Books: What to look out for in the months ahead

Hannah Stephenson grills industry experts about the hotly-tipped new titles for 2017.

Next year is looking promising for both fiction and non-fiction fans, as both new and established authors come to the fore.

Caroline Sanderson, associate editor of trade magazine The Bookseller, predicts the following non-fiction titles could be big:

Centaur by Declan Murphy and Ami Rao (Doubleday, Apr 27, £16.99):

It’s a real triumph-over-tragedy story about a champion jockey who had a terrible fall in the Nineties, and went from near death to riding again 18 months later.

Fathers & Sons by Howard Cunnell (Picador, Feb 9, £14.99):

Sanderson says this as “a really outstanding memoir about what it means to be a man”. It’s about a boy growing up without a father and finding his way to be a father himself, while his transgender step-daughter becomes his son.

A Manual For Heartache by Cathy Rentzenbrink (Picador, Jun 29, £10):

Following the heart-breaking memoir The Last Act Of Love, in which Rentzenbrink laid bare the effects of an accident which left her brother in a permanent vegetative state, this book explores how to live with grief and loss and find joy in the world again.

Utopia For Realists: And How We Can Get There by Rutger Bregman (Bloomsbury, Mar 9, £16.99):

Given the current political turmoil, Sanderson reckons there will be a focus on current affairs and this short book by Dutch historian Bregman reveals how we need new utopian thinking.

Chris White, fiction buyer for Waterstones, says there’s been a buzz in the industry about the following titles:

Sirens by Joseph Knox (Doubleday, out now):

Transworld’s big crime debut set in Manchester, launching a series featuring DC Aidan Waits. “It’s Raymond Chandler meets Get Carter, procedural but noir fiction and UK-based,” says White. “Ian Rankin is the model for the kind of fiction he’s writing.”

Little Deaths by Emma Flint (Picador, out now):

This impressive debut is based on a real-life historical crime in 1960s New York, where a mother was accused of strangling her children. “Psychological crime has been a trend — this is in that mould and is extremely well written, and the psychological depth of the characters is probably more developed than a lot of things. There’s a lot of buzz around this one,” says White.

In The Name Of The Family by Sarah Dunant (Virago, Mar 2):

The sequel to her last book, Blood & Beauty, is set among the House of Borgias in 16th century Florence. Dunant holds up a mirror to this turbulent moment of history. “She has that Hilary Mantel touch.”

Lincoln In The Bardo by George Saunders (Bloomsbury, March 9):

This debut from the acclaimed short story writer and essayist tells the story of Abraham Lincoln and the death of his son, told in multiple voices. “It’s getting a huge amount of attention already,” says White.

4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster (Faber & Faber, Jan 31):

In a similar vein to Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life, in which the author imagines a life turning out in different ways, the acclaimed American writer’s whopping 880-page tome focuses on a boy born in New Jersey in 1947, whose life takes four simultaneous and independent fictional paths.

The Nix by Nathan Hill (Picador, out now):

This debut novel sees a once-promising literary figure now languishing as a teacher at a private college. When his editor demands the return of an advance for a debut novel he hasn’t delivered, he resorts to writing about his mother who abandoned him and has now been arrested for a politically motivated crime.