The first few weeks of 2017 have brought plenty of bad news, but when the going gets tough, there’s always the upside for booklovers. With the new year comes the chance to curl up with one of the year’s first crop of paperback releases. Here are some of the titles to look out for.

Fiction

The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes

“This is a great novel, Barnes’s masterpiece,” wrote Alex Preston in his Observer review of The Noise of Time when it first came out, almost exactly a year ago. Preston was not alone in his admiration for Barnes’ sublime fictional biography of the composer, Dmitri Shostakovich.

James Lasdun’s similarly complimentary review in the Guardian is a succinct dissection of Barnes’s “gripping” and “immediately engaging” novel. “The book is, partly, an exercise in cold war nostalgia. But it’s also, more interestingly, an inquiry into the nature of personal integrity,” wrote Lasdun, concluding that “pragmatism, muddling through, goodwill over saintliness, above all the capacity to soldier on even in the full knowledge of one’s ‘fallen, abject character’. might actually be the most heroic form of courage.

Six Four by Hideo Yokokama

Described by David Peace as “simply one of the best crime novels I’ve ever read”, Hideo Yokokama’s Six Four is the Japanese publishing sensation that landed in the UK to rave reviews last year. Running to over 600 pages, Six Four is, as Alison Flood wrote, “the slowest of slow-burn crime novels…[but]…the twist and the pay-off are worth the wait”.



Mark Lawson reflected that “The plot would grip in any language but, for readers in the west, there is extra fascination in Six Four being not just a police procedural but a guide book to Japan.”

The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie

Shortlisted for the Bailey’s Prize and selected by Jonathan Franzen as one of his books of 2016, The Portable Veblen is both seriously funny and extraordinarily well-written. Described by Scarlett Thomas as “raw, weird and hilarious” in her Guardian review, Thomas is drawn to the larger-than-life characters in the novel, in particular the squirrel-obsessive title character, Veblen, who is driven to despair by her family.

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon

This month also brings the paperback releases of a couple of 2016’s best debut novels. Joanna Cannon’s The Trouble With Goats and Sheep lived up to its pre-publication hype when it was published last January. Revolving around the disappearance of Mrs Creasy from a close neighbourhood during the heatwave of 1976, this vibrant and funny debut is likened to “Donna Tartt’s Secret History, set in 1970s English suburbia” by Emma Healy in her effusive review. Joanna Cannon is a talent to keep an eye on.

My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal

The other debut to be excited about is Kit de Waal’s My Name is Leon. Set in the 1980s and narrated by a child – eight-year-old Leon – it is, as Bernardine Evaristo puts it a, “moving and thought-provoking novel... uplifting because we see in it a fundamental goodness in the human spirit”. Which is certainly not a bad thing to encounter at the beginning of 2017.

Non-fiction

Negroland by Margo Jefferson

An account of growing up in America’s black middle-class, Negroland should be prescribed reading for everyone involved in government. As Colin Grant wrote, one of the challenges of this “bold and defiant memoir”, with “the experimental and experiential quality of jazz ... is to remind us – if such a reminder is needed in the era of Black Lives Matter – just how far we are from the utopia of a post-racial America, or a post-racial UK for that matter. In so doing, it echoes William Faulkner’s assertion: ‘The past is never dead. It’s not even past.’”

All at Sea by Decca Aitkenhead

All at Sea is Guardian journalist Decca Aitkenhead’s memoir of the death of her partner, Tony Wilkinson, as he fought to rescue their son from a rip tide while on holiday. Kate Kellaway’s review for the Observer is unequivocal. “This book is impossible to forget,” she writes, “I finished it in one sitting – in a paralysed, stunned, empathetic trance.” Claire Messud was similarly impressed, writing in the Guardian that Aitkenhead’s “unblinking but resilient voice – sometimes stern, sometimes funny, always fierce – makes this book, like its author, inspiring in the best sense”.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalinithi

Another standout memoir out in paperback is Paul Kalinithi’s account of living with inoperable lung cancer. Kalinithi, a neurosurgeon who died at just 37, vividly describes his transition from doctor to patient, winning favourable comparisons to Henry Marsh’s prize-winning memoir Do No Harm. Marsh himself described it as “a remarkable book”, while Alice O’Keefe wrote that “it’s power lies in its eloquent insistence that we are all confronting our mortality every day, whether we know it or not.”

The Life Project by Helen Pearson

The Life Project looks back on the longest-running study of human development in the world, 70 years after it first began. Now numbering over 150,000 people, over six generations, those involved in this exhaustive survey are some of the best-studied human beings on the planet. Described as “an elegant mix of science and human drama”, this book was hailed by Robin McKie as “by some considerable measure … the best science book published in 2016”.

A Very Expensive Poison by Luke Harding

As fears about Russia’s close allegiance with Trump make the headlines, A Very Expensive Poison is a timely – and alarming – read. Luke Harding, the Guardian’s former Moscow correspondent, gives a definitive account of how Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in Central London – “probably” on the orders of the Kremlin. This pacey, le Carré-style telling was described as “enthralling” by reviewer AD Miller and as “one of the best political thrillers … in years” in the Evening Standard.

To save up to 25% on our pick of over 30 new paperbacks published this month, visit the Guardian Bookshop.

