April Literary Fiction

'You knew I'd write a book about you someday' Our narrator understands good love stories - their secrets, their highs and free falls. But her greatest love story, the one she lived, never followed the rules. She was in her senior year of college when star students Sam and Yash swept her into an intoxicating world of academic fervour, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. Their lives became quickly intertwined - with friendship but also with unpredictable passions and the intimations of first love. Decades later, she is a successful writer, living a comfortable life with her husband and children, when a surprise visit brings the past crashing into the present, forcing her to confront the decisions and deceptions of her youth. Written with the precision of poetry and the emotional tide of an epic, Heart the Lover is a celebration of literature and the life-long echoes of young love. This is King at her very best, affirming her as a masterful chronicler of the human experience and one of the finest novelists at work today.

Read more less

She must find her own place amongst the stars. Caroline Herschel has always lived in the shadows. Beholden to her wildly popular older brother, William, who rescued her from servitude, she's worked hard to build a life for herself – one where she can go unnoticed and repay the debt she believes she owes him. But when her brother becomes obsessed with sweeping the stars, everything changes. Newly appointed as the King's Astronomer, William is rushed away from the bustling streets of Bath to the quiet countryside of Windsor. When Caroline makes a discovery that could send her right back to the people she was rescued from, she has no choice but to leave her carefully constructed life and follow her brother. Taking up the position as William's assistant, Caroline resolves to learn everything she can about astronomy. But the more she understands, the more she falls in love with her telescope, and soon, she discovers that she might be good at the science, great, even, and that the stars could offer her the freedom she's always secretly wanted. When it’s clear that Caroline is just as much the astronomer as her brother, she realizes she must break free from the life she has lived and find her own place in the night sky. Based on the true story of Caroline Herschel, The Woman and Her Stars shines a light on a woman who was raised to believe she was worth nothing more than to serve others, but whose genius and resolve made her one of the world’s leading astronomers. An awe-inspiring story set within the societal boundaries of the Georgian era, it’s a hopeful journey of self-discovery, familial bonds, and passion.

Read more less

The mesmeric new novel from the author of the award-winning global bestseller, THE LIGHT BETWEEN OCEANS 'Heart-wrenching and beautifully set. A gorgeous feast of a novel about family, community, love and the lengths we will go to save them all’ RACHEL JOYCE, author of The Homemade God ‘A big, bold story of resilience and hope. I was completely swept away’ BONNIE GARMUS, author of Lessons in Chemistry 'One of those rare books that fill the soul' DONAL RYAN, author of Heart be at Peace and The Spinning Heart ‘Truly a masterpiece. The kind of book you will remember for the rest of your life, and I love the very bones of it’ JOANNA CANNON, author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep 'Epic, intimate and aching. I loved it’ MIRANDA COWLEY HELLER, author of The Paper Palace 'A world, a story, a cast of characters I truly lost myself in' JENNIE GODFREY, author of The List of Suspicious Things Outback Western Australia, 1958: for generations, the MacBrides have lived on a remote sheep station, Meredith Downs. A million arid acres, it’s an ocean of land, where the weather is a capricious god, and time still roams untamed. One ordinary day, on a lonely road, under the unending blue sky, patriarch Phil MacBride swerves to avoid a kangaroo. In seconds the lives of the entire MacBride family are shattered. Then, instead of leaving wounds to heal, Fate comes for them yet again, in a twist of consequences that will cause one of them to lose their life, and another to sacrifice theirs for the sake of an innocent child. Matt, the youngest MacBride, is plunged into a moral and emotional journey for which there is no map, no guide, as he is forced to choose between love and duty, sacrifice and happiness. A tale of family and belonging, of compassion and hope, A Far-flung Life is about people trying to do their best, each, for private reasons, seeking shelter from the storm of life. Exploring the lives of a handful of isolated souls and the secrets they shield in order to survive, this epic novel stands as a testament to the enduring power of love.*****Praise for The Light Between Oceans: 'An extraordinary book…Unforgettable' Guardian 'A moving tale . . . prepare to weep' New York Times ‘A moving tale. One of this year's must-reads’ Stylist Magazine

Read more less

Incwadi esihloko sithi Umlungu Omnyama inoveli yokuqala yalo mbhali kodwa eseyihlomule ngendondo, ikhuluma ngokukhula njengengane ensundu endaweni ebuswa abamhlophe nezimfundiso zabo. Ilandisa ngamantombazane amabili asemancane aphila ezindaweni zasesilungwini eGoli, efunda ezikoleni ezizimele zakobelungu enabangani abamhlophe. U-Ofilwe ovela ekhaya elinothile futhi okhula ephathiswe okweqanda ubekuthatha kalula konke lokhu akhule enakho kanti manje kufanele abhekane nomshophi wokukhula engenasisekelo samasiko, umhlaba aphila kuwona ubonakala ungenamongo futhi untengantenga. Ngakolunye uhlangothi sibona uFiks, oyintombazane ezithandela izinto futhi ezikhulumelayo, ungumuntu oshabashekela impumelelo futhi olangazelele ukufulathela imuva lakhe elinesihluku aye empilweniyasedolobheni yobukhazikhazi, kodwa le mpilo entsha uyithola inzinyana futhi ingenasihe nokwehlukile kulokho abekulindele. Okulangazelelwe yilaba besifazane abasebancane ukuthuthuka nokuthandeka,kodwa okubaluleke kunakho konke ukuthola ukwamukeleka. Ukwamukeleka, empeleni, kutholakala ngokuba udele konke okukwenzaube umuntu omnyama – osamlungu kakhulu ukuba angahlala nabamnyama, futhi omnyama kakhulu ukuba angahlala nabamhlophe.

Read more less

Zorah Sharaf's friends know her as witty, confident, obsessed with Paris; Zorah Sharaf's family know her as their beloved daughter and sister; Zorah Sharaf's community know her as a selfish girl intent on dragging her father's name through the mud. So who is Zorah Sharaf? CHOSEN AS A 2026 MUST-READ BOOK BY THE GUARDIAN, SUNDAY TIMES, STYLIST, SUNDAY INDEPENDENT, NEW ARAB AND BBC CULTURE 'A spectacular triumph...the Afghan novel I have been eagerly waiting for' KHALED HOSSEINI 'A gorgeous and powerful debut novel' NEW YORK TIMES 'Thrilling. I'll be recommending this book to everyone' ANN PATCHETT 'Brilliant. The best debut I've read in a very long time' MONICA ALI 'Gripping, thought-provoking, and quietly devastating' LOUISE O'NEILL 'A clever debut probing the American dream' GUARDIAN 'This sweeping family saga will stay with you long after you put it down' SUNDAY TIMES-------- EVERYONE THINKS THEY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED . . . The Sharaf family is the picture of success. They arrived in America as refugees with nothing more than the clothes on their backs. And now, after years of hard work, they live in the most exclusive neighbourhood, their growing family attending the most prestigious schools. Zorah, the eldest daughter, is the apple of her father's eye. But when Zorah dies in an unthinkable tragedy, the family is thrust into the court of public opinion. There is talk that the Sharafs' happy household was anything but, and soon the veneer of the model immigrant family starts to crumble. Those who knew her best - and those who never met her - all have an opinion on who Zorah really was, and what really happened to her . . . Told through the chorus of voices surrounding the Sharafs, Good People is a riveting, provocative and unforgettable story of community, family and identity.

Read more less

The personal and the political entwine in Love, where an undecided atheist, four times married, four times widowed and twice arrested and a dystopian future Johannesburg ruled by a fascist government, collide. Love plumbs the murkiest depths of the human soul to ask whether salvation lies at the altar of the divine, in overcoming the weaknesses of our lesser selves, or in our brief moments of romantic ecstasy. This new speculative novel is Nthikeng Mohlele’s most exploratory and conceptually rich work yet.

Read more less

The funny and compassionate new literary novel that turns family dysfunction into an art form. ‘Goes off like a firework. As sincere as it is funny (and it’s very funny)’ Ramona Ausubel, bestselling author of The Last Animal ‘A voice like no other… will shift the way you see the family and community into something operatic, strange and profound.’ Lena Dunham, award-winning writer, director and creator of comedy-drama Girls The Flynns are not alright. It’s been disastrous since Bud and Catherine opened up their marriage, and none of the Flynns can remember the last time a meal was cooked, a load of laundry done, or a social code abided by. Their daughters spiral in their own chaotic orbits: Abigail, the eldest, is dating a man in his twenties nicknamed War Crime Wes; Louise, the middle child, maintains a secret correspondence with an online terrorist; the brilliant youngest, Harper, is being sent to wilderness reform camp due to her insistence that someone – or something – is monitoring the town’s citizens. Casting a shadow across their lives, and their small coastal town, is Paul Alabaster, a nefarious local billionaire. Rumours of corruption circulate, but no one dares dig too deep. No one except Harper, whose obsession with Alabaster’s machinations sends the family hurtling into a criminal conspiracy – one that may just, finally, bring them closer together. Rippling with humour, warmth and style, Lost Lambs offers a stunning portrait of the perverse pleasures and perils of our most intimate reality: our family. Praise for Lost Lambs: ‘A great, great American novel’ Samantha Hunt, Women’s Prize Shortlisted author of The Seas ‘A dazzling and singular new voice in literary fiction… Loud, hilarious, shocking, and sensitive’ Megan Nolan, award-winning author of Ordinary Human Failings ‘With a big surge of energy, Lost Lambs splits the nucleus of the American family’ Tony Tulathimutte, author of Rejection – National Book Award Finalist ‘Madeline Cash is a humourist in the darkly humanist tradition of George Saunders and Lorrie Moore, of Vonnegut and Twain’ Tim Kreider, author of We Learn Nothing ‘Immersive and propulsive and I never wanted it to end. I can’t remember the last time a novel made me laugh so hard or feel so much tenderness for its characters… I loved it. I devoured it’ Leslie Jamison, author of Splinters

Read more less