Happily, this weekend we were reminded that the sun still exists. And this is an exciting reminder that Mariusz Szczygieł, author of Not There, will be visiting the UK this week for a book tour, visiting London, Cambridge and Oxford. It’s not too late to sign up for some of the events! Don’t miss out on what promises to be a wonderful week. 

2026 Book Subscription — All 3 New Titles

In other great news, we have a subscription package available for our 2026 books. Check out the link to purchase all three of our 2026 releases for just £30 (and free postage within the UK!). This package also includes early access to titles - ten days before the bookshop release. Our 2026 titles include:

April 2026: Ilaria, or the Conquest of Disobedience by Gabriella Zalapì, translated from French by Adriana Hunter.

Winner Prix Femina des Lycéens 2024 , Winner Prix Millepages 2024, Winner Prix Blù Jean-Marc Roberts 2024

One afternoon in May, 8 year old Ilaria gets into the car with her dad, expecting to go out to dinner with her mum and sister. Instead, she is taken across the border, on a  whirlwind journey around Italy, from Trieste to Rome and Sicily, sleeping in roadside hotels, singing to the radio, and fearing her often drunk, but loving father. Torn between her life in Geneva with her mother and the seemingly never ending Italian road trip with her father, Ilaria doesn’t know who to side with in her parents’ acrimonious separation. 

Throughout her travels, Ilaria meets new faces, learns how to light a cigarette, discovers when is best to keep quiet around her father, and finds comfort in her lovable teddy bear Birillo. Ilaria’s voice is singular and powerful; while her travels through Italy and the cast of characters around her create an unforgettable image of Italy .

This deeply moving novel explores the fear and confusion felt during this chaotic kidnapping, through the dreamlike eyes of the young girl. Intimate and poignant, Ilaria follows the life of a girl who is learning to navigate the world on her own.

May 2026: Milk and Blood by Agnès de Clairville, translated from French by Frank Wynne.

Deep in the French countryside, a farm is blind with secrets, and an exhausted family struggles to survive. The father can’t pay the bills, the brothers compete with one other, and the mother tries desperately to suppress the weight of the past. Enveloped in visceral silence, the farm animals witness a family tragedy unfolding before their eyes. And since the humans remain silent, it is the animals who must tell their story. 

Milk and Blood is a choral novel like no other, narrated by farm animals as they observe the humans who exploit, kill, and love them. Death and life contract like a shimmering muscle, and quiet devastation lies beneath the surface. Yet amidst this bleak brutality, it is Clairville’s tenderness that is most affecting, as she draws poetry from mud and compassion from violence, in what is ultimately a declaration of love to those who feed us.

July 2026: My Dreadful Body‍ by ‍Egana Djabbarova, translated from Russian by Lisa C. Hayden. 

Listed in Ms Magazine’s Most Anticipated Feminist Books of 2026 and Words Without Borders’ Most Anticipated Books of 2026.

A dazzling debut novel about a young woman’s difficult coming of age in a traditional Azerbaijani community in Russia, grappling under the weight of patriarchal norms and a debilitating neurological condition. The mysterious affliction leaves her unable to control her muscles, plagued by pain and speech disorders, defying diagnosis.

Addressing each body part with the scrupulousness of a medical researcher, the narrator explores memories, traditions, and taboos related to her physical self. In the process, a woman once destined for the role of a beautiful marriageable daughter comes to be perceived as damaged goods.

With verbal elegance and poetic power, Egana Djabbarova unveils a hidden world in which illness unexpectedly facilitates her liberation. Her book stands in the proud tradition of confessional feminist writers like Sandra Cisneros, Arundhati Roy, Audre Lorde, Toni Morrison, and Jamaica Kincaid. 

All these books could be yours for just £30! Check them out on our website here. Please note that some dates of publication may change slightly.

Congratulations are in order! ✨

We are delighted to announce that Magdalena Blažević’s powerful and brilliant novel In Late Summer has been longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award. Many, many congratulations to Magdalena Blažević, her translator Andelka Raguž and to everyone else on the longlist.

We hope everyone is enjoying these sunnier days and signs of spring! And we are looking forward to seeing many of you at Mariusz Szczygieł’s book tour this week.