Gypsies, soldiers and bisexual poets

Nope these aren't the things I want C-bear to be when he grows up! They're the main protagonists in the last three books I've read, and seriously, all three books have been gems. Let's start with the Gypsies.

The Invisible Ones is the new novel by Stef Penney (author of The Tenderness of Wolves) and it's publishing this September. The book gives a small snapshopt of the life of English Gypsies (think My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding but not so OTT). It follows a private investigator who is asked to enter the secretive world of the travellers to find out what happened to a young gypsy woman who went missing years earlier.

Publishing in August, Blow on a Dead Man's Embers is the second novel from Mari Strachan (The Earth Hums in B flat) and it's set in Wales in the years following WWI. Beautifully written this book takes ordinary life and makes it shine. We follow Non as she tries to find out what's wrong with her shell-shocked husband when he returns from war full of secrets and dread.

The one I've been waiting for and am so excited to have a proof copy of is the new Alan Hollinghurst, The Stranger's Child. When I read the synopsis I immediately thought of Ian McEwan's Atonement, but it's a many more layered beast to read. The book centres around the short and seemingly brilliant life of Cecil Valence and the amazing impact he makes on the Sawle family when middle brother George brings him home for a visit from university. The book jumps decades and shows how the visit in 1913 has a lasting impact on those involved. Publishing in July, if you like a literary read, this is one not to be missed.

And don't you think all these jackets are great? I love the spooky, misty empty boat, the simple heart-melting image of the embracing soldier and the sheet clean-cut edges of the maze.