After the Storm: Postnatal Depression and the Utter Weirdness of New Motherhood by Emma Jane Unsworth 

Six months after the birth of her son, Emma Jane Unsworth finds herself in the eye of a storm. Nothing – from pregnancy to birth and beyond – has gone as she expected. She’s swapped all night benders for grazed labia and Whac-a-Moling hemorrhoids. How did she end up here?​
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In this brave, vital account of postnatal depression, Emma tells her story of despair and recovery. She tackles the biggest taboos around motherhood and mental health, from botched stitches and bleeding nipples to anger and shame. How does pregnancy adapt our brains? Is postnatal depression a natural reaction to the trauma of modern motherhood? And are people’s attitudes finally changing.

The Mermaids Singing by Val McDermid

Up till now, the only serial killers Tony Hill had encountered were safely behind bars. This one’s different – this one’s on the loose.​

In the northern town of Bradfield four men have been found mutilated and tortured. Fear grips the city; no man feels safe. Clinical psychologist Tony Hill is brought in to profile the killer. A man with more than enough sexual problems of his own, Tony himself becomes the unsuspecting target in a battle of wits and wills where he has to use every ounce of his professional nerve to survive.​

A tense, brilliantly written psychological thriller, The Mermaids Singing explores the tormented mind of a serial killer unlike any the world of fiction has ever seen.

All Down Darkness Wide by Seán Hewitt

When Seán meets Elias, the two fall headlong into a love story. But as Elias struggles with severe depression, the couple comes face-to-face with crisis. Wrestling with this, Seán Hewitt delves deep into his own history, enlisting the ghosts of queer figures and poets before him. From a 19th-century cemetery in Liverpool to the pine forests of Gothenburg, Hewitt plumbs the darkness in search of solace and hope. All Down Darkness Wide is an unflinching meditation on the burden of living in a world that too often sets happiness and queer life at odds, and a tender portrayal of what it’s like to be caught in the undertow of a loved one’s suffering. By turns devastating and soaring, it is a mesmerising story of heartache and renewal, and a work of rare and transcendent beauty.

Summerwater by Sarah Moss

On the longest day of the summer, twelve people sit cooped up with their families in a faded Scottish cabin park. The endless rain leaves them with little to do but watch the other residents. A woman goes running up the Ben as if fleeing; a retired couple reminisce about neighbours long since moved on; a teenage boy braves the dark waters of the loch in his red kayak. Each person is wrapped in their own cares but increasingly alert to the makeshift community around them. One particular family, a mother and daughter without the right clothes or the right manners, starts to draw the attention of the others. Tensions rise and all watch on, unaware of the tragedy that lies ahead as night finally falls.

Bellies by Nicola Dinan​

​It begins as your typical boy meets boy.​

Tom and Ming meet on a night out at university and fall hard for each other. It’s not long before they are planning a future and building a life.​

Then Ming announces her intention to transition.​

As Tom and Ming both face shifts in their relationship and confront the vastly different shapes their lives have taken; they must both ask if it is worth losing a part of themselves – or each other – to become the people they want to.

Billy, Me & You: A Graphic Memoir of Grief and Recovery by Nicola Streeten

Nicola Streeten’s little boy, Billy, was two years old when he died following heart surgery for problems diagnosed only 10 days earlier. 13 years later, able to finally revisit a diary written at the time, Streeten began translating her notes into a graphic novel. The result, a gut-wrenchingly sad retrospective reflection from a ‘healed’ perspective, is an unforgettable portrayal of human responses to trauma.

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A Stranger’s Pose by Emmanuel Iduma​

​Through stories remembered and imagined, and images by acclaimed photographers, A Stranger’s Pose draws the reader into a world of encounters in more than a dozen African towns.

Iduma blends memoir, travelogue and storytelling in these fragments of a Traveller’s journey across several African cities. Inspired by the author’s travels with photographers between 2011 and 2015, the author’s own accounts are expanded to include other narratives about movement, estrangement, and intimacy. These include: an arrest in a market in N’djamena, being punished by a Gendarmes officer on a Cameroonian highway and meeting the famed photographer Malick Sidibe in Bamako.

The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey

March 1976: St Constance, a tiny Caribbean village on the island of Black Conch. A fisherman sings to himself, waiting for a catch – but attracts a sea-dweller he doesn’t expect. A beautiful young woman cursed by jealous wives to live as a mermaid has been swimming the Caribbean Sea for centuries. And she is entranced by the fisherman and his song.​

But her fascination is her undoing. She hears his boat’s engine again, follows it, and finds herself at the mercy of American tourists. After a fearsome battle, she is pulled out of the sea and strung up on the dock as a trophy. The fisherman rescues her and gently wins her trust – as she starts to transform into a woman.

The Highland Falcon Thief by M. G. Leonard & Sam Sedgman​

​Harrison Beck and his Uncle Nat are enjoying the final journey of the Highland Falcon, Britain’s most famous steam train. But when a precious jewel goes missing, Harrison and his new friend Lenny find themselves at the centre of the investigation. Can they solve the mystery and catch the culprit before they reach the end of the line?​
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Hear whispers in the dining car, find notes in the library and unknown passengers among the luggage, as you help Harrison solve the mystery aboard one of the world’s grandest trains.

Penguin by Polly Dunbar

Ben, who couldn’t be more delighted to find a penguin friend inside his present. ‘Hello, Penguin!’ he says. Penguin says nothing. Ben tickles Penguin, pulls his funniest face, puts on a happy hat, sings a silly song and does a dizzy dance, but still Penguin says nothing. It isn’t until a passing lion intervenes that Penguin finally speaks – and, when he does, Ben discovers that some things are worth the wait.

Written by Terrell Bryan