Insider's Choice: New Scottish books to look out for in May

New Scottish books to look out for in May | Contributed

Agnes Owens was born on 24 May 1926, and to mark her centenary next month Edinburgh-based publisher Polygon will be re-releasing her collected works — all her novels and a collection of short stories — to rightfully celebrate a writer whose work deserves a wider audience and critical reappraisal.

Owens was a working-class woman, first published in 1984 when she was 58. She wrote of bricklayers, working mothers, drunkard husbands and the unemployed, and this, along with her own history of odds and sods jobs, seven children and two husbands, overshadowed her writing talent—as sly as Muriel Spark, as unsettling as Flannery O’ Connor—with a literary world that couldn’t get past her circumstances.

Now is the time to introduce yourself to Owens’ unsentimental urban folk tales though, with their crisp, clean prose, jet black humour and subtle defiance. Coming out in May are Gentlemen of the West, For the Love of Willie, A Working Mother and Like Birds in the Wilderness, (Polygon, 7 May, £8.99) all of which are introduced by brilliant contemporary writers. There will be more in September.

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This year also sees the centenary of the publication of Highland author Neil Gunn’s first novel, The Grey Coast. In excellent news, a new independent publisher, North House Press, is re-releasing this novel alongside two others by Gunn, The Serpent and Blood Hunt (21 May, £15). North House Press is based in the Highlands, and their aim, as well as bringing neglected classics back into focus, is to publish new, engaging literary fiction and non-fiction.

Also out this month, look out for Cast Away by Francesca De Tores (Bloomsbury Circus, 21 May, £18.99), a fictional account of the real life stranding of Alexander Selkirk in the South Pacific in 1704. And staying with the high seas, you can catch up with Alex Howard’s latest cat escapade in the charming The Ship’s Cat (Black and White, 7 May, £16.99).

If you’re after horror, there’s Suzy Aspley’s The Bone Mother (Orenda, 7 May, £9.99), or Nicholas Binge’s Abyss (Nightfire, 14 May, £14.99). Meanwhile, crime fiction fans should be excited to see the return of Jack Parlabane in Chris Brookmyre’s Quite Ugly One Evening (Abacus, 7 May, £22). There’s also a new case for DCI Alison McCoist in Callum McSorley’s Rat Race (Pushkin Vertigo, 7 May, £16.99), while Stuart MacBride’s Acting Detective Inspector Roberta Steel is looking forward to retirement in Blood, Rust and Steel (Macmillan, 21 May, £22).

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Now to the near future, and the apocalypse. In Jane Flett’s new novel, Welcome to Chaoskampf, (Doubleday, 14 May, £18.99) we meet Marcy, a Scottish ex-boxer who has run away to New Orleans after an injury has cut short her sporting career. She is bored, in a marriage that no longer satisfies, and desperate for a new adventure. She finds it when she meets a sexy, decadent gang of misfits who, like her, revel in sensory, bodily exploration. When Marcy’s husband becomes more controlling, and storms destroy Florida and Los Angeles, it’s time to run away with her new friends to their commune in Mexico — headed by the charismatic Mutti — where they can freely transgress and worship at the alter of chaos. Unfortunately, Marcy finds that systems of power and control are not so easy to escape. This is a rowdy, queer adventure story with an appealing devil-may-care attitude. Never has the end of world been rendered with such joyous, fantastical, mischievous delight.

Vikki Reilly has worked in Scottish books for over 20 years and now works for Publishing Scotland, the trade and networking body for Scotland’s book publishing sector. She also edits BooksfromScotland.com, a website that promotes the best in Scottish writing, contemporary and classic, and supports Scottish publishers and authors to find new audiences.

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