The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

When her city falls to the Greeks, Briseis’s old life is shattered. She is transformed from queen to captive, awarded to the god-like warrior Achilles as a prize of war. And she’s not alone. In the course of a long and bitter war, innumerable women have been wrested from their homes and flung to the fighters. The Trojan War is known as a man’s story. But what of the women in this story, silenced by history?

As with Madeline Miller’s Circe, released earlier this year, which gave a voice to a woman derided throughout history as an evil witch, Booker Prize-winner Pat Barker seeks to reimagine the Trojan War through the eyes of women.

Release date: 30th August

Bitter Orange by Claire Fuller

1969. Frances is spending the summer on the top floor of a dilapidated English country house, writing a report on the follies in the garden for the absent American owner. As Frances gets to know her neighbours Cara and Peter, they spend long evenings together eating lavish dinners and drinking bottle after bottle of wine. But as the hot summer rolls on, it becomes clear that not everything is right between Cara and Peter.

From the author of Our Endless Numbered Days and Swimming Lessons comes a new thriller about loneliness and belonging. Author Ruth Ware has called it ‘a rich, dark pressure cooker of a novel that simmers with slow heat and suppressed tension’.

Release date: 2nd August

Vox by Christina Dalcher

On the day the government decrees that women are no longer allowed more than one hundred words per day, Dr Jean McClellan is in denial. This can’t happen here. Not in America. Not to her. But this is just the beginning. Soon women are not permitted to hold jobs. Girls are not taught to read or write. For herself, her daughter, and every woman silenced, Jean will reclaim her voice.

With obvious connections to the immensely popular The Handmaid’s Tale, Vox has been voted as one of Good Morning America’s ‘best books to bring to the beach this summer’. It promises to be both thrilling and poignant.

Release date: 21st August

The Way of All Flesh by Ambrose Parry

Edinburgh, 1847. In the city’s Old Town a number of young women have been found dead. Across the city in the New Town, medical student Will Raven is about to start his apprenticeship with the renowned Dr Simpson. It is in Simpson’s house that Raven meets housemaid Sarah Fisher. She has all of Raven’s intelligence but none of his privileges. With each having their own motive to look deeper into the spate of suspicious deaths, Raven and Sarah find themselves propelled headlong into the darkest shadows of Edinburgh’s underworld.

I love a good historical thriller and this debut novel promises to be darkly atmospheric. Bestselling author Stuart MacBride has called it ‘everything you could possibly want in a historical crime fiction novel with extra thrills and chills on the side’.

Release date: 30th August

Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini

On a moonlit beach a father cradles his sleeping son as they wait for dawn to break and a boat to arrive. He speaks to his boy of the long summers of childhood, recalling his grandfather’s house in Syria. And he remembers, too, the bustling city of Homs with its crowded lanes, its mosque and grand souk, in the days before the sky spat bombs and they had to flee. When the sun rises they and those around them will gather their possessions and embark on a perilous sea journey in search of a new home.

This new book from the bestselling author of The Kite Runner is an illustrated short work of fiction for all ages, and promises to be extremely relevant to today.

Release date: 30th August

Pieces of Her by Karin Slaughter

Andrea knows everything about her mother, Laura. She knows she’s always lived in the small town of Belle Isle; she knows she’s a pillar of the community; she knows she’s never kept a secret in her life. Then one day, a trip to the mall explodes into a shocking act of violence and Andy suddenly sees a completely different side to Laura. Hours later, Laura is in hospital. Andy must go on a desperate race to uncover the secrets of her mother’s past.

International bestselling author Karin Slaughter returns with a psychological thriller that promises to please fans both old and new.

Release date: 9th August

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

The city of Tevanne runs on scrivings, industrialised magical inscriptions that make inanimate objects sentient. Scrivings have brought enormous progress and wealth – but only to the four merchant Houses who control them. Everyone else is a servant or a slave. There’s not much in the way of work for an escaped slave like Sancia Grado, but she has an unnatural talent that makes her one of the best thieves in the city. When she’s offered a lucrative job to steal an ancient artefact from a heavily guarded warehouse, Sancia agrees – but finds herself the target of a murderous conspiracy.

This is the first book in a new epic fantasy series and promises intricate world-building, an inventive magic system and thrilling heists.

Release date: 23rd August

Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller

One rain-swept February night in 1809, an unconscious man is carried into a house in Somerset. He is Captain John Lacroix, home from Britain’s disastrous campaign against Napoleon’s forces in Spain. Gradually Lacroix recovers his health, but not his peace of mind. After the command comes to return to his regiment, he sets out instead for the Hebrides. But he has far worse to fear than being dragged back to the army: a vicious English corporal and a Spanish officer are on his trail, with orders to kill.

This new book by the Costa Award-winning author of Pure is highly anticipated and promises both historical detail and a nail-biting chase.

Release date: 23rd August

His Favourites by Kate Walbert

They were on a lark, three teenage girls speeding across the greens at night on a ‘borrowed’ golf cart, drunk. The cart crashes and one of the girls lands violently in the rough, killed instantly. The driver, Jo, flees the hometown that has turned against her and enrols at a prestigious boarding school. Her past weighs on her. But she is ready to begin again, far away from the accident.

National Book Award finalist Kate Walbert’s new novel is about a teenage girl, a charismatic teacher, and a dark secret.

Release date: 14th August

The Fall of Gondolin of JRR Tolkien

The city Gondolin was built and peopled by Noldorin Elves who, when they dwelt in Valinor, the land of the gods, rebelled against their rule and fled to Middle-earth. Now Morgoth, of the uttermost evil, seeks to discover the marvellously hidden city – and destroy it.

Tolkien’s son Christopher has once again edited his father’s words to create a coherent story, the ‘first real story of this imaginary world’, and will mark a welcome return to Middle-earth for many readers.

Release date: 30th August