I’ve read just one from the second part of January’s preview but I’m kicking off with another I’m eagerly anticipating. You might think I’d had enough of 
American politics but it’s the political thread that attracts me to Elizabeth Harris’s How to Sleep at Night. Ethan and Gabe are happily raising their daughter together despite drifting to very different ends of the political spectrum. When Ethan announces he plans to run for Congress as a Republican, it’s not only Gabe’s world that’s upended. Ethan’s sister is a jaded political reporter for a national newspaper dallying with an affair with her ex when Ethan’s decision threatens to derail her career. ‘A sharply observed comedy of manners about public image versus private life, How to Sleep at Night is a witty and whip-smart novel that dissects family ties stretched thin by politics’ says the blurb. Very much like the sound of that.
Richard Price’s Lazarus Man is a bit outside my usual neck of the literary woods but Price was one of the writers on The Wire, still one of the best things I’ve seen on TV. His novel is set in east Harlem in 2008 when a five-storey apartment block collapses killing six tenants. By the end of the day many others are missing. Price follows several characters whose lives are irreversibly changed by the tragedy, from the young photographer who records the ensuing chaos to a survivor who was buried for days. ‘Rich with indelible characters and high drama, Lazarus Man is a riveting work of suspense and social vision by one of our major writers’ says the blurb.
It’s some time since I read anything by Caryl Phillips and I’ve a feeling I didn’t take to his writing style very well but the premise of Another Man in the Street is a very attractive one. Victor ‘Lucky’ Johnson arrives in London from St Kitts in the early ‘60s, hoping for a career in journalism but eventually becoming a rent collector for a slum landlord. Phillips’s novel explores the experience of the Windrush generation through Victor’s story, following him from his arrival to the present day. ‘Another Man in the Street is an unforgettable story of loss, displacement, belonging, and the triumph of Black resilience – epic in scope and yet profoundly intimate, and a radical and timely portrait of immigrant London’ says the blurb making me keen to read it.
Published by Daunt Originals who seem to have a sharp editorial eye, Angelo Tijssens’ debut novel, The Edges, sees a man returning to his hometown after the death of his mother, unable to resist visiting his former lover. ‘As we are drawn into the narrator’s past, we see how a childhood marked by abuse and a life lived on the edges can shape someone – and what respite and beauty can be found in love and trust’ says the blurb suggesting a hopeful resolution.
I was a big fan of Adrian Duncan’s Love Notes from a German Building Site, The Geometer Lobachevsky not so much but I’m keen to read his new one, The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth. An Irish restorative painter falls in love with an Italian sociologist, reawakening memories of an incident that has overshadowed his life. Years later, he’s asked to pray for a dying friend and spends a day roaming the streets of Bologna, contemplating his own life, past and present, and its foundations. ‘A delicately crafted novel of two halves, a decade apart, The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth is a masterful excavation of human desires, inhibitions, and the patterns of habit to which we unwittingly fall prey’ says the blurb promisingly
Lucy Steeds’s The Artist begins in 1957 with a woman gazing at a painting she knows intimately in London’s National Gallery before winding back to the summer of 1920 when a young art journalist travels to Provence, hoping to interview the renowned and notoriously reclusive Edouard Tartuffe who agrees only on the basis that Joseph will model for him. Tata’s every need is attended to by Ettie who has hardly left the remote farmhouse where she and her uncle live. As the summer wears on, Joseph unravels a perplexing mystery, and Ettie sees a way for her own artistic talent to be recognised. Steeds’s debut is gorgeously immersive, the summer Provencal landscape vividly evoked and her descriptions of art arresting. Highly recommend this one. Review shortly…
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…
Lazarus Man sounds like the one for me. I love a bit of disaster fiction.
I wouldn’t have expected that! I hope you enjoy it, Claire.
Ooh! A new Adrian Duncan which sounds very interesting…
Fingers crossed for this one…
Adrian Duncan sounds interesting; I think I’ll check out both his current one (Gorgeous) and Love Notes (Berlin is such a fascinating city & I’ve certainly struggled with the German language. German has won the struggle!). I love novels involving artists and the arts, so Lucy Steed is also now on the list.
Highly recommend Love Notes… I share your fascination with Berlin, and your struggle with German! I loved the Steed. A brilliant debut.
I love fictional takes on US politics too and happily I have How To Sleep At Night from NetGalley.
Me, too. Looking forward to it while trying not to think too much about real life American politics.
I love the sound of the Artist and the Adrian Duncan would be worth picking up for the title alone!
He does seem to have a flair for striking titles!
Price is well known and awarded for his work in America. His book sounds interesting. I love anything Provence, so Steed’s book appeals… especially in these dark days of winter. I am engrossed in Roxanna Robinson’s Leaving, a superb writer. You tipped her book during the year. I was lucky to get it online as her work is not well known in Ireland.
Along with other crime fiction writers, his work on The Wire was outstanding. The Artist is the perfect January trip to Provence! I’m so glad you’re enjoying Leaving. Sadly, Robinson’s not very well known here in the UK, either.
Again, the first and the last on this list are highly appealing to me. I’ll be looking out for both of them, and of course keeping an eye on your reviews of the others. I was constantly surprised when I was reviewing for Shiny how many books I thought I’d enjoy were a bit meh and how many I’ve never have looked at twice in a shop turned out to be brilliant. That’s the beauty of reading – full of surprises!
Isn’t it, just! I do sometimes feel that publishers’ blurbs are a bit like estate agents’ listings. Tge Artist offers a lovely, literary blast of summer.
I have Another Man in the Street from NetGalley. I always read these posts even if I don’t often comment – thank you for pulling them together!
You’re welcome, Liz. They’re a pleasure to write if ruinious for the tbr. Looking forward to seeing what you make of Another Man in the Street.
The Artist is really appealing. Such a striking cover too!
I loved that one. A real taste of summer in Provence.