Book of the month

A student and aspiring researcher on Gothic nudes rents an apartment from a painter, Agnes. When Agnes unexpectedly arrives in the city, she settles into the upstairs studio, sharing stories of her tumultuous past and scattered art. As time passes, it becomes clear that Agnes may not have a home to return to. Her stories are frenetic; her art scattered and unfinished, white paint on a white canvas. Will their unlikely friendship be enough to help Agnes find her way?

A bighearted debut with technicolor characters, plenty of Texas swagger, and a powder keg of a plot in which marriages struggle, rivalries flare, and secrets explode, all with a clever wink toward classical mythology. Takes the reader to both the world of the ancient greeks and modern America at the same time – all the drama of the ancient Greek and Roman mythology packed into one week of modern family living. ”For fans of Madeline Miller's Circe: The Iliad meets Friday Night Lights in this muscular, captivating debut”

Eager to clean up his act after his troubled early twenties, Owen has returned to Kentucky to take a job as a groundskeeper at a small college in the Appalachian foothills, one which allows him to enrol on their writing course. It's there that he meets Alma, a Writer-in-Residence, who seems to have everything Owen doesn't - a prestigious position, an Ivy League education, and published success as a writer. They begin a secret relationship, and as they grow closer, Alma, from a supportive, liberal family of Bosnian immigrants, struggles to understand Owen's fraught relationship with his own family and home. / *Join the reading group /  

A queen of punk before her time. A duo on the brink of stardom. A night that will define their story for ever. New York city in the 70s. Opal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, a Black punk artist before her time. Despite her unconventional looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her one night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together. Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2022.