We’ve got the pick of the bunch when it comes to new fiction this month! With hilariously dark novels, gripping, otherworldly tales and poignant explorations on identity, it’s time to dust off your bookshelves and breathe some fresh air into your to-read piles.
Calls May be Recorded for Training and Monitoring Purposes by Katharina Volckmer
The Indigo Press | 9781911648895 | Paperback | £12.99 | Out Now
In a London call centre, Jimmie helps holiday makers with myriad problems, but he is hardly a model employee. He doesn’t simply provide customer service to his clients and advice to his colleagues, he gets involved in their fantasies and frustrations, and now he’s about to be hauled up in front of the boss. From perfecting his roles as an undertaker and as a clown to performing duties above and beyond his employment contract, he debates the importance of the optimum shade for lipstick and bathroom walls, the pros and cons of nudist versus textile, as well as the psychological impacts of an Italian mother and an emotional support animal. This is the second, ribald, scatological novel from the brilliant author of The Appointment. Jimmie’s sly, sharp, melancholy insights into the indignities of a world which aims to eliminate the human will make you laugh, weep and never look the same way at an electric carving knife again.
A Carnival of Atrocities by Natalia García Freire & Victor Meadowcroft
World Editions | 9781642861518 | Paperback | £14.99 | Out Now
Cocuán, a desolate town nestled between the hot jungle and the frigid Andes, is about to slip away from memory. This is where Mildred was born, and where everything she had – her animals, her home, her lands – was taken from her after her mother’s death. Years later, a series of strange events, disappearances, and outbursts of collective delirium will force its residents to reckon with the legend of old Mildred. Once again, they will feel the shadow of death that has hung over the town ever since she was wronged. The voices of nine characters – Mildred, Ezequiel, Agustina, Manzi, Carmen, Víctor, Baltasar, Hermosina, and Filatelio – tell us of the past and present of that doomed place and Mildred’s fate. Natalia García Freire’s vivid language blurs the lines between dreams and reality and transports the reader to the hypnotic Andean universe of Ecuador.
Realistic Fiction by Anton Solomonik
LittlePuss Press | 9781736716885 | Paperback | £15.99 | Out Now
Have you ever engaged in totally normal male behavior like: Stealing porn magazines? Hooking up with guys on Grindr? Attempting to work in an open-pit mine despite having no relevant job experience? Crossdressing as a woman? Attending Gnostic Mass? Running for government office? Then this is a book for you! It is definitely not a deeply felt collection of transsexual short stories, engaged in dissident metaphysical investigation of the normative tenets of gender in our society! Bro, how could you say that? It is very dramatic and exciting, yes, but it is not metaphysical at all. In fact, it is Realistic Fiction.
A/S/L by Jeanne Thornton
Dead Ink Books | 9781915368768 | Paperback | £11.99 | Out 10th April 2025
It is 1998; Lilith, Sash, and Abraxa are teenagers, and they are making Saga of the Sorceress, a game that will change everything, if only for the three of them. 18 years later, Saga of the Sorceress still exists only on the scattered drives of its creators. Lilith might be the first trans woman to ever work as an Assistant Loan Underwriter at Dollarwise Investments in Brooklyn. Sash is in Brooklyn as well, working as a research assistant and part-time webcam dominatrix. Neither knows that the other is there, or that Abraxa, the third member of Invocation LLC, is just across the Hudson River, sleeping on the floor of a friend’s grandparents’ Jersey City home. They have never met in person, and have been out of touch for years, but none have forgotten the sorceress, or her quest, still far from finished.
We Hexed the Moon by Mollyhall Seeley
Weatherglass Books | 9781068794117 | Paperback | £10.99 | Out 10th April 2025
Four friends about to go to college accidently-on-purpose remove the moon from the night sky. Now it’s turned up in one of their bedrooms as an angry, sarcastic all-powerful young woman demanding something terrible be done to make amends.
The Wild One by Isabel-Clara Simó
3TimesRebel Press | 9781739452872 | Paperback | £13.99 | Out 10th April 2025
The arrival of the very young Dorothy – fourteen years old, redheaded, freckled – is a breath of fresh air in the life of Joaquim Simon – in his sixties, rich and divorced. Wanting to turn this ‘wild one’ into a perfect model of which he can be proud, Joaquim takes her in and begins to shape her into his perfect masterpiece, as in the myth of Pygmalion. Dependence and survival, destruction and growth, are the opposites that define the crossroads of experiences and events that shape The Wild One. The novel tells the story of Dorothy, a girl who, living with Joaquim Simon and in the midst of a desire that is never fulfilled, loses her individual freedom and, at the same time, imperceptibly changes her identity. Joaquim controls everything: her name, her behaviour, her education, even her memories. These feelings of possession towards her make him aware not only of his loneliness and cruelty, but also of his old age.
The Wild One is structured in such a way that, from our position as readers, we are forced to participate in the thoughts of these two characters through the use of parentheses that complete what is not said. This strategy not only heightens the tension, but also makes us complicit in their transformations and secrets, anticipating their dramatic end.
Zipper Mouth by Laurie Weeks
Cipher Press | 9781917008099 | Paperback | £10.99 | Out 10th April 2025
In this extraordinary novel, Laurie Weeks captures the exuberance and mortification of a lesbian junkie as she navigates the chaos and horror of everyday life. Through longing monologues to Vivian Leigh, ranting letters to Sylvia Plath and to-do lists that never get done, Zipper Mouth gives us an unforgettable protagonist caught in a spiral of addiction, unrequited love, and mental health crises, and the effortlessly hilarious and strange inner workings of her mind. A messy and raw depiction of striving to live in a world that doesn’t cater to your brain chemistry, Zipper Mouth is an outstanding work of queer fiction. Come for the exalted nightclub epiphanies, stay for the devastating morning-after hangovers.
In Late Summer by Magdelena Blazevic & Andelka Raguž
Linden Editions | 9781068740428 | Paperback | £12.00 | Out 15th April 2025
In Late Summer is written from the perspective of a 14-year-old girl killed in the August 1993 massacre in Bosnia. When a picturesque village is caught in the turmoil of war, the entire worlds of girls Ivana and Dunja and their families is blown up and swept away. Based on a personal experience, Magdelena Blazevic’s novel is poetic and powerful, full of images of ordinary country life as well as the brutality of war. This is a haunting portrait of a family and a village, each affected differently by the daily realities of civil war. Compared by critics to Ingeborg Bachmann, Blazevic weaves emotion under the surface of her precise and lyrical prose.
Murder By Cheesecake by Rachel Ekstrom Courage
Hyperion Press | 9781368102988 | Paperback | £12.99 | Out 15th April 2025
Things are heating up, and not just because of Blanche’s hot flashes. Rose’s cousin is eloping to Miami, and Rose is playing host. If she can’t balance the groom’s family’s snobbery against the traditional St. Olaf wedding week guidelines, her hometown may never accept her cousin again! Dorothy quickly realises she needs a date with whom she can exchange wedding-related wisecracks. Turning to a new-fangled VHS dating service, she believes she’s found the ideal conversationalist. Unfortunately, what looks good on TV can actually be a total jerk in real life. It seems she’ll just have to enjoy the company of Sophia, Blanche, and whomever Blanche has targeted for a hookup. As the Girls all pitch in, Rose is thrilled that the tea-and-fish-themed kickoff event is perfect, not a herring out of place.
That is until Dorothy’s date is found dead – face-planted in an otherwise scrumptious-looking cheesecake. With every guest a suspect (especially Dorothy) and a marriage on the line, the four besties must ID the real killer, get the should-be-happy couple down the aisle, and make sure nobody from St. Olaf gets lost in the wilds of Miami. It’s up to the Golden Girls to sleuth out a way for friendship and love to win the day!
Our City That Year by Geetanjali Shree & Daisy Rockwell
Tilted Axis Press | 9781917126113 | Paperback | £16.99 | Out 22nd April 2025
Shruti, a writer paralysed by the weight of events, tries to find her words, while Sharad and Hanif, academics whose voices are drowned out by extremism, find themselves caught between clichés and government slogans. And there’s Daddu, Sharad’s father, a beacon of hope in the growing darkness. As they each grapple with thoughts of speaking the unspeakable, an unnamed narrator takes on the urgent task of bearing witness. First published in Hindi in 1998, Our City That Year is a novel that defies easy categorisation — it’s a time capsule, a warning siren and a desperate plea. Geetanjali Shree’s shimmering prose, in Daisy Rockwell’s nuanced and consummate translation, takes us into a fever dream of fragmented thoughts and half-finished sentences, mirroring the disjointed reality of a city under siege. Readers will find themselves haunted long after the final page, grappling with questions that echo far beyond India’s borders.
Iron Lung by Kirstine Reffstrup & Hunter Simpson
Peirene Press | 9781916806047 | Paperback | £12.99 | Out 22nd April 2025
A girl is struck down by polio during the terrifying epidemic of the early 1950s. Paralysed and unable to breathe on her own, she is committed to the hospital in Copenhagen and placed in an iron lung. Forty years earlier, a child grows up in an orphanage for boys outside of Budapest. The child goes by the name of ‘Boy’ but is not like the others, as their body seems to transcend the categories of boy or girl. Between these two young people, there is a powerful, enigmatic bond that stretches across time and space. Iron Lung is a poetic allegory of adolescence, and an unsettling and subtle commentary on sexuality, medicine, and technology.
Take Six: Six Irish Women Writers by Tanya Farrelly
Dedalus | 9781915568649 | Paperback | £11.99 | Out 25th April 2025
Take Six: Six Irish Women Writers features work by six award-winning Irish writers: Mary O’Donnell, Mary Morrissey, Geraldine Mills, Nuala O’Connor, Rosemary Jenkinson and Tanya Farrelly. These writers display great versatility in their work. Between them, in their careers to date, they have produced both contemporary and historical novels, literary thrillers, poetry, plays and renowned short story collections. This anthology includes new short fiction which explores what it means to be a woman navigating life in twenty-first century Ireland. Ranging from dark to playful, and often imbued with a mischievous humour, the characters in these stories never shy away from the conflict wrought by everyday experiences such as loss, loneliness and betrayal, but rise to face them head on, gaining strength from their individual challenges.
Commedia Mortale by Wayne Holloway
Influx Press | 9781914391545 | Paperback | £11.99 | Out 25th April 2025
Liguria, Italy. In a mountain village sits an old farmhouse that stores the memories of those who have lived there and suffers the tales of the visitors who come and go. The house weaves its magic on all who encounter it. New owners move in and over time become entangled with a parade of oddball characters. From pagan ritual to the antics of modern village life, the clash between outsiders and locals, Commedia Mortale seeks to understand what is authentic in both: the tall tales of ageing Second World War Partisans, the dreams of a chef to travel to parts unknown supported by a Greek chorus of drunks, a talking parrot, and asylum-seeking footballers with their own dreams, and miraculously a visit to the village by Anthony Bourdain himself.
Parsed through the eyes of a film maker, the ultimate outsider, Commedia Mortale summons dreams of kinship and nightmares of enmity. Ranging across philosophy, food, history, love, loss and landscape, Holloway conjures up a unique portrait of a place, the fables of its past and the dilemma of how to live now.
Made for You by Jenna Satterthwaite
Verve Books | 9780857309099 | Paperback | £10.99 | Out 29th April 2025
Julia Walden – a Synth – was designed for one reason: to compete on The Proposal and claim the heart of bachelor Josh LaSala. Her casting is controversial, but Julia seems to get her fairy-tale ending when Josh gets down on one knee. Fast-forward fifteen months, and Julia and Josh are married and raising their baby in small-town Indiana. But with haters around every corner, Julia’s life is a far cry from the domestic bliss she imagined. Then her splintering world shatters: Josh goes missing, and she becomes the prime suspect in his murder.
With no one left she can trust, Julia takes the investigation into her own hands. But the explosive truths she uncovers will drive her to her breaking point – and isn’t that where a person’s true nature is revealed? That is… if Julia truly is a person.
