Our quarterly Debut Fiction Showcase celebrates some of the best, brightest new literary talent, handpicked by Waterstones Gower Street's expert booksellers.
Our quarterly Debut Fiction Showcase celebrates some of the best, brightest new literary talent, handpicked by Waterstones Gower Street's expert booksellers.Join us on Tuesday 14th April for literary excellence and engaging conversation with our Spring Debut Fiction Showcase. Our compre, literary critic and Bitch Lit host Lucy Scholes will introduce three exciting new novelists making their debuts in 2020: Naoise Dolan (Exciting Times), Frances Leviston (The Voice In My Ear) and Paul Mendez (Rainbow Milk).As ever we have chosen three novels based simply on how much we enjoyed them. They are all different but brilliant and will form the basis of a discussion about their authors' writing experiences. There will be readings from each writer, as well as the opportunity for audience QA.Tickets are 20 including a discounted copy of any book / 10 general admission / 8 students and Plus cardholders. All tickets include booking fee.About the booksExciting Times (Naoise Dolan) - Ava, newly arrived in Hong Kong from Dublin, spends her days teaching English to rich children. Julian is a banker. A banker who likes to spend money on Ava, to have sex and discuss fluctuating currencies with her. But when she asks whether he loves her, he cannot say more than 'I like you a great deal'. Enter Edith, a lawyer. Refreshingly enthusiastic and unapologetically earnest, Edith takes Ava to the theatre when Julian leaves Hong Kong for work. Quickly, she becomes something Ava looks forward to. Politically alert, heartbreakingly raw, and dryly funny, Exciting Times is thrillingly attuned to the great freedoms and greater uncertainties of modern love. In stylish, uncluttered prose, Naoise Dolan dissects the personal and financial transactions that make up a life-and announces herself as a singular new voice.The Voice in My Ear (Frances Leviston) - Ten women, all called Claire, are tangled up in complex power dynamics with their families, friends, and lovers. Though all are different ages, and leading different lives, each is haunted by the difficulty of living on her own terms, and by her capacity to harm and be harmed. With startling insight and understanding, Frances Leviston offers a frighteningly perceptive slice of contemporary womanhood. In forensic, indelible prose that is often bleakly funny, The Voice in My Ear reveals a brilliant new voice in fiction and invites us to consider our own place in the relationships that define us.Rainbow Milk (Paul Mendez) - In the Black Country in the 1950s, ex-boxer Norman Alonso is a determined and humble Jamaican who has moved to Britain with his wife to secure a brighter future for themselves and their children. Blighted with unexpected illness and racism, Norman and his family are resilient in the face of such hostilities, but are all too aware that they will need more than just hope to survive. At the turn of the millennium, Jesse seeks a fresh start in London - escaping from a broken immediate family, a repressive religious community and the desolate, disempowered Black Country - but finds himself at a loss for a new centre of gravity, and turns to sex work to create new notions of love, fatherhood and spirituality. Rainbow Milk is a bold exploration of race, class, sexuality, freedom and religion across generations, time and cultures. Paul Mendez is a fervent new writer with an original and urgent voice.
