Welcome to Insider Reading, where the booksellers of Mr B’s give you the lowdown on new and future releases. We are very lucky as booksellers to get to read books ahead of publication.
So here is a behind-the-scenes peek into what some of our booksellers are already raving about for the months ahead…
Sôffi has been getting excited for our upcoming event with the brilliant Dave Eggers later this month, and has already dived into Contrapposto (July 2nd), she says: “The shape-shifting author of The Circle, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, and A Hologram for the King, this time turns his hand to an epic coming-of-artist tale, spanning the globe and the course of one man’s life, from a lowly start in Indiana, to Cambodia, New York and Paris. We follow loveable artist Cricket and his flighty paramour Olympia as they tackle abusive parents, university and the harsh realities of the art world, often together, sometimes apart. Told with his signature humour and precision, Contrapposto tells a big-hearted and tender story that counter-positions exquisitely the pain and exhilarations of love and the creative process. Littered with Eggers’ own beautiful sketches, Contrapposto asks: What is art, and who can make it?”
Pre-order Signed & Dedicated Contrapposto
Don’t miss our event with Dave Eggers, in conversation with Max Porter, on 29th June!
Tom M is spoiling us this month, having just returned from hols having read three upcoming releases he couldn’t wait to tell us about, including a new take on the rise of AI, a new novel from the author of the much-loved Eurotrash, plus a debut novel from a Uruguayan author.
The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow (June 23rd)
My opinions on AI range somewhere between healthily cynical and panic! panic! burn it to the ground! In this revelatory and extremely timely new book, SF novelist and tech activist Cory Doctorow assuages all our fears about this accelerating technology by cutting through the bullshit and presenting it for what it is. No, AI can’t do your job. No, it can’t replace humans. In fact, every time it’s tried to take over a job sector it has failed. What the boosters doing the podcast rounds, the Tony Blair’s of the world, and the many disingenuous AI salesmen, are doing is boosting stock prices. Because the AI boom is not a technical revolution that is going to change the way we live: it is a ginormous investment bubble, perhaps the biggest we have ever seen. And it’s going to burst. Doctorow argues that we need to worry much less about the hype and start to prepare for what comes after it fails. A brilliant rallying call that feels like essential reading right now.
Air by Christian Kracht (July 16th)
One of the great German language authors of our time returns with Air, an astonishing and original novel of life, death and the in-between. Paul, a celebrated interior designer, flies from his home on Orkney to Norway, where he has been tasked with colour-drenching a huge data centre in the perfect white. In another realm, a stranger is nursed back to health in a remote forest after he is shot with an arrow by a nine-year-old girl. Slowly, strangely, these two narratives snake around each other to deliver an enigmatic whole, a novel of great philosophical weight that demands re-reading. Playing with the traditions laid down by Le Guin and Borges, this is truly one of the great works of fiction to appear in English in 2026.
Bait by Eugenia Ladra (June 18th)
In a swampy Uruguayan fishing village, a young woman beats a dog to death as the sun comes up, watched over by a group of half-drunk men stumbling back from the tavern. Flash back a few weeks and the locals wake to find a stranger bearing a peculiar mark sleeping under the tree in the village centre. While many shun him, 13-year-old Marga finds herself drawn to this dark new presence… A setting reminiscent of the best of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and a grotesque cast of characters fit to people the most disturbing of southern gothic novels make this a compelling read.
Liv has also been preparing for her interview with the wonderful Katherine Arden – author of the Winternight trilogy – by getting a start on her epic new novel which has just been released this week. Liv says: “reading The Unicorn Hunters feels like falling into a fairytale. Katherine Arden is a master of historical fantasy, and here she expertly conjures up a decadent medieval world fraught with courtly politics, populated by fierce duchesses, cunning diviners, dangerous faerie creatures, devoted knights, and cats (Butter the cat, I love you).”
Pre-order Signed and Dedicated The Unicorn Hunters
Don’t miss our event with Katherine on 15th June!
Nethmi has (unsurprisingly) discovered a new sharp and unhinged novella about an unlikely friendship that takes a dark turn, in Dead Weight (August 6th) by Icelandic author Hildur Knútsdóttir. She says “when a black cat finds its way into Unnur’s house, she begins a tenuous friendship with its owner, Ásta. The two women couldn’t be more different: Unnur with her solitary lifestyle and distant, married boyfriend, and Ásta with her controlling long-term partner. But when Unnur realises Ásta needs help, she does not hesitate act. Gruesome and satisfying, a perfect little read for anyone who loved The Eyes are the Best Part.
As for myself, I’ve been completely blown away from an upcoming reissue from Faber with a novel that’s going straight onto my favourites shelf in store. Originally published in the 70s, Gaining Ground by Canadian author Joan Barfoot, is a profoundly moving and searingly honest account of a woman in her 30’s who decides to leave her husband and two children for a life of solitude in a remote cabin. The novel opens ten years later with a visit from Abra’s eighteen-year-old daughter as Abra states “It should have been obvious one of them would turn up, one day. I am glad though, that I did not think about it. It would not have helped.”
With all the makings of a feminist modern classic, I can’t believe Gaining Ground has fallen under the radar all these years. It’s a novel about freedom, about seeking a connection with your true self once all of the societal roles and labels have been discarded. With no clocks to mark the time, and no mirrors by which to judge, Abra is able to inhabit her body and mind in a way that the modern world just simply will not allow. As equally relevant today as it was in the 70s, Abra’s voice isn’t going to leave me any time soon. Gaining Ground deserves to be much better known and I hope you’ll pick up a copy.
Thanks for reading.
Emma