Spring 2023 Preview
Posted 20th October 2022
JANUARY
Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan | Fiction | PB | £9.99 | 19 January 2023 From the critically-acclaimed author of The Dominant Animal
About one woman’s fine, hard life at the racetrack, Kick the Latch – with its ruthless concision and artful mysteries – is lightning in a bottle. Based on transcribed interviews with Sonia, a horse trainer, the novel investigates form and authenticity in a feat of synthesis reminiscent of Charles Reznikoff’s Testimony.
‘In her latest work of fiction, Kick the Latch, Scanlan continues to make art about ordinary life by distorting it.’ New Yorker
FEBRUARY
Voyager: Constellations of Memory by Nona Fernández | Tr Natasha Wimmer| Non-Fiction | PB | £9.99 | 23 February 2023 |
Weaving together the narrative of her mother’s illness with stories of the cosmos and of her country, Fernández braids astronomy and astrology, neuroscience and memory, family history and national history into an intensely imagined autobiographical work.
‘Nona Fernández has developed a reputation for composing unsettling portraits of life during Chile’s brutal military dictatorship, with stories that venture beyond the stiff and incomplete histories recorded by truth and reconciliation commissions.’ New York Magazine
MARCH
Dog Hearted: Essays on Our Fierce and Familiar Companions | Ned Beauman, Rowan Hisayo Buchanan, Cal Flyn, alice hiller, Carl Phillips & others | Non-Fiction | PB | £9.99 | 16 March 2023
An anthology of essays on dogs – and our relationship with them – by some of the most exciting writers at work today, edited by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan and Jessica J. Lee, and with original illustrations by Hisayo Buchanan.
This collection promises to bring joy and delight, and surprising depth and poignancy. It goes beyond the damp noses and wagging tails and gets to the heart of what makes dogs our true lifelong companions. These essays are also sometimes toothy, sometimes bloody, sometimes gentle; much like dogs.
APRIL
Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe | Non-Fiction | PB | £14.99 | 4 April 2023
Ordinary Notes explores, with immense care, profound questions about loss, pain and beauty; private memory and public monument; art; complexity; and the shapes of Black life that emerge in the wake. In a series of 248 brief and urgent notes that cumulatively gather meaning, artifacts from the past – both public ones and the poignantly personal – are skilfully interwoven with present-day realities and possible futures, intricately constructing an immersive portrait of everyday Black existence.
Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country by Louise Erdrich | Non-Fiction | PB | £9.99 | 20 April 2023
Drawing on the long, elemental tradition of storytelling that is in her blood, Louise Erdrich skilfully weaves together history, mythology and memoir to enchanting, evocative effect. Never before published in the UK, Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country is a captivating meditation on modern life, nature, and ancient spirituality and creativity.
‘One of the greatest living American writers.’ Guardian
MAY
They Went to Portugal: A Traveller’s Portrait by Rose Macaulay | With an introduction by Caroline Eden | Non-Fiction | PB | £9.99 | 11 May 2023
They Went to Portugal rambles down the centuries, bringing us the voices and experiences of a fascinating cast of characters: from pirate crusaders to ambassadors, from clergymen of all denominations to the port-wine trading pioneers, from aesthetes to the Romantics.
‘Her compilation of history, literature and anecdote turns out to be a travel book in the best possible sense: it is a comic, intimate companion to visiting Portugal.’ Literary Review
Valentino by Natalia Ginzburg | With an introduction by Alexander Chee | Tr by Avril Bardoni | Fiction | PB | £8.99 | 25 May 2023
In this tale of love and betrayal, Valentino is the spoiled child of doting parents who have no doubt he will be ‘a man of consequence’.
Valentino is a family drama about queerness and gender nonconformity. What ensues is yet another work of quiet devastation told with Ginzburg’s unflinching moral realism and keen psychological insight.
Sagittarius by Natalia Ginzburg | Tr by Avril Bardoni | Fiction | PB | £8.99 | 25 May 2023
Sagittarius is the story of the dissolution of a family, and the role that class plays in its downfall. A tale of misplaced confidence and ambition gone awry, recounted by a wary daughter.
JUNE
Rattlebone by Maxine Clair | With an introduction by Okechukwu Nzelu | Fiction | PB | £9.99 | 15 June 2023
Irene Wilson knows that a ‘no-name invisible something’ has settled over her parents’ marriage, and suspects her glamorous new teacher is to blame. Irene is not alone in her suspicions. In the town of Rattlebone, a small Black neighbourhood of Kansas City, secrets are hard to keep and growing up is a community affair.
‘I read Rattlebone when it was first published in 1994. I loved it then, and all these years later I love it more.’ Ann Patchett