory you’ve ever had, and sharing them in exchange for the memories of others. Again, Egan spins out the consequences of Bouton’s invention through the linked narratives of multiple characters whose paths intersect over several decades.
Published on 28 April.
Candice Carty-Williams — ”People Person”
In 2019, Candice Carty-Williams’ debut novel Queenie, the story of a troubled young Jamaican woman, became a word-of-mouth hit. It won book of the year at the British Book Awards, where Judge Stig Abell described it as “an important meditation on friendship, love and race”.
Now Carty-Williams has applied her deftness of touch to the story of Dimple Pennington, an up-and-coming lifestyle influencer whose own humdrum existence is far from inspiring. Then, a dramatic event brings her four estranged half-siblings crashing back into her life, along with their absent father. Carty-Williams asks: What is the true meaning of family, especially when your dad loves his Jeep more than his kids?
Published on 28 May.
”Jessie Burton — House Of Fortune”
Jessie Burton has written three best-selling novels for adults, including The Muse and The Confession. But it was historical thriller The Miniaturist, Burton’s 2014 debut, that truly smashed the ceiling.
The BBC also adapted it for TV.
It is told of young bride Nella in 17th Century Amsterdam, whose miniature replica of her own house begins to mirror real life. This is the sequel, set 18 years later.
The Brandt family are facing financial ruin. An invite to a lavish ball brings Nella hope of finding a way out. The ball does set things spinning, but when Nella feels a strange prickling sensation on the back of her neck, she wonders if the miniaturist has returned.
Published on 7 July.
Monica Ali — ”Love Marriage”
After a hiatus of 10 years, Monica Ali makes her return. She’s written four novels but it was her first, Brick Lane (after the London neighbourhood at the heart of the city’s Bangladeshi community), that made her name. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and made into a 2007 film.
Love Marriage again draws on Ali’s Bangladeshi and English heritage. The story explores the challenges that may arise when different cultures try to come together.
Young doctors Yasmin Ghorami and Joe Sangster are engaged. But as both families get to know each other Yasmin is forced to question what a “love marriage” — as opposed to the arranged marriages still the norm in her South Asian culture — truly means. Plans are already in the pipeline for a TV adaptation.
Published on 3 February. — bbcworld
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