12 saturday review Saturday January 1 2022 | the times
FICTION
January
To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara
Picador
The author of A Little Life returns
with another bold novel. This spans
three centuries — an imaginary
1890s New York, where same-sex
marriage is the norm; 1990s Aids-
ravaged Manhattan; and America in
the 2090s, living under perpetual
plague and totalitarian rule.
The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett
Viper
An ingenious crime novel from the
author of The Appeal. Four decades ago
Steven Smith found a copy of a famous
children’s book, its margins full of odd
markings and annotations. His teacher,
Miss Iles, who becomes convinced that it
is a secret code, disappears. Years later
Steven investigates — but he isn’t the
only one trying to solve the puzzle.
Hare House by Sally Hinchcliffe Mantle
The British folk-horror revival continues.
A woman moves to rural Scotland,
having left her teaching job in
mysterious circumstances. But life soon
becomes sinister in this slow-burn debut
— there are weird rumours about Hare
House, the local stately home, and tales
of witchery. A tale humming with
suppressed hysteria and madness.
Free Love by Tessa Hadley Jonathan Cape
It’s sex in the 1960s! The award-winning
novelist Tessa Hadley’s latest novel
is about one young woman’s sexual
and intellectual awakening in that
boomertastic swinging decade.
Beware, there is always a cost
to free love.
The Second Cut by Louise Welsh
Canongate
A tale of antiques dealers,
gangsters and chemsex parties set
in the sleazy side of Glasgow. A
terrific bit of crime storytelling,
written with panache and wit.
The Anomaly by Hervé le Tellier
Michael Joseph
This high-concept literary thriller
(with a dash of sci-fi big thinking)
Robbie Millen picks
the best forthcoming
non-fiction and
fiction, from Dolly
Parton’s debut to
military derring-do
giving us thrills
Main picture: Dolly
Parton in 1978. The
country star has written
a thriller with James
Patterson. Above: fantasy
writer Sarah J Maas.
Below: Julian BarnesClear your shelves
— what we’ll be
reading in 2022
won the Prix Goncourt in 2020.
When Air France Flight 006 flies
into a terrifying storm, the plane
duplicates. Every passenger now has
a double with the same memories and
personality. What could possibly go
wrong? Mind-bending fun and a higher
class of hokum.February
Love Marriage by Monica Ali Virago
A tale of two young doctors — one a
daughter from a south Asian family, the
other the son of a feminist firebrand —
and the secrets and stresses that emerge
before their wedding day. The Brick
Lane author’s first novel in a decade.House of Sky and Breath by Sarah
J Maas Bloomsbury
Female-friendly fantasy novels, with
a dash of romance, have become
hugely popular. Sarah J Maas had a
No 1 New York Times bestseller with
House of Earth and Blood, the first in
her Crescent City sequence. This is the
sequel. Steamy!March
Run Rose Run by Dolly Parton and
James Patterson Century
James Patterson is promiscuous with his
charms. He has co-written thrillers with
Bill Clinton, now he has snuggled up to
another Southern institution, Dolly
Parton. In this thriller a young singer-
songwriter in Nashville is determined to
make it big, but — surprise, surprise —
she’s on the run from her deadly past...
It’s going to be big.The Slowworm’s Song by Andrew
Miller Sceptre
A former soldier and recovering
alcoholic is trying to form a bond with
his daughter when he receives a
summons to an inquiry into an incident
in 1982 during the Troubles in Northern
Ireland. He fears it could jeopardise their
relationship, so he writes her an account
of his life; a confession, a defence and
also a love letter. Andrew Miller is a
Costa prizewinning author.French Braid by Anne Tyler
Chatto & Windus
The American writer explores
family life from the 1950s to now,
through the ups and downs of the
Garretts. It’s classic territory for
this Pulitzer winner.Sundial by Catriona Ward
Viper
An upmarket psychological thriller
that gives most literary novels a run
for its money. Overwrought mother
Rob has two daughters — sweet littlebooks
Annie and her odd big sister, Callie,
who collects the bones of animals (did
she kill a puppy?). Rob — who, it
becomes apparent, is a touch unhinged
too; something dark happened in her
childhood — is worried that Callie will
harm Annie, so she takes her to her
childhood home deep in the Mojave
Desert. Will they both return?Vinegar Hill by Colm Tóibín Carcanet
Sex, religion, belonging, Covid, mortality
— it’s all here in the Brooklyn author’s
first collection of poetry.April
Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart
Picador
The Booker-winning Shuggie Bain author
is back with a new novel. This is a tale
of young gay love across the sectarian
divide in macho Eighties Glasgow.People Person by Candice
Carty-Williams Trapeze
The Queenie author returns with a
new novel. Dimple Pennington has
never had much in common with her
half-siblings — except faint childhood
memories — but a dramatic event brings
them crashing back into her life, along
with the father they never knew. “A
propulsive story of heart, humour,
homecoming and the truest meaning
of family you can get when your dad
loves his Jeep more than his children,”
says the blurb.City on Fire by Don Winslow
HarperCollins
Don Winslow rightly won plaudits for
his Cartel trilogy of impressive and epicnarco-thrillers. In City on Fire, a loose
riff on The Iliad, a Rhode Island docker
is drawn into gang warfare over a
“modern-day Helen of Troy”. The
first in a new trilogy.Elizabeth Finch by Julian Barnes
Jonathan Cape
A student goes through the ideas-filled
notebooks of his inspirational former
teacher, Elizabeth Finch. The Booker
winner’s publisher says: “This is more
than a novel. It’s a loving tribute to
philosophy.” That’ll be one of those
novels of ideas, then.Three Assassins by Kotaro Isaka
Harvill Secker
Suzuki seeks revenge after his wife is
murdered, secretly joining the gang
of assassins responsible. But this is a
thriller by the author of Bullet Train,
so it has a kooky cast of characters.
Meet the Whale, a killer who whispers
bleak aphorisms to his victims until
they kill themselves.Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John
Mandel Picador
The Station Eleven author’s new novel
sounds intriguing — a tale of parallel
worlds, space travel and upended lives
that starts on Vancouver Island in 1912
and hurtles forwards two centuries to a
moon colony.Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo
Chatto & Windus
This is Animal Farm set in Robert
Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. In a bountiful land
not so far away, the animal denizens, led
by a charismatic horse, fought a bloody
War of Liberation to drive away theED CARAEFF/GETTY IMAGES