At the end of each year I always get excited browsing through what books will be coming out next year. I'm feeling that even more so now when I can't wait for 2020 to be done and dusted. There are certainly a lot of great-sounding forthcoming titles to look forward to. Some are new books from favourite authors. Not one but TWO new books from Joyce Carol Oates are being published in the US on the same day. She has a short story collection “The (Other) You” and the first collection of poetry she's published in 25 years “American Melancholy”. New fiction is arriving from literary powerhouses such as Kazuo Ishiguro with “Klara and the Sun” and Jhumpa Lahiri with “Whereabouts”. There's also new novels from great authors I've loved reading before such as “Diary of a Film” by Niven Govinden, “Unsettled Ground” by Claire Fuller, “The High House” by Jessie Greengrass, “The Sisters Mao” by Gavin McCrea and Danielle McLaughlin's debut novel “The Art of Falling”. There's also a new collection called “Slug” from the extraordinary poet Hollie McNish.
There's also several novels whose stories sound so intriguing to me I can't wait to read them including “Bolt From the Blue” by Jeremy Cooper, “Old Bones” by Helen Kitson and “The Performance” by Claire Thomas. While there were many fantastic debuts published this past year, there are even more promising new voices for 2021 with first novels “A Crooked Tree” by Una Mannion, “Brood” by Jackie Polzin, “Open Water” by Caleb Azumah Nelson, “How to Kidnap the Rich” by Rahul Raina and “The Other Black Girl” by Zakiya Dalila Harris. I'm also hoping to read more nonfiction in the new year so have my eye on the memoir “Love is An Ex-Country” by Randa Jarrar and a meditation about the bottom of the ocean “The Brilliant Abyss” by Helen Scales.
Watch me discuss my most anticipated reads here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j22kUX_mPrc
What books are you looking forward to in 2021?
