Kate Riley’s debut, Ruth, tells the story of the eponymous young woman, born into an Anabaptist community in 1963, following her through childhood, marriage and motherhood into middle age. Ruth glimpses the outside world she put her toe in briefly at college through her husband’s work. He’s a steady man, if dull, tolerant of Ruth’s apparent eccentricities. Their three children respond in different ways to their sequestered life while Ruth remains an awkward observer who doesn’t quite fit in, unsure of what to answer when her son asks her if she’s happy. Like Miriam Toews, who explores similar territory in a very different way, Riley grew up in the kind of community her characters inhabit. Her narrative style is a little overwritten for me, but it’s lightened with a smart humour and Ruth’s character is well drawn. Review shortly…
I spotted Andrew Porter’s The Imagined Life on social media, a bit of a rarity for me these days. Steven is escaping his troubled marriage, determined to uncover the truth about his father who left in the 1980s when Steven was twelve. As he tracks down those who knew his father, childhood memories of poolside parties, backyard film shows and his father’s many male friends begin to surface. ‘In cinematic prose, Andrew Porter explores the full nexus of male relationships: fathers and sons, husbands and lovers—set achingly against the US AIDS epidemic in the 1980s—and masterfully weaves a tale of trauma, generational secrets, forbidden love, and shame’ says the blurb of a novel which sounds right up my street.
After another furious argument, Andrev’s mother lets slip to her seven-year-old son that his father isn’t his biological parent in Andrev Walden’s Bloody Awful in Different Ways. From then on, a succession of fathers pass through Andrev’s life, from a magician to a canoe enthusiast, all drawn to his mother, some behaving badly. ‘Vivid and joyful, raw and tender, Bloody Awful in Different Ways is a novel about growing up in the chaos of social change; about how love begins and ends; and above all, about men. Because after all, you learn an awful lot about this strange species when you have seven fathers in seven years’ says the blurb promisingly.
C. D. Rose’s We Live Here Now has an eye-catching premise which sees the abrupt disappearance of a conceptual artist’s installation through the eyes of twelve people who were involved with the project bringing them all together at its finale. Rose’s characters range from weapons dealers to journalists, gallerists to international shippers in a novel which spans the world. ‘We Live Here Now spins a dazzling web that conveys, with eerie precision, the sheer strangeness of what it is like to be alive today’ claims the blurb somewhat ambitiously, but it sounds well worth investigating.
I’ve yet to read Aysegül Savaş’s much praised The Anthropologists but I like the sound of Long Distance, her first short story collection whose characters are often starting new lives but still caught up with the people they’ve left behind, from the researcher eagerly anticipating a visit from her lover only to be disappointed to the expat who meets a childhood friend and is unsettled by her contentment. Much praised by the likes of Sigrid Nunez, Catherine Lacey and Katie Kitamura.
That’s it for August’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…
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Any new title from Robbie Arnott sounds right up my street. In fact though, this seems a pretty promising clutch of books from writers as yet untried by me,
I’m so glad Arnott’s books are published here. So many antipodean writers aren’t.
I think it’s getting better in recent years, don’t you?
You may well be right. Text have a UK arm and have brought out some great titles.
Good to know.
I really enjoyed The Anthropologists, so will try to find and read this next book by Aysegül Savaş. Bloody Awful in Different Ways sounds like it could go down the misery memoir route, but hopefully not.
I have a copy so I’ll see! I bought The Anthropologists last week. Looking forward to it.
The Robbie Arnott sounds really compelling, I’m looking forward to your review. I’m tempted by The Imagined Life too, and I like the Hopper-esque cover!
It’s very striking, isn’t it. I loved the Arnott. Definitely a 2025 favourite for me.
Ayşegül Savaş’s stories sound appealing to me in my current reading mood. It was one of her stories in TNY that took me to her second novel, which I really enjoyed. But Bloody Awful in Different Ways sounds like it’s right up my reading street too. I like your last line. hee hee
I’ve been sent a copy of Bloody Awful… so will be reviewing it next month.
Nothing here that is calling to me strongly – just as well having just done the rounds of the Bath bookshops and of course bought too much
I didn’t think you’d get away without hefty haul!
I tried to be restrained. Could have bought a lot more in Mr B’s but didn’t think I could carry all that weight on the train
Mr B’s is my favourite
We Live Here Now sounds either brilliant or hopelessly pretentious.
I know exactly what you mean. Possibly too clever for its own good but I think I’m going to give it a try.
Thanks Susan for an interesting line up of new books. Books by male authors about men, masculinity and relationships seem to be envogue at the moment, which I think is a good thing.
You’re welcome. I reviewed two with a male friendship theme in a week – one which worked well, one not so much.
We Live Here Now certainly intrigues me, and I am also curious about the Robbie Arnott whose Limberlost I read (and enjoyed) at your recommendation but a slightly sceptical about what becomes of the Puma (will it be too much for me?)
Trying to remain spoiler-free, but I think you’ll be fine with Dusk. Glad you enjoyed Limberlost.