Eureka
Anthony Quinn
Vintage £8.99, pp480
Anthony Quinn’s loose trilogy of 20th-century “period” novels concludes in colourful fashion, with this story of drug-popping screenwriter Nat Fane, beset by crime lords, starlets and the mysterious German director who has hired him. As with Quinn’s earlier novels, Curtain Call and Freya, there is much delight in the evocation of time and place, in this case swinging London, and in the sharply drawn characterisation, not least the hedonistic Fane – based on the critic Kenneth Tynan. Another marvellous read from Quinn, surely heir apparent to William Boyd.
Emily Wilding Davison
Lucy Fisher
Biteback £12.99, pp288
Political journalist Lucy Fisher’s debut is a compelling examination of the short but eventful life of the suffragette Emily Davison, who sacrificed her life at the 1913 Derby, living up to her organisation’s maxim of “deeds not words”. Fisher’s skilful biography unpacks the apparent contradictions in Davison’s life; born into upper-middle-class privilege, a series of tragic reversals saw her family reduced to poverty and led her to become radicalised from a young age. Fisher does not shy away from describing the cruelty of the treatment that suffragettes received, but makes a convincing case for Davison having achieved a great deal more than simply being a martyr to the cause.
Confessions of the Fox
Jordy Rosenberg
Atlantic £14.99, pp352
Debut novelist Jordy Rosenberg hits the ground with confidence and verve with this tale of transgender 18th-century thief Jack Sheppard and his lover Edgeworth Bess – told partly in footnotes by present-day scholar Dr Voth, who has discovered a manuscript telling of their deeds. With this dual narrative Rosenberg combines a gripping, if unorthodox, crime saga with a wry meta-literary look at the ways storytelling can be subverted and repurposed. Ultimately ambition gets the better of it, but Rosenberg has established himself here as an important new voice.
To order Eureka for £7.64, Emily Wilding Davison for £11.04, or Confessions of the Fox for £12.74, go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846
