Tom Lake by Ann Patchett Lara’s three grown up daughters come home to their cherry farm in Michigan one spring and beg her to recount the story of the romance she once shared with a now mega-famous actor. Flitting effortlessly between past and present, Tom Lake is a gorgeous story about family, destiny, regret, and roads not taken. It is also the kind of novel you are torn between devouring – and savouring each sentence.
(Bloomsbury, £9.99) The Fraud by Zadie Smith In her first foray into historical fiction, Zadie Smith’s The Fraud takes place in 1873 Kilburn, north-west London (which avid readers know is a familiar territory to the author). The novel is based on real events of The Tichborne Trial: a scandalous case in which a poor Australian immigrant claimed to belong to an aristocratic family.
A rich and sprawling novel, with a terrific cast of characters, this is Smith at her best. (Hamish Hamilton, £9.99) Crook Manifest by Colson Whitehead Described as a companion novel to 2021’s Harlem Shuffle – though it can be read as a standalone – Crook Manifesto returns to the character of Ray Carney, a furniture salesman who descends from a long line of lawbreakers.
Despite his best efforts to be an upstanding citizen, these are people he continues to get dragged down by. This is both a terrific work of crime fiction and a typically powerful and page-turning book from the Pulitzer-winning author . (Fleet, £9.
99) Yellowface by RF Kuang June Hayward is an author whose.