Books to Look Out For in August 2026: Part Two

August’s second instalment begins with a book from a favourite author of mine. Donal Ryan’s Where Are the Kings follows twelve-year-old Jack over two years after a terrible loss sees his grandparents take him in. One day his mother sets off in the battered family car with Jack careering after her on his bike, too late to save her. The tragedy breaks his father who’s admitted to the local psychiatric hospital. His mother is never mentioned, but Jack sometimes hears whispered conversations, burying the loss he feels he should have prevented, never crying or thinking of her until he decides to mark her birthday by visiting the old family home. As ever, Ryan’s writing is poetically lyrical yet concise, portraying Jack with an empathetic compassion, backed up with a cast of strong characters. Review shortly…

Sussie Anie’s In Meadowlight follows Mercy whose no-fault eviction has left her moving from place to place, housesitting for others. Having built up a reputation through a virtual network of colleagues, she’s landed a gig in a beautifully refurbished cottage, the home of an art collector still very much a presence despite her absence. Then three cats go missing. ‘From award-winning author Sussie Anie, In Meadowlight is a strikingly original and beautiful novel about transience and belonging, friendship, solitude and love’ says the blurb promisingly although those missing cats have set off alarm bells for me. Lovely cover, though.

Rowan Beaird’s strikingly jacketed Tenderness Is set on a remote island off the coast of Virginia where a wedding is to be celebrated, all of which sounds pretty run of the mill except the bride has recently left a cult. Shay’s story is told by various friends and relatives revealing secrets, dark family history and regrets not to mention a very shaky explanation of what’s been happening in her life. ‘Set in the tinderbox of the 1970s, Tenderness is a lit match, bringing hidden truths to light, and asking if we can ever see ourselves or the people we love for who they truly are’ says the rather overwrought blurb which also promises a ‘slow-burn mystery’.

I may tire of New York settings and novels about the art world, both of which are the lure for Will Heinrich’s From Darkness to Darkness, but it doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon. Critic Jonah Blank’s story is told through difficult family exchanges, marriage, happy and otherwise, parenting and visits to studios. The blurb offers very little else to go on except to suggest that with an ‘acute but delicate touch, Heinrich paints a motion picture of life’ which is enough for me.

Philippe Collin’s The Barman of the Ritz reimagines legendary bartender Frank Meier’s four years at the Parisian hotel during the Occupation which began in 1941. The child of Polish Jews, Frank fought for the French during World War One despite his Austrian citizenship. Thanks to its Swiss ownership, the hotel remains open playing host to the likes of Göring and his henchmen, its luxury a jarring contrast with the starvation and misery outside its doors. Frank becomes involved in a scheme to help wealthy Jewish families escape, increasingly anxious that his own identity will be revealed and that the recklessness of the woman he adores will be the death of her. I enjoyed this gripping, morally complex story much more than I’d expected. Review soon…

Set in rural Northwestern America, Emily Ruckovich’s short story collection, Nightjar, explores the lives of ordinary people and the changes that affect them, from a woman who doubts her husband’s account of his past to a fur trapper’s reflections of how his marriage began when his wife is assaulted. ‘Nightjar illuminates the secret, instinctive knowledge that lies just under the surface of our awareness’ according to the blurb. I remember being impressed by Idaho, published almost a decade ago.

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…