The End of Everything (2026)
The End of Everything is set in a near-future Britain in which some disaster, or combination of disasters, seems to have occurred, and yet its inhabitants continue to attempt to maintain some semblance of their old routines and rituals. Infrastructure has mostly collapsed, the political landscape is dysfunctional, Europe appears to be ‘missing’ and Britain is shadowed by a vaguely understood but seemingly ongoing crisis associated with an enigmatic, ostensibly “alien” presence referred to as the "iGhetti." The primary narrative follows Phillip Tennent, a man living on the Kent coast who makes his living as a beachcomber, searching the shoreline for washed-up objects of potential value. Early in the book, Phillip discovers an unusual ‘artefact’, which while compared to organic matter and possessing infant-like qualities, it is generally ill-defined other than by its potential sale value, and Phillip initially focuses on trying to find a buyer for the ‘object’.
Black Bag (2026)
Black Bag follows an unnamed struggling actor whose career highlights to date have largely involved performing mid-meal mystery theatre to crowds of indifferent rich folks. He accepts a bizarre performance-based job posted by a university professor named Dr. Blend. Modeled on a real-life 1967 social experiment, the job requires him to zip himself inside a large black leather bag, and sit in silence at the back of a lecture theatre during Blend’s psychology classes. He is strictly forbidden from speaking or interacting with the students, serving merely as an anonymous object for the class to react to. As the experiment progresses, the protagonist finds comfort in the anonymity of the bag, eventually choosing to wear it outside of his required hours and adapting to its practical challenges and potential for social alienation. His fellow students, as proposed by the original experiment’s premise, after going through a phase of resenting his presence, ultimately come to respect and even like ‘Black Bag’.
The Renovation (2026)
The Renovation follows Dilara, a Turkish woman living in self-imposed political exile in a quiet coastal village in Salerno, Italy. Unable to find employment in her field, she has dedicated herself to the care of her aging father, who is suffering from advanced dementia, and at the start of the book is in the process of installing a second bathroom in her apartment to accommodate his needs. After weeks of secretive construction hidden behind tarpaulins, the contractors pack up and leave. Instead of the modern en-suite bathroom Dilara was expecting to return home to, she finds instead a fully functioning, replica Turkish prison cell.
John of John (2026)
John of John focuses on John-Calum (“Cal”) McLeod, a recently graduated textiles student living in Edinburgh. He’s called back to his home in a remote Hebridean croft by his devout Presbyterian preacher father John, under the guise of helping look after his ailing maternal grandmother, Ella, who has lived with the pair since Cal’s mother left. Cal is gay, but very much not openly so, and his outsider status and ‘mainlander’ style and manner immediately cause conflict with his father. As the book progresses, we learn that Cal isn’t the only one in the family with secrets. (Spoilers ahead!)
The Disappearers (2026)
The Disappearers takes as its starting point a 1988 clandestine theatre group, a rather disparate selection of local gay men who answered the coded call to audition for a production of Canadian playwright John Herbert's prison-set drama, Fortune and Men's Eyes, directed by the veteran Cambridge-educated Havelock Titus. Its first section is narrated by the white-passing Belgian-Jamaican youth Eddy Porteous, who has (compared at least to his peers) a relatively straightforward home life, and sits kind of on the periphery of the group, some of whom have prior connections and are at least generally more immersed in the real-world realities of living as a gay man in Jamaica. He develops a fascination with the beautiful half-Chinese Mat Chin, and begins to notice the difficulties experienced by another fellow actor, Jordan Brown. By a quirk of fate, Porteous misses the rehearsal on the night when it is overrun by a bloodthirsty homophobic mob, inspired by (and ring-led by) the local dancehall artist Streggeh Don, whose hate-filled hit ‘Batty is not Pussy’ has become something of an anthem for many of the worst elements of Jamaican society.
Switzy (2026)
Switzy focuses on the final journey of David, a retired high-flying business executive. Suffering from dementia and dependent on the help of his young assistant Cody, he has made one final decision which will take him to a clinic in Zurich, Switzerland. Along the way, via flights on a borrowed private jet, he will visit his estranged daughter and her nine-year-old son in London, and meet an old friend in France near the Swiss border. His mind deteriorating, he reflects on his life in fragments (repeated phrases from childhood books, films and lessons pepper his present-day thoughts) and distracts his mind with repeated games of solitaire on his phone.
Helen of Nowhere (2025)
Helen of Nowhere focuses on an academic, known only as ‘Man’, who has recently lost his job as an English professor and separated from his wife (‘Wife’). He taught on largely transcendentalist themes, which are now being challenged by his (largely female) colleagues and students. His accusation that a student’s work may have been plagiarised was apparently the root of his dismissal, but he believes that he was in the process of being managed out in any case. His wife appears to have tired of him for numerous reasons, and is focused on her own writing career. ‘Man’ is considering a move to the country, and is shown around a large property by ‘Realtor’. The property’s former owner ‘Helen’ is now apparently in care, and has left the task of its sale to the realtor who apparently also lived in the house with her for some time.
The Palm House (2026)
The Palm House focuses on the friendship between Laura Miller (the narrator) and Edmund Putnam (known mainly as ‘Putnam’) two characters working in the London media landscape, set close to the present day. Over the course of a long weekend, they meet several times for drinks and crisps, and discuss the state of their lives, and share stories from their past. Putnam is coming to the terms with the death of his father and dealing with the arrival of a terrible new boss at Sequence, the cultural publication he has spent decades working for, and Laura is still somewhat in the shadow of her performative and over-the-top mother, and is somewhat listless in her current life and looking for ways to improve her circumstance.