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Dark futures, true crimes, and love letters: the most addictive new reads of May

May is one heck of a month when it comes to books, and it was tough getting down to 10.

Family is a big theme this month. Megan Hunter’s debut The End We Start From will take your breath away with its tale of a mother and her new baby trying to survive a flood, Sarah Schmidt’s See What I Have Done is historical fiction about a family full of suspicion and hate, and Hala Alyan’s evocative Salt Houses follows a family displaced from their home by the Six-Day War.

Meena Kandasamy’s When I Hit You is an unflinching look at an abusive marriage, while Jill Santopolo’s The Light We Lost is a love story that fans of David Nicholls will love.

In non-fiction there is the humorously titled Don’t Be a Dick, Pete by Guardian columnist Stuart Heritage, which will make you laugh and remind you of the importance of family.


Read more: The storyteller: Romola Garai kicks off Stylist’s Book Club


If you dread picking up your phone when it beeps with a breaking news alert (understandable these days), then Radical Hope: Letters of Love and Dissent in Dangerous Times is for you - it’s angry and passionate and inspiring.

Set in the past but referencing the very real racism and hatred troubling America at the moment is Tracy Chevalier’s Othello retelling New Boy.

If you’re in search of a thrill, Sarah Lotz’s The White Road is addictive, and slightly freaky, reading.

And finally for the month, there's Into the Water by an author you may have heard of, Paula Hawkins.

Happy reading.

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