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10 new books to take on holiday

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No summer holiday is complete without a brilliant book. With that in mind, we've picked 10 new books to help you while away your leisure hours - from epic family histories and unlikely female friendships, to murder and mayhem on the streets of London. See our must-read summer holiday book list below...

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Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi

Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi

Inspired by Taiye Selasi’s own multi-continental background, Ghana Must Go tells the story of the Sai family: Ghanaian surgeon, Kwaku Sai, his Nigerian wife, Fola, and their children Olu, twins Taiwo and Kehinde, and the youngest, Sadie. Torn apart by lies, the family are headed on disparate paths. Until, one day, tragedy spins the Sais in an unexpected new direction. A rich and moving debut novel, Ghana Must Go certainly lives up to the hype. (Penguin Books, £14.99)

Blood & Beauty by Sarah Dunant

Blood & Beauty by Sarah Dunant

Acclaimed novelist of the Italian Renaissance, Sarah Dunant, takes on the era’s most notorious family: the Borgias. Set in a time when the beauty and creativity of Italy is matched by its brutality and corruption, Spanish Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia does the unthinkable and buys his way into the Italian papacy, raising a brood of powerful children. His daughter Lucrezia is 12 when the book opens and we follow her journey through three marriages: from childish innocence to painful experience, from political pawn to political player. (Little, Brown Book Group, £13.99)

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler

With the buzz still surrounding the release of The Great Gatsby, what better time than now to discover the woman who shined as bright as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s literary career: his wife Zelda Sayre? Dubbed ‘The First Flapper’, Zelda was the epitome of the Roaring Twenties, living it large wherever she went. Backdropped by the glamour of the Jazz Age, Fowler’s novel charts Zelda’s evolution as she struggles to find her own identity in the shadow of her celebrated husband. (Hodder & Stoughton, £17.99)

And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

Khaled Hosseini follows up his bestsellers The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns with a new epic novel. And The Mountains Echoed follows family-of-three Abdullah, his little sister Pari and their father Saboor across their native Afghanistan in search of work in 1952. When the trio find themselves in Kabul, they have no sense of the fate that awaits them there – and the event that will tear their lives apart. (Bloomsbury Publishing, £9.99)

Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O’Porter

Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O’Porter

Former Stylist columnist Dawn O’Porter makes her first foray into young adult fiction with her debut novel Paper Aeroplanes. Set in Guernsey in the mid-Nineties, the book charts the unlikely friendship of 15-year-old schoolgirls Renee and Flo. The pair couldn’t be more different if they tried – Flo is studious and introverted; Renee ambitious and sexually curious – yet they are drawn together by loneliness and a need to escape their dysfunctional families, at an age when life stretches out before you and anything can happen. Despite Paper Aeroplanes’ YA listing, the Nineties references, witty writing and cringe-worthy graphic scenes makes this a great read for adults too. (Hot Key Books, £7.99)

Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan

Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan

The year is 1972. Britain, confronting economic disaster, is being torn apart by industrial unrest and terrorism, with the Cold War fight shifting to the cultural sphere. Enter the beautiful Serena Frome: a Cambridge student and compulsive reader of novels, Serena is also being groomed for MI5. Her first mission, Operation Sweet Tooth, brings her into the literary world of Tom Haley, a promising young writer - but can she trust him? Sweet Tooth is a deft and witty story of betrayal and intrigue, love, and the invented self. (Vintage, £7.99)

Mayhem by Sarah Pinborough

Mayhem by Sarah Pinborough

The name’s Bond. Dr Thomas Bond – the police surgeon at the heart of Sarah Pinborough’s bloody crime thriller, Mayhem. When a rotting torso is discovered in the vault of New Scotland Yard just days after Jack the Ripper has brutally murdered two women in one night, it doesn’t take Dr Bond long to realise there’s a second, more calculating, killer at work. However, as his investigation gets underway, Bond begins to wonder: is it a man who has brought mayhem to the streets of London, or a monster? A gruesomely good read. (Quercus Books, £14.99)

The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell

The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell

Set in New York City in 1924 during the height of Prohibition, The Other Typist is a thrilling take on the dark side of female friendship. Prudish young Rose Baker works as a typist in a police precinct on the lower East Side. She prides herself on being able to type up the goriest crimes without batting an eyelid. But when the captivating Odalie begins work at the precinct, Rose finds herself falling under the other typist’s spell, and it’s not long before her fascination turns into obsession. (Penguin Books, £12.99)

The Iron King by Maurice Druon

The Iron King by Maurice Druon

Cold, silent and handsome as a statue, the Iron King - Philip the Fair - governs his realm with an iron hand but he cannot control his unruly family. A web of scandal, murder and intrigue is weaving itself around Philip; however, it’s his persecution of the powerful Knights Templar that unleashes a mighty curse that threatens to destroy his entire dynasty. Recently re-released, discover the book that inspired George R.R. Martin’s epic Game of Thrones series. (HarperCollins, £14.99)

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Antony Marra

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Antony Marra

Short story writer Anthony Marra’s first novel is set in the Russian republic of Chechnya, where 8-year-old Havaa and her neighbour Akhmed go on the run after Havaa’s father is abducted by Russian soldiers in the middle of the night. When the pair turn up on the doorstep of tough-minded doctor Sonja Rabina she is reluctant to help. However, in five extraordinary days Sonja's world is shifted on its axis, revealing the intricate connections that bind these three unlikely companions together and unexpectedly decides their fate. (Hogarth, £14.99)

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