Paperbacks to Look Out For in July 2026: Part Two

Back from my travels (more of which later in the week) with the second batch of July paperbacks beginning with one of last year’s favourites for me. Souvankham Thammavongsa’s Pick a Colour spans one day in a nail salon run by Ning who, in another life, was a boxer. Everyone’s called Susan at Ning’s: it saves on name tags and avoids confusing the customers to whom they all look the same anyway. Regulars and walk-ins are skilfully persuaded into extras, share their problems, offer unsolicited advice, unaware of the scathing back and forth between Ning’s team conducted in their own language offering their views on these entitled clients. Narrated in short, sparse prose, Thammavongsa’s smart, funny novella offers glimpses of Ning’s story as she takes us through the day.

No idea how I managed to miss Amy Bloom’s I’ll Be Right Here last year, given how much I enjoy her writing. Gazala meets Anne and Alma while travelling to New York from Paris after World War II, joined later by her beloved brother Samir. These four form an unorthodox family that weathers crises and upheavals over decades, remaining steadfastly loyal to each other. ‘Compassionate and full of warmth and humour, I’ll Be Right Here embraces the complexity and richness of humanity and the mysterious ways we evolve as we love – and the ways we hope to be loved in return’ says the blurb. Very much looking forward to catching up with this one.

Ethan Joella’s A Quiet Life follows three characters, each faced with loss; recently widowed Chuck struggles with returning to Hilton Head which he and his wife visited every year; Ella fills her time as best she can waiting for news of her missing daughter while Kristy postpones her ambitions after the sudden death of her father. ‘In this beautifully crafted and profoundly moving novel, three parallel narratives converge in poignant and unexpected ways’ promises the blurb which sounds rather lovely as long as it steers clear of schmaltz.

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. Their three children respond in different ways to their sequestered life while Ruth remains an awkward observer who doesn’t quite fit in. 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.

I took a punt on Jenny Mustard’s Okay Days back in 2023 and thoroughly enjoyed it. Her second novel, What a Time to Be Alive, follows Sickan eighteen months into her course, still friendless and living in spartan student accommodation, constantly anxious that her peers are laughing at her. With her cultivated slovenliness, Hanna’s seemingly impervious to what others think of her and unaware of her wealth. An odd sort of friendship begins between these two until Sickan begins a relationship pushing Hanna to the fringes of her life. Mustard’s understated, gently witty style conveys Sickan’s painful awareness of her social ineptitude with a tenderness that made me want to cheer her small triumphs and ache for her setbacks. Such a shame about the paperback cover, though.

Anika Jade Levy’s bleakly funny debut, Flat Earth, opens with final year postgrads Avery and Frances driving across their country in search of material for Frances’s experimental documentary. Shortly after their return to the city, Frances drops out to get married. Struggling to pay the rent, Avery takes up sex work, amazed when Frances completes her Flat Earth project and the praise heaped upon it by New York’s art cognoscenti. Levy’s sharp social observation and lampooning of the art world is coupled with a smartly polished style although this was a novel I admired rather than enjoyed.

That’s it for July. A click on a title will take you either to my review or 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. New fiction is here and here.