Book of the month

General Fiction Book of the Month – May 2017

When the meaning of 'home' is complicated, we strive for a sense of connection. Yet sometimes being alone feels like the easiest choice to make. Written with startling beauty and power, Harmless Like You explores the complexities of identity and art and captures, over decades and cities, a fractured family narrative of love, loneliness and reconciliation.  

General Fiction Book of the Month – April 2017

An evocative coming of age journey across 60s America. This beautifully written debut novel would not be out of place alongside the work of Steinbeck and Philipp Meyer’s American Rust. Mark Thompson’s Dust is at turns funny, and at others heart-achingly sad, the story unfolds around the honest and frequently irreverent observations of two young people trying to grow up fast in a world that is at times confusing, and at others seen with a clarity only the young may possess.

General Fiction Book of the Month – March 2017

Even a goldfish can dream of adventure… From his enviable view from a balcony on the 27th floor of an apartment block, Ian the Goldfish has frequent – if fleeting – desires for a more exciting life. Until one day, a series of unfortunate events give him an opportunity to escape… Our story begins, however, with the human inhabitants of Ian’s building. And as Ian tumbles perilously downwards, he will witness all their lives, loves, triumphs and disasters… Fishbowl by Bradley Somer is our general fiction Book of the Month. A truly original, philosophically joyful and charming novel with the unlikeliest of heroes. This is Tales of the City as seen by a goldfish.

Book of the month for February

Jem Lester – Shtum is our book of the month for February. Ben Jewell has hit breaking point. His ten-year-old son, Jonah, has never spoken.So when Ben and Jonah are forced to move in with Ben's elderly father, three generations of men - one who can't talk; two who won't – are thrown together. As Ben battles single fatherhood, a string of well-meaning social workers and his own demons, he learns some difficult home truths. Jonah, blissful in his ignorance, becomes the prism through which all the complicated strands of personal identity, family history and misunderstanding are finally untangled.

Book of the month for January

Charlotte Wood – The Natural Way of Things is our book of the month for January. A horror parable about a group of women who awaken from a drugged sleep to find themselves imprisoned and forced to do hard labour. Powerfully explores contemporary misogyny and corporate control.

British Crime Book of the month – January

Andrew Martin – The Yellow Diamond is our british crime book of the month for January. India, 1923. On the broiling Night Mail from Calcutta to Jamalpur, a man is shot dead in a first class compartment. Detective Inspector Jim Stringer was sleeping in the next compartment along. Was he the intended target?

Book of the month for December

Jenni Fagan – The Sunlight Pilgrims is our book of the month for December. Set in a Scottish caravan park during a freak winter – it is snowing in Jerusalem, the Thames is overflowing, and an iceberg separated from the Fjords in Norway is expected to arrive off the coast of Scotland – The Sunlight Pilgrims tells the story of a small Scottish community living through what people have begun to think is the end of times…

Book of the month for November

Susan Abulhawa – The Blue Between Sky and Water is our book of the month for November. Spanning generations and continents, The Blue Between Sky and Water is a story of powerful, flawed women; of relocation, separation and heartache; of renewal, family, endurance, and love. Susan Abulhawa brings a raw humanity and delicate authority to the story of Palestine in this devastatingly beautiful tale.

Book of the month for October

Jonathan Coe – Number 11 s our book of the month for October. This is a novel about the hundreds of tiny connections between the public and private worlds and how they affect us all. It's about the legacy of war and the end of innocence. It's about how comedy and politics are battling it out and comedy might have won. It's about how 140 characters can make fools of us all. It's about living in a city where bankers need cinemas in their basements and others need food banks down the street. It is Jonathan Coe doing what he does best ­- showing us how we live now.

Book of the month for September

Paul Beatty – Sellout s our book of the month for September. Longlisted for Man Booker Prize 2016. Born in Dickens on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles, the narrator of The Sellout spent his childhood as the subject in his father's racially charged psychological studies. He is told that his father's work will lead to a memoir that will solve their financial woes. But when his father is killed in a drive-by shooting, he discovers there never was a memoir. All that's left is a bill for a drive-through funeral.