Great new reads to please even the pickiest of bookworms.
Mothers’ Instinct
Barbara Abel | HarperCollins, $35
Soon to be a major US motion picture starring Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain, Mothers’ Instinct is a dark domestic thriller in which the bond between two couples – best friends and next-door neighbours – mutates in dangerous and deadly ways in the wake of a tragic accident. In her American debut, blockbuster Belgian author Barbara Abel plunges into the deepest, darkest corners of her characters’ hearts and minds. Tense and blood-chilling, with a surprising final twist, Mothers’ Instinct will keep you on edge until the final page.
Normal Rules Don’t Apply
Kate Atkinson | Penguin, $37
The first story collection from Kate Atkinson (bestselling author of Shrines of Gaiety and Life After Life) in 20 years, Normal Rules Don’t Apply is a captivating compilation of 11 interconnected tales. From a queen who makes a bargain she can’t keep and a secretary who watches over the life she has just left to a man whose luck changes when a horse speaks to him, this witty and whimsical collection is full of surprises, intricacies and inventiveness.
The Trackers
Charles Frazier | HarperCollins, $35
The stunning new novel from the author of international million-copy bestseller Cold Mountain. It’s 1937 – Depression-era America – and painter Val Welch travels westward to the rural town of Dawes, Wyoming, where through a stroke of luck, he’s landed an assignment to create a mural representing the region for their new post office. Hosted by wealthy art lover John Long and his wife Eve, Val is pulled further into their lives when Eve disappears and John enlists his help to find out where she went, and why.
Yellowface
Rebecca F Kuang | HarperCollins, $35
Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody. When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own. But as evidence threatens June’s stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves. Lavished with critical praise (“A wicked little satire of publishing, racial politics and icky internet culture” – The Times, “Hard to put down, harder to forget” – Stephen King, “Sure to keep you wanting more” – Huffington Post, to mention just a few), Yellowface has been on multiple bestseller lists since its release.