Critically Acclaimed Books of 2021

An exquisite winter tale of courage, and its cost — set in Catholic Ireland.

An electrifying story of passion, connection and transformation from ‘a writer of show-stopping genius’ (Guardian).

‘The Sun always has ways to reach us.’ A beautiful gift edition of Kazuo Ishiguro’s bestselling new novel, Klara and the Sun.

The *new* novel from the internationally bestselling author of Normal People.

A heartbreaking novel of an extraordinary lifelong friendship.

A novel about one of history’s great unsolved mysteries, by Britain’s most original writer

‘A writer of sentences so elegant that they gleam.’ – Ali SmithThe hugely anticipated new novel from the beloved author

The new novel from the Nobel Prize-winning master of fiction — the true story of Guatemala’s political turmoil of the 1950s.

The first novel by the acclaimed author of Mothers — a deft, delicate inquisition of identity and ambition, and a daring act of fiction.

From the author of the Outline trilogy, a fable of human destiny and decline, enacted in a closed system of intimate, fractured relationships.

From the best-selling, prize-winning author of Golden Hill, a novel of the everyday, the miraculous and the everlasting.

The sumptuous, propulsive, sun-kissed follow up to the bestselling Snow, from the Booker Prize winning author.

The autumn’s most thrilling page-turner from the author of The Undoing, the major series on HBO and Sky

A bitingly funny historical novel, following Brother Diggory on an eerily prescient journey through fourteenth-century England.

The first volume of a new trilogy telling the saga of one French family between 1946 and 2016.

The explosive and virtuosic debut novel by one of the most talented young authors to have emerged in recent British fiction.

‘Precise and beautifully controlled fictions but with strange, wild energies pulsing along just beneath the surface. A tremendous collection.’ Kevin Barry

Discover this cult classic, available in the UK for the first time in many years, and step into a world of the dark, bizarre, and unexplained . . .

The amphibious cult classic: this magical tale of a suburban housewife’s affair with a frogman is ‘genius’ (Patricia Lockwood), ‘perfect’ (Max Porter), ‘a feminist masterpiece’ (Carmen Maria Machado), and ‘out-weirds and out-romances anything today’ (Marlon James).

From a pioneering psychiatrist and psychotherapist comes The Devil You Know, a perspective-shattering work into the minds of violent criminals which reveals profound consequences for human nature and society at large.

The collected letters of John McGahern, ‘arguably the most important Irish novelist since Samuel Beckett.’ (Guardian)

This sensational 1941 memoir of life on the frontline of wartime Europe by a ‘magnificent‘ (Antony Beevor) trailblazing female reporter is a rediscovered classic, introduced by Christina Lamb.

Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2019: a searing portrait of Britain’s hostile environment by the journalist behind the Windrush exposé.

Critically-acclaimed and bestselling author Paul Morley’s long-awaited biography of Factory Records co-founder and Manchester icon Tony Wilson.

From award-winning musician and composer Warren Ellis comes the unexpected and inspiring story of a piece of chewing gum. Featuring an introduction from Nick Cave.

Anil Seth’s radical new theory of consciousness challenges our understanding of perception and reality, doing for brain science what Dawkins did for evolutionary biology.

The first comprehensive biography of this undervalued writer, who was considered ‘far and away the best living woman poet’ in her day.

This memoir, told in gloriously comic vignettes, is an utterly joyful reflection on living – and sometimes thriving (sometimes not) – with anxiety.

Miss Dior is a story of freedom and fascism, beauty and betrayal, roses and repression, and how the polished surface of fashion conceals hidden depths.

A magisterial and profoundly perceptive survey of Britain’s post-war role on the global stage, from Suez to Brexit.

Beeswing is the autobiography from world-renowned artist Richard Thompson, co-founder of the legendary folk rock group Fairport Convention.

The dramatic story of a musician and artist whose unconventional journey to international success was far more important than her family name.

A ‘howdie-skelp’ is the slap in the face a midwife gives a newborn. It’s a wake-up call. A call to action. The poems in Paul Muldoon’s striking new collection include a nightmarish remake of The Waste Land, an elegy for his fellow Northern Irish poet Ciaran Carson, a crown of sonnets that responds to the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, a translation …

This selection of correspondence presents, for the first time, the private life and reflections of a maverick figure in the history of British and American poetry.

The award-winning essayist and poet Rowan Ricardo Phillips presents a bracing renewal of civic poetry – his first publication in the UK.

This viking duo will give Horrid Henry a run for his money!

The second, highly anticipated novel from Carnegie-shortlisted author Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock.

The hotly anticipated new standalone from the Queen of Historical Fiction, Emma Carroll, in hardback for the first time!

This extraordinary retelling of black British history will dazzle readers of all ages.