Sorrow Spring by Olivia Isaac Henry
Rina Pine knows little about the world outside her commune. But even she can tell that something is amiss in the quiet little village of Sorrow Spring…
In this slow-burning and sinister novel, teenager Rina Pine is abandoned by her hippie mother and forced to live with her estranged Aunt Agatha. At first, it seems as if Aunt Agatha is nothing more than a strict, God-fearing, elderly woman. But as Rina soon discovers, the women of Sorrow Spring have an agenda that goes far beyond the church’s influence. When children begin to go missing, Rina knows Aunt Agatha and her friends have something to do with it. But who can Rina turn to when she cannot trust anyone in Sorrow Spring?
A chilling mystery with echoes of folk horror and witchcraft, perfect for a cold autumn evening. – Nethmi
Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller
When science writer Lulu Miller’s life began to unravel, she took solace in the story of David Starr Jordan. A leading naturalist and taxonomist who was responsible for identifying and naming thousands of underwater species in the late 19th and early 20th century, Jordan was also founding president of Stanford University and renowned for his unbelievable resilience.
When his lab burned down, destroying all his specimens, he dusted himself off and did the work again. When the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 crumbled his lab once again, he redoubled his efforts and worked even harder. What better role model for Miller to use as inspiration for her own life…. right?
But as Miller begins to dig into the archives to reveal more about Jordan’s life, she begins to unearth some dark secrets and cover-ups that cast this legendary figure in a very different light…
An astonishing blend of science, natural history, biography, memoir and true crime, Why Fish Don’t Exist is non-fiction at its very best, filled with shocking and scarcely believable twists and turns. – Tom M
My Roman Year by Andre Aciman
Aciman conjures from his own teenage memory the sensations of disorientation, detachment, and frequently comic confusion, that bombarded him and his family as they arrive in Rome in 1966. Expelled from Alexandria, leaving his father behind, André, his deaf mother and younger brother are cast into the dubious protection of the impulsive and overbearing Uncle Claude.
As with Aciman’s fiction, it’s the vivid characterisation that really sticks with you. And those little shiny moments of wonder amidst the turmoil of exile – the first taste of nocciola ice cream, the early morning cacophony of the daily market being set up, his mother’s mastery of “the unmistakable eloquence of the dirty look”, at Claude’s latest attempt to undermine the family.
I can’t wait to sit with André on October 15th here in Bath and have him lead bring to life for us the sights, sounds and emotional rollercoaster of that rootless time in 1960s Italy. – Nic