ON SUNDAYS SHE PICKED FLOWERS, YAH YAH SCHOLFIELD

Jude leaves home at 17, believing that the years of abuse from her mother are finally over. Almost 20 years later, she is living alone in the forests of northern Georgia and is visited by an enigmatic but unsettling woman, who reminds her of her past in a spectral, creeping way. An often brutal but beautiful horror novel, On Sundays She Picked Flowers is a Southern Gothic novel that takes classic tropes and makes them new.

On Sundays She Picked Flowers is out in January.

NONESUCH, FRANCIS SPUFFORD 

Francis Spufford’s fourth novel pulls no punches in its exploration of the particular character of British fascism. Set during the Blitz, protagonist Iris has what she thinks is a one-night stand with a BBC engineer – an experience she would be happy to forget, but she subsequently she finds herself haunted by a strange figure made out of newspaper. And so she reconnects with Geoff, her apparent fling, to try and work out why she is being supernaturally pursued. So begins Iris’ discovery of a different plane of existence in which angels and shadowy figures abound; one which is in danger of being manipulated by far-right extremists for their own ends. Nonesuch is more of a genre-defying, time-and-space-bending experience rather than a novel: at once historical and extremely timely for our current political climate.

Nonesuch is out in February.

THE AGE OF CALAMITIES, SENAA AHMAD 

Julius Caesar’s army eats pastrami sandwiches in New York. Anne Boleyn collects her head and places it back on her body. Oppenheimer splits time and space in the American desert. Ahmad’s stories interrogate how we study and think of historical figures and eras, while also introducing an exciting and unique new voice in fiction. The Age of Calamities is surreal, funny and endlessly thought-provoking, with each story a whole universe on its own.

The Age of Calamities is out in February.

A BEAST SLINKS TOWARDS BEIJING, ALICE EVELYN YANG

Protagonist Qianze suddenly comes into contact with her absent father, and with his arrival comes shocking revelations about their family’s past and a prophecy that he gradually reveals to her. Qianze must come to terms with her father’s role in the Japanese occupation of Manchuria and the condition of her mother’s life under the occupation, which results in odd visions and experiences as fox spirits attempt to communicate with her and jackalopes invade her dreams. Yang presents historical events with skill and through a magical realist lens, bringing attention to underexplored incidents and eras in a fresh way.

A Beast Slinks Towards Beijing is out in February.

ORANGE, CURTIS GARNER 

Set in 2018 and 2023, Garner’s second novel is an exploration of contemporary queerness across rural and urban settings and unpacks how we define ourselves based on our immediate surroundings. Teenaged Daniel and Jago meet in Cornwall, unsure what their connection means for themselves. Years later, they meet again, this time in London, where Daniel has become a much less self-conscious and prouder version of himself. Their meeting upsets the development they each have and have not gone through, and their initial bond is put in danger. An effective exploration of how we live and experience different pressures together and apart.

Orange is out in February.

SPOILED MILK, AVERY CURRAN

The upper sixth students at Briarley School are a group of girls going through several things at once. Their de facto leader, the charismatic and incredibly beautiful Violet, has died under strange circumstances, and her best friend Emily isn’t satisfied with the neat explanation behind it. Encouraged by a book on the supernatural that they possess, the girls begin dabbling in strange kinds of magic in order to get answers. But someone, or something, isn’t happy about their meddling, and so their food begins to rot, the water becomes contaminated, and increasingly violent deaths occur – all while the girls struggle with questions about their sexualities and their places in their contemporary 1930s society. A haunting book about 20th-century England and an instant queer classic. 

Spoiled Milk is out in March.

THE SOUL-CATCHERS, NAOKO HIGASHI (TRANSLATED BY LUCY NORTH)

Translated for the first time into English, Higashi’s hit The Soul-Catchers is a collection of 11 stories all based around the same question: what if we could return to our loved ones after death through tangible objects? Higashi’s characters visit their friends and families through hearing aids, mugs and climbing frames to connect with them once more. A moving examination of what we lose when someone dies, both physically and emotionally. 

The Soul-Catchers is out in March.

STRANGE GIRLS, SARVAT HASIN

Ava and Aliya were inseparable at university, finding comfort in both each other and in the books, films and music that they discovered together. A decade later, however, their relationship is strained as they reunite for a mutual friend’s hen party in London. As Aliya braces herself to publish a novel, something that everyone expected Ava to do, the unspoken tensions between them find themselves needing to be addressed and resolved. Strange Girls is for everyone who had an intoxicating friendship at a formative age, the exact nature of which is difficult to define or reckon with in adulthood. Hasin’s writing is evocative and addictive, layering in issues of class, place and race into an otherwise introspective and detailed novel.

Strange Girls is out in March.

LÁZÁR, NELIO BIEDERMANN (TRANSLATED BY JAMIE BULLOCH) 

If you’ve had a taste for the Gothic and monstrous in the past year or so, thanks to Guillermo del Toro’s take on Frankenstein and Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, then Lázár will scratch the itch that they might have left. Spanning from the beginning of the 20th century to the 1956 Hungarian National Uprising, Biedermann’s novel focuses on the crumbling, aristocratic family of the Lázárs and their ancient castle, which drives everyone who enters it to madness. Lajos von Lázár is born into their unique chaos and steers the reader through his family’s lore. A vivid, strange story that sustains its tension.

Lázár is out in March.

WHAT AM I, A DEER?, POLLY BARTON 

Acclaimed translator of Japanese fiction and the writer of Porn: An Oral History, Polly Barton releases her debut in fiction in What Am I, A Deer? from one of the world’s chicest publishers, Fitzcarraldo Editions. Barton’s protagonist is naïvely set on reinventing herself when she moves to Frankfurt to begin working for a gaming company, despite the fact that she has little interest in gaming. Miserable and alone, she meets a stranger on her commute, who catalyses a dizzying year of obsession. Barton truly can do it all – translation, non-fiction and now fiction – with a startling level of skill.

What Am I, A Deer? is out in April.

WELCOME TO THE CHAOSKAMPF, JANE FLETT

Following on from Flett’s 2024 transgressive debut Freakslaw, Welcome to the Chaoskampf is a novel set near the end of the world, in which one woman decides that it is high time she leaves her husband and joins a cult. Marcy is bored and annoyed, and so the appeal of a group of people who worship chaos, eat human flesh and commit arson is particularly appealing, especially as natural disasters are becoming evermore frequent. A shocking, sexy novel about climate and chosen community that lives up to Flett’s sparkling debut.

Welcome to the Chaoskampf is out in May.

BAIT, EUGENIA LADRA (TRANSLATED BY MIRIAM TOBIN)

The Uruguayan fisherman’s town of Paso Chico is hot, dusty and, to 13-year-old Marga, extremely boring. That is, until she meets Recio, a stranger who will disrupt the sleepy and static atmosphere of Marga’s hometown. Bait is an endlessly impressive debut that is expertly translated in order to convey the potent potential for violence that simmers under the apparently dull everyday. Bait is also an exciting addition to contemporary Latin-American literature currently available in English, easily sitting in the same ranks as Fernanda Melchor and Andrea Abreu.

Bait is out in June.