Hooked by Asako Yuzuki
4th Estate
I’m sorry to speak about sweaty commutes just one more time, but this will almost certainly have been where you first caught a glimpse of the bright yellow cover of Asako Yuzuki’s monster hit, Butter. This novel was actually written first – and arguably that shows – but if you are craving some more exploration of the excesses of female obsession in modern-day Tokyo then this one, about the friendship between two lonely women and, as a leitmotif, one rapacious fish, will tide you over.
Famesick by Lena Dunham
4th Estate
I’m rewatching Girls right now, partly because I was reminded to do so by the first third of its creator’s memoir, in which Dunham reveals the mechanics and machinations behind the era-defining HBO show. Some have found less to enjoy in the later chapters – as Dunham details a litany of physical symptoms that have come to dictate much of her life – but I found her unblinking reflections on female bodies, on addiction and emotional dependence, on ambition and love, to be scintillating to the not-so-bitter end.
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The Land and its People by David Sedaris
Abacus Press
For some reason things just happen to David Sedaris. The American essayist seems to have an endless supply of peculiar incidents to report, as he does in his new collection, which recounts a tryst with Duolingo, say, or navigating his partner Hugh’s hip replacement. But of course Sedaris doesn’t have different things happen: he has the same stuff as us – travelling, ageing, being part of a family –only he observes and records with a laser-sharp wit and deceptive lightness.
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Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead
Fleet
If you’re invested in the rake’s progress of Ray Carney, Colson Whitehead’s some-time-furniture-salesman-some-time-criminal and the protagonist of his Pulitzer-winning Harlem Shuffle and its follow-up, Crook Manifesto, then you’ll want to complete the Harlem trilogy with this one. Now we’ve moved on to New York in the Eighties – so fun! Well, kind of – and Carney is once again drawn into the city’s seedy underworld.
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Vocal Break by Lauren Elkin
Chatto & Windus
Writer Lauren Elkin (Art Monsters) was a child soprano, so she would understand better than most the relationship between the three elements in her new book’s subhead: women, music and power. From Homer’s sirens luring Odysseus and his crew towards the rocks, to the punk singers who weaponised their voices’ perceived ugliness and imperfections, Elkin examines the way that the female voice has been demonised, manipulated, controlled and, most cruelly, silenced.
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Lázár by Nelio Biedermann
MacLehose
Lázár is a book that you’ve probably read about. This knotty tale of a Hungarian family dynasty caused a sensation when it was published in March; even more so because its author, Nelio Biedermann is a debut novelist and, to make matters worse, was was only 22 at the time. With the adulation – the New York Times profile, the comparisons to Thomas Mann – has come the inevitable blow-back – that it’s slighter than it at first seems. Well, you’ve got some time on your hands this summer, so decide for yourself.
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Dad Had a Bad Day by Ashton Politanoff
Daunt Books
In this tale as old time, a middle-aged man enduring a low-level crisis of purpose finds his lust for life renewed by vigorous sporting activity. In this instance the man is Ned, the vigorous sporting activity is tennis, and in Ashton Politanoff’s deftly funny novel, Ned’s new-found obsession pulls him into a web of competitive excitement and tennis-club-related intrigue. In a parallel tale that’s also as old as the hills, his wife is mystified by the whole thing.
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Exhibition by Alex Hyde
Granta Books
In Alex Hyde’s lyrical and dazzling follow-up to her debut novel, Violets, she considers the relationship between an artist and a muse in YBA era London and beyond. But which is which? And are they co-operative, or entangled? Rabble Stone is the Sarah Lucas-esque narrator, addressing a “you” who has echoes of Tracey Emin, although their intersecting lives plot their own dramatic course through Berlin, Algiers and New York, as captured by Hyde with extraordinary clarity, concision and intrigue.
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Country People by Daniel Mason
John Murray Press
An academic couple and their two children move from California to Vermont to pass what they hope will be a restorative year in the countryside. But your problems, it turns out, are prone to travel with you, whether they be the lag effects of serious illness (Kate, the mother) or the deflating tedium of not quite finishing your PhD (the dad, Miles, over a decade in and counting). Daniel Mason, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for North Woods, pokes fun at his well-meaning characters with careful tenderness in this sweet, summery satire.
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Hearth of Darkness by Matt Blake
Elliott & Thompson
Writer and regular Esquire contributor Matt Blake bought a haunted house. He didn’t mean to, of course, but a mysterious carpet stain and strange goings-on in the dead of night caused him to dig into the history of his new home in Walthamstow, East London, to see what might be up. And, in a classic case of seek and ye shall find, his house did have a dark past, sending Blake, a natural sceptic and an engaging narrator, on a fascinating exploration into place memory and the paranormal.
Credit: www.esquire
