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3 British Books To Look Out For in the U.S. in February

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Claire Handscombe

Contributor

Claire Handscombe moved from Europe to DC in 2012, ostensibly to study for an MFA in Creative Writing, but actually – let’s be honest – because of an obsession with The West Wing. She is the author of Unscripted, a novel about a young woman with a celebrity crush and a determined plan, and the editor of Walk With Us: How The West Wing Changed Our Lives. She also hosts the Brit Lit Podcast, a fortnightly show of news and views from British books and publishing. Blog: the Brit Lit Blog. Twitter: @BookishClaire

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If you’re into British books, there are some excellent ones making their way across the pond this month. Don’t miss these!

I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella (The Dial Press, February 5, 2019)

When Fixie Farr agrees to watch a handsome stranger’s laptop in a coffee shop, she can’t possibly know the chain of events that will ensue.  She certainly never imagines she’ll be redeeming the IOU the handsome stranger scribbles on a coffee sleeve or that she’ll end up having to decide: will she stop focusing on fixing other people’s lives and finally fight for the life that she really wants for herself?

The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley (William Morrow, February 12, 2019)

If you like reading about toxic friendships, you will probably want to pick up this novel. After all, it doesn’t get more toxic than murder, and murder is exactly what happens when a group of university friends gather for their annual New Year’s Eve celebration in a hunting lodge. Like Book Riot’s Rebecca Schinsky, I’m a fan of the-band-gets-back-together books, and I can’t wait to curl up for hours on a relaxed Saturday and sink my teeth into this twisty take on one.

The Good Immigrant USA, ed. Chimene Suleyman (Little, Brown and Company, February 19, 2019)

The Good Immigrant is an American book, but it’s a spin-off of a British bestseller by my publisher, Unbound. The UK version was edited by Nikesh Shukla, who has since launched the Good Literary Agency and The Good Journal, to both showcase and nurture writing talent among the British BAME community, i.e. authors of colour. The American version is edited by U.S.-based British writer Chimene Suleyman and features essays by first- and second-generation immigrants including Chigozie Obioma, Alexander Chee, and Jenny Zhang, exploring what it means to be “othered” in the country that is their home.