OUR PICKS

Here are our latest recommendations. This is where you can learn more about what we’re reading and loving and what you, our customers, are buying.

WHAT WE'RE READING

Gavin: Flesh by David Szalay (out March)

Heather: The Lamb by Lucy Rose (out now)

Joanna: Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (out March)

Kasey: Good Girl by Aria Aber (out April)

Molly: Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton (out now)

Nadia: BLOB: A Love Story by Maggie Su (out now)

Rose: Nesting by Roisin O'Donnell (out now)

OUR TOP 10 BESTSELLERS FOR FEBRUARY

BOOKS WE LOVE

Antiquity by Hanna Johansson

Antiquity centres an unnamed narrator who becomes obsessed with an older artist. When she is invited to spend a summer with this artist and her teenage daughter, our narrator becomes envious of the attention the daughter receives from her mother. With a hazy and intoxicating prose, reminiscent of long, indefinable summer days, jealousy becomes obsession and desire. It is deeply unsettling and demonstrates the immoral and perverse lengths humans can go to to feel seen and loved. NADIA

The Most by Jessica Anthony

Tightly constructed, The Most by Jessica Anthony is a masterclass in domestic drama. With pathos and humour that makes this novella more than the sum of its parts, we discover the secrets, shames, and lies of former college tennis champion Kathleen and handsome but unsuccessful Virgil. Anthony peels back the choices these flawed, complex, real characters have made in haste to avoid pain and failure, and how they’ve led to greater pain, greater failure. Then she makes them choose again, this time with their eyes open. A future classic, The Most’s slim pages contain expansive emotional truth and power. Rose

Flesh by David Szalay

In hypnotic, sparse prose, Flesh traces the journey across modern-day Europe of Istvan, an itinerant Hungarian, as he navigates life, family and a nebulous sense of self. Szalay’s skill here is to gracefully and artfully illuminate the constituent elements of a single life in such a way to elevate the mundane into something universal and deeply meaningful. I found this novel totally compelling. Gavin

Time of the Child by Niall Williams

Set in the 60s in the fictional Irish village of Faha and its eternal rain and fog, this is the story of an elderly doctor and his oldest unmarried daughter whose lives are forever changed by the appearance of a baby. Williams so beautifully describes the cyclical rhythms of quiet village life, and the internal struggles and baked-in beliefs of its inhabitants, while also telling this stunning tale of familial love and sacrifice. This book has really stayed with me. Jo

The History Of Sound by Ben Shattuck

This is the book you came here for. Atmospheric, propulsive and lyrically beautiful - it’s that rare kind of book that every type of reader will close feeling fulfilled. Set in New England and spanning three centuries, it consists of twelve cleverly interconnected stories that work as compelling couplets. Traversing between historical fiction and the utterly modern, there are mysteries and murders and love and loss, all against a backdrop of stunning natural beauty. The most divine reading journey. For your book club, for lovers of The North Woods and for those keen to get ahead of the impending Paul Mescal film. Heather

Theory & Practice by Michelle de Kretser

This book is bright with the radical days of youth in 1980s Melbourne, following a young woman as she navigates deconstructed relationships, writing a thesis on the Woolfmother (Virginia Woolf), and finding her place as a daughter of migrants in bohemian St Kilda. Michelle de Kretser effortlessly and delightfully disrupts the form of the novel by coalescing memoir, essay and fiction, while tackling serious themes such as colonialism and shame, love and desire. MOLLY

Scaffolding by Lauren Elkin

Elkin is preoccupied with situation rather than storytelling in her debut novel, Scaffolding, with an immersive and compelling focus on the minutiae, on the repetitive and maddening sounds of the apartment, and on her protagonist’s inner contemplations. I was left reeling after closing the covers for the final time, wondering what I’d just read, but knowing that it was something special. Admittedly, I picked it up for the cover, but I stayed for the expressive and beautiful prose. This one’s for you if you’re a fan of Rachel Cusk, Sheila Heti or Ali Smith. Kasey