  | Blonde Roots — Bernardine Evaristo LA: Blonde Roots is a really great title. Have you ever dyed your hair blonde? BE: No, but I did have low-lights put in once which didn’t really work as it seemed to dry my hair out. Years ago the only black woman who got away with blonde hair… Continue reading this interview Blonde Roots is published by Hamish Hamilton, £17.99. Amazon pre-order price £11.87 (one third off) to July 30. |
  | Mothernight – Sarah Stovell Sarah Stovell’s debut novel, Mothernight, opens in an English boarding school reminiscent of Ishiguro’s institution in Never Let Me Go. The writing is similarly restrained. Two sixth-formers, narrator Olivia and Leila, her lover, are about to leave for university. But first, they spend a sticky summer at the parental home from which Leila was banished years earlier following the unexplained death of her half-brother. We learn of Leila’s childhood fixation with her stepmother’s newborn baby, egged on by Rosie, the manipulative girl next door. The did-she didn’t-she tension is underpinned by spare, sharply observed writing, Stovell showing a keen sense of how vulnerability brings out the dark side of human nature. An unflinching examination of guilt, with a pervading distrust of redemption, Mothernight is a psychological thriller that delivers strongly on all fronts. (Snow Books, £7.99) –CC |
| Unaccustomed Earth - Lahiri Unaccustomed Earth contains long, lucid stories exploring the dissonance arising from cultural and geographical displacement. Lahiri’s prose is clear, intelligent, beautiful, reminiscent of William Trevor who she credits as one of her influences. Her characters are second generation Bengali intellectuals with glittering Western educations and yet their lives are tinged with small sadnesses that emanate from the simple fact of their parents having shifted a distance on the surface of our planet. Lahiri is an accomplished story writer. Not for nothing did this book win the richest prize for short fiction collections in the world, the Frank O’Connor Award. Deservedly so. (Bloomsbury, £14.99 or £8.94 from Amazon) -VG |  |
| 68: New stories from children of the revolution – Nicholas Royle, ed. The basic premise for this collection is this: all its authors were born in 1968. A thematic flirtation with revolution is hinted at, and features to varying degrees in stories by the highly original Justina Robson and others. James Flint unleashes an amusing tale of a richkid rattling around his university at too many RPMs. Unlikely to change your world, perhaps, but enough to give you a different take on things for half an hour, if you swap the free paper for this book on the commute home. Toby Litt’s surreal and barbaric saga, incidentally, is a worryingly good match for the domestic horror stories that are a staple of the afforementioned free papers. Salt Books, £10 –LA |  |
| Me and Mickie James Aspiring pop duo Down by Law come to London seeking fame - it may sound like another sentimental lad’s band story. But the unnamed ‘Me’ and his hunchback boyfriend Mickie James take us at a fast pace to the unexpected, from the top of St Pancras station via Copenhagen to Iraq, from working in a cheese shop to appearing as a kawaii idol on a Tokyo TV show, and writing a song inspired by Leonard Cohen called ‘Suicide Would Be the Sensible Choice If It Didn’t Involve So Much Pain’. It’s slap-stick silly, yet some touching moments might surprise you. Not a book to help you find a way into the music industry, but it may tell you a thing or two about the fun of being off beat. Jonathan Cape, £11.99 -AM |  |
 Reviews this issue:Claudia Cruttwell, Vanessa Gebbie, Aoi Matsushima, Lane Ashfeldt. |