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…
On 10th July I’ll have the great privilege of interviewing Sally Hayden on This Is Also A Love Story (out now). It’s an unusual and truly exceptional book drawing on twelve years of Sally’s journalism, covering some of the worst things humans do to each other while managing to find and highlight the very best of humanity.
Sally is a foreign correspondent who won the Orwell Prize for Political Writing for My Fourth Time, We Drowned, her account of the migration route from Libya to Europe and the lives of the people trapped and abused in camps in Libya with little rights or hope or voice. As she explains in the prologue to This Is Also A Love Story:
“I was first drawn to writing more extensively about love because I had become profoundly sad, both as a result of the state of the planet, where inequality and ruthlessness seem ever on an upwards trajectory, and also because of the limitations and failures I perceived in my profession… I felt desperate to be reminded that humanity has positive aspects to it, that we can be good to each other.”
Opening in Ukraine, Sally interviews couples drawn together in a time of war, becoming anchors for one another. It’s a fascinating insight into the roles of soldiers and civilians: through details like the contents of Irina’s fluffy handbag (penknife, torch, tourniquet, and marriage certificate) Sally brings to life the changes conflict brings, the choices people make in loving one another, the new forms that love must take in such circumstances.
In Rwanda, Sally interviews Zula Karuhimbi, a hero who saved more than a hundred Tutsi lives, providing hiding spaces in and around her two-room house. And she interviews Paul Henri, the twenty-three year old ‘father’ of an ‘artificial family’, an initiative created to help young genocide survivors cope. Both of these stories illustrate love-as-an-action, love beyond romantic love, beyond reciprocity.
Through these and seven other chapters including Lebanon, Syria, and Japan, Sally invites us to visit again the story we think we know, to seek the good in people, there to find if only we look. This Is Also A Love Story is highly recommended for anybody who’s interested in the world beyond our shores, for anybody who enjoys seeing people afresh, and anybody who likes love.
If you’re interested in coming to the event and seeing me speak to Sally, you can book a place here. It’ll be an amazing opportunity to hear about her work; I hope that the event will expand upon the book by drawing Sally out on her philosophy of journalism, her experiences as a foreign correspondent, and the impact of seeking love in the dark upon her own life. – Sam
From the author of Bury Your Gays comes another sun-drenched and blood-soaked thrill ride of a novel, Fabulous Bodies (July 7th). Semi-successful influencer by day and very successful corpse-dealer by night, Poppy Stringer works hard for the Palm Springs lifestyle she’s built for her and her daughter. So, when she’s offered 5 million dollars to steal the recently deceased body of her favourite queer rockstar, Eddie Michaels, she just can’t turn it down. After all, the Eddie she knows and idolises is gone. All that’s left is an empty vessel … or so she thinks. Equal parts hilarious and horrific, this is the perfect summer read for any horror lover! – Nethmi
In Seek Immediate Shelter (August 6th), a small American town receives the warning of an incoming ballistic missile. All is lost. Death is imminent. Seven minutes later they get the message that it was just a false alarm. For some this is a second chance at life, for others they’re left to pick up the pieces of everything they did in what they thought were their final moments.
Following a different character in every chapter, this book almost reads like short stories as we see the fragments of the townsfolk’s unravelling lives. I went into this expecting something apocalyptic and instead was met with an incredibly human novel about love, friendship, family and forgiveness. It’s a book about our worst moments and our greatest strengths, and how all of that intersects in times of crisis. Perfect for fans of Fredrik Backman, Seek Immediate Shelter made me cackle, cringe, and moved me to tears. – Annabel
As well as taking on the enormous tome that is Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove, I’m also diving into the modern art world with Dave Eggers’ brand new novel, Contrapposto (out now). After seeing Dave in the most extraordinaryly inspiring conversation with author Max Porter earlier this week, I now have just 60 pages left to go and I’ll be amazed if this doesn’t land in my top ten books of 2026.
The novel follows Cricket, a shy and awkward boy with a talent for drawing. As a teen, he meets the wildly spontaneous, fiercly intelligent, and larger-than-life Olympia. The two form an early bond that carries them all the way through adulthood as they navigate the the modern art world, determined to never lose sense of themselves and everything they stand for. It’s an absolutely stunning page-turner with two characters you’ll never want to leave (and a few side characters who will also make your heart ache). It’s testament to Eggers’ skill as a storyteller that means this novel absolutely grabs hold of you, making you want to create something, anything, and hold onto that feeling of just how important it is, particularly now more than ever as we enter the era of AI. For fans of Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and The Goldfinch.
Buy now (signed copies available)
Thanks for reading!
Emma