God’s Children Are Little Broken Things by Arinze Ifeakandu (W&N, £14.99)
A beautifully written series of stories about queer lives and loves in contemporary Nigeria. Ifeakandu takes us from rooftop parties in economic capital Lagos, as champagne flows and a newly famous musician must hide his sexuality to protect his career; to northern Nigeria, where a married, poor shopkeeper encounters a wealthy businessman and begins longing for intimacy from him. There are youthful yearnings, tender moments and callous disregard: all underscored by the need for secrecy in a country where homosexuality still carries a prison sentence of up to 14 years. I came across this book at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, where Colm Tóibín interviewed Ifeakandu for an event called Love Under Siege. “A serious literary talent has emerged,” Tóibín says. I agree. — Sally Hayden
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller (Penguin Random House, £8.99)
There is a darkness which unspools like silk in The Paper Palace. It takes its title from the house in the back woods of Cape Cod, where Elle Bishop and her family have always spent their summers, swimming in the glimmering beauty of its natural pond. Taking place over twenty-four hours, the narrative also submerges into Elle’s childhood, revealing shocking and tragic experiences. She has just made passionate love with Jonas, her oldest friend, after a decades-long desire: should she leave the husband she adores — or give up the love of her life? The story is languorous with lust and grief, letting the reader inside the “dirty linen” of Elle’s covert thoughts. In a location which can be both beautiful and putrid, there is flesh and blood in the fine bone structure of this novel. — Ruth McKee
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Time and the Tree by Róisín Sorahan (Adelaide Books, $19.60)
“Once we recognise that the past is gone and the future is a false promise, we become what we were always meant to be: masters of the present.” So says the wise Tree, but Time, an officious, bustling character, is in too much of a hurry trying to catch up with tomorrow to pay attention. Time’s slave, the craven figure of Shadow, is so in thrall to his master that he doesn’t heed the Tree either. Only the boy listens to the counsel of the Tree, their strange, fable-like relationship unfolding through the seasons, set in a forest full of magic. With forks and turns, and characters that might have stepped out of the pages of Hans Christian Andersen, this is an entrancing book with the timbre of a fairy tale, raising contemporary philosophical questions. — Ruth McKee
