All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, £9.99 paperback

A beautiful, stunningly ambitious novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. For Marie-Laure, blind since the age of six, the world is full of mazes. The miniature of a Paris neighbourhood, made by her father to teach her the way home. The microscopic layers within the invaluable diamond that her father guards in the Museum of Natural History. The walled city by the sea, where father and daughter take refuge when the Nazis invade Paris. And a future which draws her ever closer to Werner, a German orphan, destined to labour in the mines until a broken radio fills his life with possibility and brings him to the notice of the Hitler Youth. In this magnificent, deeply moving novel, the stories of Marie-Laure and Werner illuminate the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead, £9.99 paperback

A soaring, breathtakingly ambitious novel that weaves together the astonishing lives of a 1950s vanished female aviator and the modern-day Hollywood actress who plays her on screen. Marian Graves is driven by a need for freedom and danger. From her days as a wild child in prohibition America to the blitz and glitz of wartime London, she is determined to live an independent life. But it is an obsession with flight that consumes her most. Having become one of the most fearless pilots in her time, she sets out to do what no one has done before: to circumnavigate the globe from pole to pole. But shortly before completing the journey, her plane disappears, lost to history. Over half a century later, troubled film star Hadley Baxter is offered to play Marian in the comeback role of a lifetime. From the first pages of the script, Hadley is drawn inexorably to the female pilot. It is a role that will lead her to an unexpected discovery, throwing fresh and spellbinding light on the story of the unknowable Marian Graves.
The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz, £9.99 paperback

‘Our deal is over.’ This is what reluctant author Anthony Horowitz tells ex-detective Daniel Hawthorne in an awkward encounter. The truth is that Anthony has other things on his mind. His new play ‘Mindgame’ is about to open at London’s Vaudeville theatre, and on opening night, Sunday Times critic Harriet Throsby gives the play a savage review. The next morning she is found dead, stabbed in the heart with an ornamental dagger that has only one set of finger prints on it. Anthony’s. Anthony is arrested, charged with Throsby’s murder, and thrown into prison. Alone and increasingly desperate, he realises only one man can help him. But will Hawthorne take his call?
The Parlour Wife by Foluso Agbaje, £9.99 paperback

Kehinde must put everything on the line to find herself, during a time of war. Lagos, 1939 With the announcement of World War Two and a change that sends shockwaves through her family, Kehinde is forced to put aside her dreams of writing and become the third wife of Mr Ogunjobi. Kehinde makes her peace by selling snacks at a small market. When she gets the chance to assist the leader of the Lagos Market Women’s Association, fighting for the rights the British are trying to take away, Kehinde finally feels useful again. But if her husband finds out he’ll abandon her. Can Kehinde find the courage to fight for herself and the other women of Lagos? Or will she remain a caged bird, a parlour wife, forever.
Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, £20 hardback

Chiamaka is a Nigerian travel writer living in America. Alone in the midst of the pandemic, she recalls her past lovers and grapples with her choices and regrets. Zikora, her best friend, is a lawyer who has been successful at everything until — betrayed and brokenhearted — she must turn to the person she thought she needed least. Omelogor, Chiamaka’s bold, outspoken cousin, is a financial powerhouse in Nigeria who begins to question how well she knows herself. And Kadiatou, Chiamaka’s housekeeper, is proudly raising her daughter in America – but faces an unthinkable hardship that threatens all she has worked to achieve.In Dream Count, Adichie trains her fierce eye on these women in a novel that takes up the very nature of love itself. Is true happiness ever attainable or is it just a fleeting state? And how honest must we be with ourselves in order to love, and to be loved?
The Field by Robert Seethaler, £9.99 paperback

If the dead could speak, what would they say to the living? From their graves in the field, the oldest part of Paulstadt’s cemetery, the town’s late inhabitants tell stories from their lives. Some recall just a moment, perhaps the one in which they left this world, perhaps the one that they now realize shaped their life for ever. Some remember all the people they’ve been with, or the only person they ever loved. These voices together – young, old, rich, poor – build a picture of a community, as viewed from below ground instead of from above. The streets of the small, sleepy provincial town of Paulstadt are given shape and meaning by those who lived, loved, worked, mourned and died there. It is a book of human lives – each one different, yet connected to countless others – that ultimately shows how life, for all its fleetingness, still has meaning.