Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart.
£16.99 Pan Macmillan hardback
Brutal, tender, romantic and shocking, Young Mungo treads the same grimy Glaswegian streets as Douglas Stuart’s Booker-prize-winning first novel, Shuggie Bain - packing an even more intense gut-punch.
15-year-old Mungo is a sensitive boy, who lives in the harsh, impoverished environs of the Glasgow tenements in the 1990’s, cared for by his older sister Jodie. He adores his hard-drinking mother Mo-Maw, who has all but abandoned her children, but lives under the shadow of eldest brother Hamish, a Proddy gang-leader in their neighbourhood, an area rife with sectarian violence.
As the book opens, we meet young Mungo as he is packed off camping on a haphazard fishing expedition to the Highlands with 2 disreputable AA buddies of his mother’s. We then flick back and forth in time, with increasingly disturbing events of the drunken fishing weekend being interspersed with scenes from the preceding months: we witness Mungo’s growing friendship with James, a Catholic boy, as they bond over James’ ‘Doocot’ full of racing pigeons. James and Mungo are kindred spirits, and as their relationship develops, the tension becomes unbearable – a same sex relationship across the sectarian divide is unthinkable. The threat of violence, in the form of Hamish and his henchmen, is ever-present. As the camping trip reaches its horrific climax, we begin to discover the events that led to Mungo being packed off ‘to be made a man of’ with such disastrous consequences.
This is a searingly beautiful novel of enormous power. The characters are so well-drawn, the dialogue so fresh, the setting so vividly drawn, and the contrasts between tenderness and brutality so stark. A vivid insight into a harsh world.

Sea of Tranquillity by Emily St John Mandel.
£14.99 Pan Macmillan hardback
A poignant novel that plays with the idea of parallel worlds and possibilities, and takes the long view of our new, pandemic-worn world, spanning centuries into the future.
While this IS a standalone novel, Emily St John Mandel’s previous books Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel inhabit linked universes, and in this novel, too, there are overlapping characters and settings. The book opens with a forest scene in British Columbia, 1912, where a young Englishman enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and for a split second all is darkness, a mechanic whooshing cuts the air, the notes of a violin echo ...an anomaly of time & space has occurred. Forward to 2020, and we meet characters connected with another such anomaly, and forward another 200 years, a writer, normally resident on a moon-colony, finds herself stranded on Earth as a Pandemic grips the globe.... she too, has a connection to this fold in time. The novel circles these characters creating a kaleidoscope of narratives which weave together and crystallize around the character of Gaspary-Jacques Roberts, a time-detective from 2400.... Compelling and enigmatic.

Children’s Books
Wished by Lissa Evans.
David Fickling books £12.99 hardback
We are BIG fans of Lissa Evans at the Steyning Bookshop! Her previous novels for children, Wed Wabbit, and Small Change / Big Change for Stuart, were quirky and exciting, and she also writes high quality literary fiction for adults. Wished is a proper rollicking adventure subtly woven with heartful and thought-provoking themes, and the lead character, Ed, also happens to be wheelchair-bound.
Ed and his sister Roo are faced with the most boring half-term holiday in history: five days spent in the company of their elderly neighbour, Miss Filey, and her ancient, smelly cat. Even meeting their new neighbour, Willard, who considers himself a comic genius, doesn’t seem to offer much improvement... But when they find a box of birthday candles in a cupboard in Miss Filey’s house, their world is changed completely. Because these are no ordinary candles and every single one of them comes with a wish. There’s only one problem: some of those wishes belong to someone else . . . What would YOU wish for? Every child will relate to this story of wishes come true, a perfect adventure for ages 8-11.

Welcome to the World by Julia Donaldson, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury
£12.99 hardback Penguin.
Welcome to your perfect new baby gift! Welcome to the World is a lyrical celebration of a baby’s first experiences, featuring wonderful rhymes by Julia Donaldson brought to life with stunning illustrations by the outstanding talents of Helen Oxenbury – two giants of children’s literature! From mummy’s cuddles to the adventure of the great outdoors, Welcome to the World revels in the joy that comes with sharing this new world with your little one, and seeing it through their eyes. ‘Welcome to the World. Welcome to the light.Welcome to the day. Welcome to the night. Welcome to your mummy. Welcome to your feeds. Welcome to the earrings and the buttons and the beads.’