UPDATE: 5 days later, read this again. Can confirm that it will not only remain on my shelf, but will get regularly read every month or so. Beautiful, bittersweet portrait of modern life . . . his tragicomedy will also make the heart swell.’ Guardian

Three woman who join together to rent a large space along the beach in Los Angeles for their stores—a gift shop, a bakery, and a bookstore—become fast friends as they each experience the highs, and lows, of love. OK. So I've read over 100 indie comics and have a pretty strong understanding of what is good in this genre. This is truly a fantastic debut graphic novel. This is REALLY good as a debut comic. He doesn’t want people to feel they have to connect with him, McPhail hastens to explain. “I know I’ve written a book about deep connections, but I’m still the guy from a little town in the north of England where no one discusses their feelings.” So how much is he prepared to tell me about those transformative conversations that made such an impact on him? “Um ...” he pretends to consider answering this. “Nothing at all!” The Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki (Viking) – This big, completely captivating novel by Ruth Ozeki features a boy who hears a vast, wild symphony of voices from the world around him and seeks only to make sense of it all; at first it seems whimsical, but it carries more heft and wonder than anything this author has ever written. This is a miraculous book. Very funny, very sad and very beautiful - all at the same time, somehow. * Joe Dunthorne *A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself by Peter Ho Davies (Houghton Mifflin) – The joys and unexpected traumas of family life (as well as, one suspects, heaping helpings of autofiction) (and an idiotic title, hardly a rarity on this list - see #s 9, 7, & 2)(capped off with a truly eye-scratchingly hideous cover design) fill this touching and eloquent novel. Starts as a charming romantic comedy and turns into something tender and affecting about our need for connection. I loved this one. ‘ David Nicholls Beautiful, bittersweet portrait of modern life . . . his tragicomedy will also make the heart swell.' Guardian Starts as a charming romantic comedy and turns into something tender and affecting about our need to connect. I loved this one. * David Nicholls * In is most autobiographical in its humour, says McPhail, teasing his own “woke boy” tendencies and patronage of trendy cafes across Edinburgh. (His custom rivals JK Rowling’s, he claims: “If my book is anywhere near not a flop, I better get some plaques around this place.”) But In did spring from his own experience of breakthroughs in connection, the “conversations that feel kind of transcendent in their intimacy”, he says.

Look For Me and I’ll Be Gone by John Edgar Wideman (stories) (Scribner) – The last of our short story collections this year (and the last laughably hideous American cover on our list, thank Crom and Mitra) is also the best, the latest work from the great John Edgar Wideman, whose prose has never been wiser or more searing. The book is very funny, a dry kind of humour, that aches as much as it makes you laugh. The portion of the book that handles his mother's illness is really only introduced after you've met the mother a couple of times already, which is a smart decision. It is where the humour dissipates and real life hits. Our main character spends most of his time alone in his apartment or drinking coffee in fancy cafes. Most conversations are shallow and inauthentic. This is my 2nd advanced reader copy (ARC) review. This means I received this ebook for free, in exchange for this review by Netgalley. I'm not financially motivated, as I read library books, so I only read ARCs I actually think will be good enough for me to rate and review honestly. When I first started reading this, I was delighted. It's so smart, cute, interesting. McPhail presents us with a white male MC who loves coffee and lives in the city and yearns for real human connections. He's charming, and the way his facial expressions are drawn puts a sparkle on the whole book. We start off with him searching for a bar at night to be sad in.The Sentence by Louise Erdrich (Harper) – If readers are willing to overlook yet another hideous American cover, they’ll find in Louise Erdrich’s latest novel - set in and around a small bookstore as it goes through the cursed year 2020 - as eloquent and at times stunningly accurate an example of so-called “COVID fiction” as they’re ever likely to read. In the end, I think I'm still going to give it five stars, although my enthusiasm for this awesome plot we were having dimmed once it was turned into a cancer book. I'm going to give it five stars because it is just SO FRESH and McPhail's writing is so on-point. His illustrations are also great. He should be very proud of himself. Do you hear me, Will McPhail? Be very proud of yourself and take this moment to revel in creating a very fresh and well done GN.

A curious, funny and deeply human story about growing up in adulthood. Asks all the questions, and makes a case for real connection in a world full of podcasts and plant-based milk. * Emmy the Great * The Trees by Percival Everett (Graywolf Press) – Underneath its unprepossessing exterior (Graywolf avoided giving it a hideous cover by giving it not cover at all, just the book’s title on a piece of blank paper, like a manufacturer’s label stamped on a crate of pomegranates), this is a weirdly wry novel about race and perception that took me a couple of reads to appreciate - which is much appreciated in this era of tweets-as-manuscripts. A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam (Hogarth) – The shadow of the Sri Lankan civil war stretches over this bluntly moving character study of half a dozen different kinds of displacement, but there’s also a deeply felt love story here. And it's fine, it's fine that the book ends that way but it wasn't the joyful, clever, innovative narrative I was hoping for. Instead, it was cancer. This put a damper on things. Uncollected Stories of Allan Gurganus (Liveright) – The second short story collection on our list (continuing the time-honored publishing tradition of using a product description as a book title) amply showcases the genius and sharp humor of this author.Barista: "It's a barter and exchange system. I can trade you this coffee for a commodity or service of equal value." This is a daunting bar for an interviewer, so I am quietly relieved when McPhail is not only so approachable as to be wearing pyjamas at 3.30pm, but seems to respond to my sweeping questions – about relationships under capitalism, the dehumanising effect of tech; the impediments to intimacy in (as In’s blurb puts it) “our isolated times” – with good-natured alarm. It's more emotional than I thought. I'm quite emotionally hardened given I read a lot of existential philosophy and some of the cringey YA comics normally underwhelm me in trying to communicate revelations deeper than their form of articulation. But the ending to this is very well choreographed and powerful. It surprised me, because it begins with some slightly clichéd dialogues, but the imagery later on is really good and accessible to a lot of readers. It's very relaxed and down-to-earth and is trying to communicate something important and universal to anyone who's ever wanted to deeply connect with people. Next up is 'Twill & Sons.' Either a coffee shop or a barbers. But it could also be the movie 'Dunkirk.' Who is Twill? Je ne sais pas. Who are the sons? Perhaps they are the translucent stable boys behind the counter who leak cold brew from crystal tanks. Their hair is wet and like new born fish, their twitching organs are clearly visible through their paper skin.

He hadn’t. “I knew exactly where it was, the whole time,” says McPhail now, from his Edinburgh flat. “I just wanted to join in. And then I said,” he winces: “‘That’d be 10 quid these days!’ These days! Like I know anything about coffee prices through the ages!” A book begging to be read on the beach, with the sun warming the sand and salt in the air: pure escapism.

Customer reviews

Medusa’s Ankles by AS Byatt (Knopf) – The first of the short story collections on our list (and also the first of depressingly many examples of hideous American cover design, alas) is this powerful collection by the author of Possession and The Children’s Book, here emphasizing her surprising ability to craft subversive fantasy.