The Times and Sunday Times literary editors recently published what they are looking forward to reading in the next year. Here’s the extensive list to add to your reading list:
Fiction
Slough House by Mick Herron (John Murray, February)
“The slow horses” of Britain’s intelligence services are being bumped off . . . and the grotesque comic creation Jackson Lamb swings into action. Mick Herron is on form.
Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford (Faber, February)
Francis Spufford’s previous novel, Golden Hill, set in 18th-century New York, was a critically acclaimed triumph. This new one is about the imagined future lives of five people killed by a German rocket in the Blitz.
Mother for Dinner by Shalom Auslander (Picador, February)
Auslander shocked with his very funny previous novel, Hope: A Tragedy, and sets out to do so again with this tale of “Cannibal-Americans”.
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (Bloomsbury, February).
An eagerly awaited novel by the author of the memoir Priestdaddy, about a woman whose life is overwhelmed by the internet.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (Faber, March)
This is Kazuo Ishiguro’s first novel since he won the Nobel prize for Literature in 2017. Klara is “an artificial friend” waiting in a shop to be bought by a human.
Double Blind by Edward St Aubyn (Harvill Secker, March)
The latest from the author of the Patrick Melrose novels, about three close friends and a year of “extraordinary transformation”.
The Mysterious Correspondent: New Stories by Marcel Proust (Oneworld, March).
Nine stories, published for the first time, that offer an intimate picture of the young author.
The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac by Louise Kennedy (Bloomsbury, April)
Kennedy has been shortlisted twice in recent years for the Sunday Times Audible Short Story Award. This is her first book, a debut collection of stories.
Sponsored
Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny (4th Estate, April).
A novel of love, disaster and unconventional family from the author of Standard Deviation.
Lean Fall Stand by Jon McGregor (4th Estate, April)
The consequences are far-reaching when an Antarctic research expedition goes wrong, in a new novel from the author of Reservoir 13.
The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jonasson (Michael Joseph, April)
A new Icelandic novel from the author called by The Sunday Times’s Joan Smith “a world-class crime writer”.
Second Place by Rachel Cusk (Faber, May)
Cusk’s new novel focuses on a woman who invites a famous artist to visit the remote region where she lives.
Whereabouts by Jhumpa Lahiri (Bloomsbury, May)
From the Pulitzer prizewinner, a fictional portrait of a woman in a beautiful, lonely Italian city.
China Room by Sunjeev Sahota (Harvill Secker, May)
Sahota was shortlisted for the Booker for his 2015 novel The Year of the Runaways. This multigenerational tale of love and trauma is based in part on his own family history.
The Wife of Willesden by Zadie Smith (Hamish Hamilton, June)
Zadie Smith’s publisher is describing the transcript of her play as “a riotous dramatic translation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Prologue, brought to glorious life on London’s Kilburn High Road”.
The Women of Troy by Pat Barker (Hamish Hamilton, August)
This sequel to Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls, her feminist retelling of The Iliad, is set in the aftermath of the Trojan war. A victorious but disconsolate Greek army waits for the wind to carry them away from Troy.
Crossroads: A Novel: A Key to All Mythologies, Volume 1 by Jonathan Franzen (4th Estate, October)
Certainly the most grandly titled novel of the year, this is a family saga stretching over 50 years from a writer who has a better claim than most to be our greatest living novelist.
The Magician by Colm Tóibín (Viking, September)
Colm Tóibín’s new book is about the great German novelist Thomas Mann living in exile in Los Angeles during the Second World War.
O, William! by Elizabeth Strout (Viking, September)
From the author of Olive Kitteridge, an “exquisite” new novel. So far we know only the title.
Bewilderment by Richard Powers (Heinemann, October)
Richard Powers won the Pulitzer prize for fiction in 2019 for his massive environmental novel about trees, The Overstory. His new one will return to environmental themes and the “fierce love of a father for his young son”.
Non-fiction
Empireland: How Imperialism Has Shaped Modern Britain by Sathnam Sanghera (Viking. January)
The Times columnist writes about the way Britain’s history as a colonial power has shaped politics and society today.
Devils, Lusts and Strange Desires by Richard Bradford (Bloomsbury, January)
A new biography of Patricia Highsmith, timed for the centenary of her birth.
Breathtaking by Rachel Clarke (Little, Brown, January)
There are a host of first-hand accounts of the pandemic by medics promised for 2021, but this one, written by a palliative care doctor who wrote the bestselling Dear Life, sets a high bar.
This Sovereign Isle by Robert Tombs (Allen Lane, January)
The author of the bestselling The English and Their History puts Brexit into historical perspective.
Fall: The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John Preston (Viking, February)
From the bestselling author of A Very English Scandal comes the jaw-dropping life story of notorious business tycoon Robert Maxwell.
Keats: A Brief Life in Nine Poems and One Epitaph by Lucasta Miller (Jonathan Cape, February)
His brief life and poems, explored by the author of The Brontë Myth.
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need by Bill Gates (Allen Lane, February)
The Microsoft founder looks at what humanity, and science, can do to beat climate change.
Raceless: In Search of Family, Identity, and the Truth About Where I Belong by Georgina Lawton (Sphere, February)
The adopted black daughter of white parents on her complex family legacy.
Frostquake by Juliet Nicolson (Chatto, February)
How Britain coped with the ten weeks of snow during the great freeze of 1962, and emerged changed from the experience.
Snakes and Ladders: The Great British Social Mobility Myth by Selina Todd (Chatto, February)
The “hidden” history of how people have really experienced social mobility in the UK.
Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life Jordan Peterson (Allen Lane, March)
After a year in rehab in Russia, the charismatic Canadian academic returns with a follow-up to his bestselling 12 Rules for Life that promises to help readers to find the balance between order and chaos, the two fundamental principles of reality (according to Jordan Peterson).
Henry “Chips” Channon: The Diaries 1918-1938 edited by Simon Heffer (Hutchinson, March)
Chips Channon’s celebrated diaries were heavily edited before publication. This unexpurgated edition promises to be eye-opening.
Value(s): Building a Better World for All by Mark Carney (Wm Collins, March)
An ambitious look at economics and society from the former governor of the Bank of England.
Places of Mind: A Life of Edward Said by Timothy Brennan (Bloomsbury, March)
The life of the author of Orientalism.
The Gun, the Ship and the Pen by Linda Colley (Profile, March)
The place of constitutions in nations’ histories.
First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami (Harvill Secker, April)
A new collection of short stories from the author of Norwegian Wood.
Philip Roth: The Biography by Blake Bailey (Cape, April)
Bailey was appointed by Roth himself before his death to write this biography.
Everybody by Olivia Laing (Picador, April)
The renegade psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich is at the heart of this investigation into the body and its discontents.
The Beauty of Living Twice by Sharon Stone (Allen & Unwin, April)
The actress’s account of her attempts to rebuild her life after a stroke cost her her health, career, family and fame.
Nuclear Folly: A New History of the Cuban Missile Crisis by Serhii Plokhy (Allen Lane, April)
A new account from the author who won the Baillie Gifford prize for his exploration of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.
The Madness of Grief: A Memoir of Love and Loss by Richard Coles (Weidenfeld, April)
A deeply personal account of life after the death of a loved one.
Monica Jones, Philip Larkin and Me: Her Life and Long Loves by John Sutherland (Weidenfeld, April)
Jones, Larkin’s partner for more than four decades, finally steps out from behind the poet in this new biography.
Letters to Camondo by Edmund de Waal (Chatto, April)
De Waal returns to the territory of The Hare with Amber Eyes with this story of a belle époque family and their private art collection.
Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe by Niall Ferguson (Allen Lane, May)
The renowned historian tackles a timely theme. How do societies respond to unpredictable natural disasters and why did so many developed nations bungle their response to coronavirus?
Napoleon by Ruth Scurr (Chatto, May)
A quirky portrait, from the biographer of Robespierre.
Operation Pedestal by Max Hastings (Wm Collins, May)
The story of one convoy’s desperate attempt to relieve the siege of Malta in 1942.
Noise by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony and Cass R Sunstein (Wm Collins, May)
The authors of Thinking, Fast and Slow and Nudge on how to make better decisions.
Burning Man: The Trials of DH Lawrence by Frances Wilson (Bloomsbury, May)
A tumultuous decade in the novelist’s life, between the prosecution of The Rainbow in 1915 and his diagnosis with tuberculosis.
Languages of Truth by Salman Rushdie (Cape, May)
A collection of essays from the Booker winner.
The Case of the Married Woman: Caroline Norton: A 19th-Century Heroine by Antonia Fraser (Weidenfeld, May)
One mother’s legal battle with her husband and how it changed family law.
Seven Ways to Change the World by Gordon Brown (Simon & Schuster, June)
The former PM offers solutions to the challenges we face in 2021 and beyond.
Why We Kneel How We Rise by Michael Holding (Simon & Schuster, June)
The former West Indies fast bowler on the racism he faced and how the world can change.
Rationality: What It Is, Why It’s Scarce, and How to Get More by Steven Pinker (Allen Lane, September)
The eternally optimistic philosopher on how rationality can help us to make the right choices for ourselves and the planet.
George III by Andrew Roberts (Allen Lane, October)
The biographer of Napoleon turns his attention to one of his royal enemies.
Untitled HG Wells biography by Claire Tomalin (Viking, October)
One of our greatest biographers turns her pen on HG Wells, the pioneering sci-fi author.
Crossroads: A Novel: A Key to All Mythologies, Volume 1 by Jonathan Franzen (4th Estate, October)
A family saga stretching over 50 years.
Solid Ivory by James Ivory (Corsair, November)
Memories and reflections from the producer and director.