A Wreath for the Enemy – Pamela Frankau
£9.99Compellingly told in a series of first person narratives, this is a powerful exploration of friendship, love and morality set in 1954 in a bohemian hotel in the South of France.
A curated selection of recommended Summer Reading from the team at Primrose Hill Books.
Act of Oblivion – Robert Harris
£9.99A pacy, imaginative recreation of the manhunt for the men who signed the death warrant of Charles I, split between an England torn apart by war and the distant shores of the New World to which the fugitive escape.
Ancestry – Simon Mawer
£9.99The author skilfully mines his own family stories in this inventive and intriguing blend of historical fiction and archival research which vividly recreates the lives of some of his forebears over the past two hundred years.
Bad Relations – Cressida Connolly
£9.99A subtle family saga which begins with the experiences of William Gale in the horror of the Crimean war, in which he is awarded the Victoria Cross, and details the psychological effects on his family down the generations.
Best of Friends – Kamila Shamsie
£9.00Skilful depiction of the enduring strengths and ongoing faultlines in the friendship between Maryan and Zahra, from their girlhood secrets and skirmishes in Karachi to their present day professional lives in London.
Briefly, A Delicious Life – Nell Stevens
£9.99George Sand and Frederic Chopin arrive in Mallorca in 1838, hoping for a creative spell in exile, and encounter a restless teenage ghost who falls in love with George. A clever novel about sexuality, music, literature, and inspiration.
Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver
£9.99A powerful reimagination of Dickens set in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia; a savage indictment of American public education, health care, child welfare agencies, and the havoc wrought by the opioid crisis.
Forgotten on Sunday – Valerie Perrin
£14.99Care assistant Justine, 21, and 100 year-old Hélène bond over writing Hélène’s life story, in which they revist her years running a café in rural France and her enduring love affair with a wounded soldier. Beguiling, full of charm and pathos.
Hawk Mountain – Conner Habib
£9.99Todd is spotted on a beach by his former high-school bully Jack and braces himself for a tense encounter. But Jack is friendly, keen to inveigle himself in Todd and his son’s lives. An unsettling literary thriller on the theme of revenge, forgiveness, and fatherhood.
Honeybees and Distant Thunder – Riku Onda
£12.99Set in the context of a prestigious piano competition, this is a masterly depiction of the transcendent power of classical music and its ability to unite strangers, cement friendships, and soar above personal ambition or rivalry.
Horse – Geraldine Brooks
£9.99Gripping tale of obsession and injustice across American history which weaves together the lives of a variety of people connected by their intereest in Lexington, celebrated as the greatest racehorse and then sire of his day.
I’m Sorry You Feel That Way – Rebecca Wait
£8.99A smart, perceptive and often hilarious depiction of the fractures in a family blighted by mental illness and dysfunctional parenting as twins Alice and Hanna, reunited after four years apart, attempt to join forces with their older brother to repair relations with their difficult mother.
Lessons – Ian McEwan
£9.99Roland Baines, son of an emotionally repressed army family, arrives at boarding school aged 11. His relationship with a teacher affects his academic progress. A thoughtful novel of unfulfilled promise, self-reflection, and acceptance.
Mercury Pictures Presents – Anthony Marra
£9.99In 1940s Hollywood, Maria, an associate producer at a studio on the verge of bankruptcy, must find a way through her present difficulties while also facing up to her family’s past in fascist Italy in an exploration of the relationship between life and art.
Molly & the Captain – Anthony Quinn
£9.99Please note that this title is not published until August 10th.
Three interlinked narratives which explore the fate and provenance of two related portraits. A vivid evocation of period detail and a moving meditation on the themes of art, beauty, and love.
Mother’s Boy – Patrick Gale
£9.99A tender fictional depiction of the life of the poet Charles Causley, with beautifully evoked period detail of World War I action and its aftermath, and a moving examination of the tensions between a life of the mind and personal fulfilment.