The second part of January’s preview starts with a crime novel, an uncharacteristic choice for me. I enjoyed Louise Welsh’s The Second Cut so much last year that I put up my hand for To the Dogs which also has a foot in Glasgow’s murky underworld. 
Professor Jim Brennan is called away from a graduation ceremony at the Beijing institute associated with his university when his son is arrested on a drugs charge. He catches the first plane home, heading straight for the police station before calling in at the Fusilier, his gangster father’s old haunt. Before long, he finds himself dragged back into the world he’d assumed he’d long since left behind while navigating the ethical grey area of university funding. Welsh’s cleverly plotted novel neatly contrasts straightforward crime with the dubious morality of accepting funding from repressive regimes. I raced through this pacy slice of campus crime. Highly recommended, even if you’re not a crime reader. Review shortly…
I was delighted when I spotted a new Nathan Hill in the schedules having thoroughly enjoyed The Nix back in 2017. Wellness 
weighs in at roughly the same doorstopping length, exploring a multitude of themes through a long marriage. Jack and Elizabeth meet in Chicago as students: he’s a photographer, always dressed in black; she’s dabbling in several majors, eventually plumping for behavioural psychology. Twenty years later, married, with a child, they’re beset by the usual worries but while he’s clung to the heady romanticism of their early days, her feelings have been tempered by the humdrum everyday reality of childcare and domesticity. Not quite a match for The Nix for me but I enjoyed this sprawling novel which ends on a note of hope, at least I chose to interpret it as such. Review to follow…
Kiley Reid’s Such a Fun Age was one of those books I avoided thanks to the hype surrounding it until I started seeing positive reviews from readers whose opinions I trust and ended up enjoying it very much. Come and Get It is set in 2017 when Millie is at the University of Arkansas, eyes set on a job and a secure future. With that in mind she accepts an odd assignment from a visiting professor which backfires horribly. ‘A fresh and intimate portrait of desire, consumption and reckless abandon, Come and Get It is a tension-filled story about money, indiscretion and bad behaviour’ say the publishers, promisingly. Not very keen on that cover, though.
Cathy Sweeney’s Breakdown sees a woman walk out of her Dublin home one morning, leaving her husband and two teenage children asleep. Two days later she finds herself alone in a Welsh cottage having spent time in a multitude of places along the way, including the beds of strangers, no longer able to ignore the breakdown which has been building within her for some time. ‘From one of Ireland’s most provocative and admired writers, this is a story of rage and reckoning, joy and transformation’ says the blurb, whetting my appetite nicely.
January’s short story collection is Sara Stridsberg’s Hunter in Huskvarna which comprises eleven stories. The blurb suggests a wide-ranging selection from a woman secretly nursing her lover’s dying wife to a young man visiting his sister’s murderer on death row in a Texan prison to a boy, last seen walking with a wolf in the titular Swedish town, who disappears. ‘These genre-spanning stories are held together by a sense of longing: for escape from the narrow margins of a prescribed life, for a past which promises an undiscovered future, for a place or a person that feels like home’ according to the publishers which sounds promising.
That’s it for January’s new fiction. As ever, a click on a title will take you to a more detailed synopsis should you want to know more, and if you’d like to catch up with part one it’s here. Paperbacks soon…
I’d like to read all of these, Welsh top of the list though (I’ve requested a copy)
Great to hear that, Annabel. I hope it turns up before Christmas.
Nice selection. Breakdown sounds fascinating, one to add to my list. What’s your favourite from the selection?
Hard choice as I’ve only read two and they’re so different but of the ones I haven’t read I’d say the Stridsberg attracts me most.
To the Dogs and Breakdown sound very good. As of Reid, I’m yet to read Such a Fun Age.
To the Dogs is excellent and I like the sound of Breakdown. I’d recommend Such a Fun Age.
Breakdown sounds interesting, it made me think of Anne Tyler’s Ladder of Years, and that situation where a woman has been playing a ‘role’ for so long, that all will be shocked when that day arrives and she steps out of it, completely.
Ages since I read that but you summoned it up for me so vividly!
I’m excited for the Hill and Reid, having loved their debuts.
There’s a very lengthy bit in the Hill I didn’t get on with but it’s skippable, and otherwise very enjoyable.
I am very much looking forward to Breakdown Susan.
Well, that makes me more enthusiastic, Cathy!
The Sweeney looks intriguing, as does the Louise Welsh. Well, actually, I’d give any of them a whirl…
That’s a good score. I can certainly vouch for the Welsh.
I have To The Dogs on the TBR – my first Louise Welsh – so I’m very glad to see you recommend it!
So enjoyed it. You must read The Cutting Room and The Second Cut!
I think Louise Walsh is a wonderful writer, but her stories are a bit on the heavy side for me. Except her novella Tamburlain Must Die, which was AMAZING!
I remember that – very different from her other novels although I didn’t read the plague series.
I have the Kiley Reid on NetGalley but haven’t got to it yet. Glad to hear it’s a good one.
Hope you enjoy it when you get to it!
I’m intrigued by To The Dogs – great to hear you recommend it! I don’t really read contemporary crime but I did read The Cutting Room and The Second Cut and thought they were excellent.
To the Dogs isn’t quite up to the Rilke standard but I’d definitely recommend it, particuarly as you like Glasgow