Hayley Recommends~ Bank Holiday reads

This August has been packed full of new releases, from much-anticipated sequels to electrifying debuts. Here are some of the titles I will be reading this bank holiday.

Women of Troy by Pat Barker

Women of Troy is the sequel to Barker’s critically acclaimed Silence of the Girls, a revision of Homer’s The Iliad. Here Barker continues her retelling of one of history’s greatest legends. The Trojan war is over, and the Greeks are setting sail to return home with their spoils. However, the war has offended the gods, who are refusing to grant the Greeks the wind they need to leave. Stranded on the shore, tensions emerge and hierarchies begin to collapse. While the Greeks squabble amongst themselves, a captured Briseis is able to form alliances with other women the Greeks have stolen. Together, they begin to process the trauma that they have experienced, the loss of their families and their freedom, and they begin to plot their revenge.

Mrs March by Virginia Feito

Feito’s debut novel is set within the gossipy New York literary scene and follows Mrs March, a privileged housewife who lives on the Upper East Side with her husband George March, a successful novelist. Mrs March has given unwavering support to her husband’s career for many years until one day it is pointed out that his latest and most odious protagonist may have been based on her. In a Hitchcockian descent, Mrs March’s world unravels and everything she thought she knew about her husband starts to disintegrate. With a building psychosis, this thriller is perfect for fans of The Yellow Wallpaper and has already been optioned for a film starring Elisabeth Moss.

Paul by Daisy Lafarge

I read Lafarge’s poetry collection Life Without Air at the start of this year and I absolutely loved it so I was so excited to hear about the release of her debut novel. Paul follows Frances, a recent graduate who, in an attempt to escape an incident involving her course supervisor, has left Paris to volunteer in rural France. Whist working across farms she meets the charismatic and charming Paul with whom Frances soon finds herself involved in a strange relationship. Lafarge shines a light on questions about asymmetrical sexual relationships and balances of power, as well as what makes a ‘good’ person and what that even means.

The Feast by Margaret Kennedy

Kennedy was a successful novelist during the early to mid twentieth century, publishing many prize-winning bestsellers including The Constant Nymph in 1924 which was later adapted into a play by Noel Coward. The Feast was initially published in a much shorter form under the title Never Look Back in the Ladies Home Journal in 1949, before being released as a novel in 1950. Kennedy was inspired to write the novel after a conversation with friends in 1937, where they discussed the idea of a collection of stories that re-imagined each one of the seven deadly sins. Featuring a host of characters, this dark and witty fable takes place at a Cornish seaside resort one week before a cliff collapses and the hotel and it’s guests are brought to the ground. Told over the course of the week, the story delves into why some residents were spared and others were not so lucky.

Request a copy here.