Book highlights of 2015: Jon Ronson's latest work and Kazuo Ishiguro first novel in a decade
Your guide to the books that you won't be able to put down this year
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Your support makes all the difference.The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
Ishiguro’s first novel in a decade is being billed by his publishers as urgent, relevant, troubling and mysterious, and its central characters are called Axl and Beatrice. We’ll have to wait to find out more.
Faber & Faber, 3 March
God Help the Child by Toni Morrison
A new book by this American Nobel Laureate is always going to be an event, and this one has excitement building around it already: it is the story of the way in which the legacy of childhood trauma can shape, and damage, adult life.
Chatto & Windus, 23 April
Mr & Mrs Disraeli: A Strange Romance by Daisy Hay
A biography of a fascinating couple, gleaned from letters found in the Bodleian Library archives. He was one of the foremost politicians of the Victorian age, she the daughter of a sailor on her second marriage. Their passionate letters through courtship and marriage will surely make fascinating reading.
Chatto & Windus, 8 January
Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, Revolutionary by Anita Anand
In the year that Hollywood celebrates the suffragettes and Emmeline Pankhurst’s classic text is republished, Anand tells the true story of Sophia Duleep Singh, a dispossessed princess and society darling of 19th-century India who became a revolutionary firebrand.
Bloomsbury, 15 January
The Guantanamo Diary by Mohamedou Ould Slahi, edited by Larry Siems
A diary written by a Guantanamo detainee, this book promises to be a powerful and unsettling read. Mauritian-born Slahi has been imprisoned for 12 years and has yet to be charged for any crimes.
Canongate, 20 January
Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
A rumination on depression, Matt Haig’s book takes the novelist into personal territory while keeping an eye on the bigger picture: “In the Western world suicide is the leading cause of death among men under the age of 35.” Joanna Lumley calls it a “small masterpiece”.
Canongate, 5 March
So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson
The idea for Jon Ronson’s latest offering was sparked by his online identity theft in 2012. Ronson confronted the imposters and began a probing inquiry into public shaming on social media. It looks funny and seriously hard-hitting.
Picador, 12 March
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