VIRTUE: A NOVEL

Author: Hermione Hoby

Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group | Riverhead Books

Pages: 320

‘No one ever specifies what exactly needs resisting, or what exactly needs to be done. But do those details matter as long as there’s a picture online of your fist in the air?’ - Virtue: A Novel

Arriving in New York City for an internship at an elite but fading magazine, Luca feels invisible: smart but not worldly, privileged but broke, and uncertain how to navigate a new era of social change. Among his peers is Zara, a young Black woman whose sharp wit and frank views on injustice create tension in the office, especially in the wake of a shock election that’s irrevocably destabilized American life. In the months that follow, as the streets of New York fill with pink-hatted protesters and the magazine faces a changing of the guard, Luca is taken under the wing of an attractive and wealthy white couple—Paula, a prominent artist, and Jason, her filmmaker husband—whose lifestyle he finds both alien and alluring.

With the coming of summer, Luca is swept up in the fever dream of their marriage, accepting an invitation to join the couple and their children at their beach house, and nurturing an infatuation both frustrating and dangerous. Only after he learns of a spectacular tragedy in the city he has left behind does he begin to realize the moral consequences of his allegiances.

In language at once lyrical and incisive, Virtue offers a clear-eyed, unsettling story of the allure of privilege and the costs of complacency, from a writer of astonishing acuity and vision.

EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM WILL SOMEDAY BE DEAD

Author: Emily Austin

Publisher: Atria Books

Published: 6th July 2021 (a year later, apologies)

Pages: 256

Gilda, a twenty-something lesbian, cannot stop ruminating about mortality. Alienated from her repressive family, she responds to a flyer for free therapy at a local Catholic church, and finds herself being greeted by Father Jeff, who assumes she’s there for a job interview. Too embarrassed to correct him, Gilda is abruptly hired to replace the recently deceased receptionist Grace.
In between trying to memorise the lines to Catholic mass, hiding the fact that she has a new girlfriend, and curating a dirty dish tower in her crumbling apartment, Gilda strikes up an email correspondence with Grace’s old friend. She can’t bear to ignore the kindly old woman, who has been trying to reach her friend through the church inbox, but she also can’t bring herself to break the bad news. Desperate, she begins impersonating Grace via email. But when the police discover suspicious circumstances surrounding Grace’s death, Gilda may have to finally reveal the truth of her mortifying existence.

A TOUCH OF JEN

Author: Beth Morgan

Publisher: Little, Brown & Company

Pages: 320

Remy and Alicia, a couple who are not particularly happy together, but bound by a shared obsession with Jen; a beautiful former co-worker of Remy’s who now seems to be following her bliss as a globe-trotting jewellery designer. In and outside the bedroom, Remy and Alicia's entire relationship revolves around Jen, whose every Instagram caption, outfit, and new age mantra they know by heart.

Imagine their confused excitement when they run into Jen, in the flesh, and she invites them on a surfing trip to the Hamptons with her wealthy boyfriend and their group. Once there, Remy and Alicia try to fit into Jen’s exalted social circle, but violent desire and class resentment bubble beneath the surface of this beachside paradise. As small disturbances escalate into outright horror, we find ourselves tumbling with Remy and Alicia into an uncanny alternate reality, one shaped by their most unspeakable and intoxicating fantasies.  Is this what “actualisation” looks like?

Part millennial social comedy, part psychedelic horror, and all wildly entertaining, A Touch of Jen is a sly, unflinching examination of the hidden drives that lurk just outside the frame of our carefully curated selves.

BOLLA: A NOVEL

Author: Pajtim Statovci

Publisher: Random House USA Inc | Pantheon

Published: 6th July 2021 (again, a year late - soz)

Pages: 240

Kosovo is a country on the cusp of a dreadful war. Arsim is twenty-two, newly married, cautious - an Albanian trying to keep his head down and finish his studies in an unsettling atmosphere. Until he encounters Milos, a Serb, and begins a life in secret. Bolla is the story of what happens when passion and history collide - when a relationship, already forbidden and laced with danger, is ripped apart by war and migration, separated by nations and fate.
What happens when you are forced to live a life that is not yours, so far from your desires?