London Book Fair Briefcase 2015 Opiiniion - LBF Tuesday, 7th April 2015 BookBrunch asked literary agents for their hot titles for the 2015 London Book Fair. Aiitken Allexander Sara Baume's SPILL SIMMER FALTER WITHER (published in Ireland by Tramp Press) is a story about a man, a dog, and loneliness (Wm Heinemann UK). ADDLANDS by Tom Bullllough is about two generations of a farming family as modernity encroaches (Granta UK; Random House US). Cllare Cllark's new novel is WE THAT ARE LEFT, which explores the devastating after-effects on a family of the First World War (Harvill Secker UK; Houghton Mifflin Harcourt US; Flammarion France; Hoffman & Campe Germany). A LITTLE LIFE by Hanya Yanagiihara traces the fortunes of four school friends over three decades in New York as they move from adolescence to grapple with money, addiction, sex and success (Picador UK; Doubleday US). POSTCAPITALISM by Channel 4 Economics Editor Paull Mason argues that from the ashes of the financial crisis, we have the chance to create a more socially just and sustainable economy (Allen Lane UK; Farrar, Straus US). Andrew Wiillson's ALEXANDER MCQUEEN: BLOOD BENEATH THE SKIN is "modern fairy tale infused with the darkness of Greek Tragedy", telling the story of McQueen's battle to gain entry to the world of fashion and his rise to its heights before it destroyed him (Simon & Schuster UK; Scribner US; rights sold in Poland and China; film rights sold). Darlley Anderson Associiates In THE CURIOUS CHARMS OF ARTHUR PEPPER by Phaedra Patriick (left), 69-year-old Arthur's discovery of a mysterious charm bracelet in his late wife's possessions sends him on an epic quest to find out the truth about her secret life before they met (Mira UK; Mira US; Rocco Brazil; Btb Germany; Garzanti Italy; Luitingh- Sijthof the Netherlands; Forum Sweden). THE SILENT HOURS by Cesca Majjor is a sweeping love story set in wartime France and centring on Adeline, who sits mute in a convent with no memory of how she came to be there (Corvus WEL). BEAUTIFUL LIAR by Tara Bond is about Nina, who risks destroying everything she holds dear when she meets rich and reckless Alex Noble (Simon & Schuster UK). Diiane Banks Associiates A CAT CALLED ALFIE by Rachell Welllls is a sequel to her bestselling Alfie the Doorstep Cat (Avon UK, options in seven languages), and the theme continues in Melliissa Dalley's MOLLY AND THE CAT CAFÉ (Macmillan UK). THE HOUSE OF SECRETS is the second atmospheric "reading group novel" by Kate Riiordan, author of The Girl in the Photograph (Michael Joseph UK; HarperCollins US option; Heyne German option). www.bookbrunch.co.uk Design by: BDS Digital © BookBrunch Ltd. SEEING THE LIGHT is a narrative exploring the visual beauty, legends and science of the Northern Lights by plasma physicist Mellaniie Wiindriidge. In THE SOCIAL BRAIN, psychologist Riichard Criisp explores how evolution shaped the modern mind (Constable UK). INTO THE SUFFERSPHERE: CYCLING AND THE ART OF PAIN is amateur rider JJon Mallniick's exploration of the theory that cycling is, of all sports, the one that pushes its participants to the limits of human endurance. Bllake Friiedmann THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL by Peter JJames is a standalone ghost story by the author of the bestselling Roy Grace series (Macmillan UK). In THE CHILDREN'S HOME by Charlles Lambert, a disfigured recluse's life is changed when mysterious children begin to appear at his country estate (Scribner US). SO HAPPY IT HURTS by Annelliiese Mackiintosh chronicles a year in the life of recovering alcoholic Otilla, who has met the love of her life and is finally ready to settle down. AGAAT by Man Booker International-longlisted Marllene Van Niiekerk traces the effects of apartheid through the story of a nurse and her charge, a woman condemned to silence by a creeping paralysis (Little, Brown UK, Tin House US, eight other publishers). WHEN WE WERE AN ISLAND by UEA creative writing graduate Lora Stiimson (right) is about 17-year-old twins on a crumbling estate during a long summer. 101 DETECTIVES by IIvan Vlladiisllaviić is a new short story collection by the Windham-Campbell Prize winner (And Other Stories UK, Random House Umuzi in south Africa). Luiigii Bonomii Associiates In COMING HOME by Annabell Kantariia, a daughter discovers that her father's death is not as natural as her mother had led her to believe (Mira UK). I DO NOT SLEEP is the new novel by JJudy Fiinniigan, about a mother's search for her son following his disappearance (Little, Brown UK). When, in THE DAUGHTER'S SECRET by Eva Holllland, a girl's teacher is released from prison following their affair, her mother is convinced it will start again, and fears there will be dire consequences (Orion world). COMING UP ROSES by Rachaell Lucas is about Daisy, who, fresh from a horrible break-up, escapes to her parents' village for some peace and quiet... (Pan Macmillan UK). In SUMMER AT TIFFANY'S by Karen Swan, there is a wedding to plan, and a wedding to stop - what could go wrong? (Pan Macmillan UK). Felliiciity Bryan Associiates IIaiin Pears' ARCADIA, written specifically for the iPad and other digital platforms, is set in parallel worlds and times: Oxford in 1962, when an elderly academic, Henry Lytten, is writing a novel; the fantasy world into which Rosie, his young neighbour, ventures; a future world from which people time-travel, one to Oxford in 1962 (Faber UK; Knopf NA). Meg Rosoff's first adult novel is DUCK ZOO, about finding one's feet and falling for the wrong person (Bloomsbury UK; Viking US; Doubleday Canada). Anna Schaffner's THE TRUTH ABOUT JULIA is about an investigative journalist's attempt to understand a female terrorist who blows up a coffee shop in central London, killing 24 people, before turning herself in to the police (Allen & Unwin UK). Peter Heather's CHRISTENDOM is a monumental history exploring the 1,000 years closing in 1300 (Penguin Press world English). In THE EVOLUTION OF EVERYTHING, Matt Riidlley draws on anecdotes from science, economics, history, politics and philosophy to look at bottom-up order and its enemy, the top-down twitch (4th Estate UK; HarperCollins US; Contact the Netherlands; Beijing Huazhang Graphics & Information Co China Simplified). Edmund de Waall's first book since The Hare with Amber Eyes is THE WHITE ROAD, a personal narrative history of porcelain (Chatto UK; Farrar, Straus US; Zsolnay/Hanser Germany; Bollati Italy). www.bookbrunch.co.uk Design by: BDS Digital © BookBrunch Ltd. Capell & Land THE RIDE is the new novel by Siimon Sebag Montefiiore, and is the story of two love affairs during the Siege of Stalingrad in 1942 (Century UK). THE DETECTIVE'S SECRET is the third crime novel in a series by Leslley Thomson, and centres on two deaths, one during the storm of 1987, and the second during the month of the storm of St Jude in 2013 (Head of Zeus WEL). Former 4th Estate Publisher Chriistopher Potter's THE EARTH GAZERS is the stories of those who have seen the Earth from space (4th Estate UK). Andrew Roberts is following his biography of Napoleon with CHURCHILL - "although this will overall be a very positive biography it is certainly not going to be an uncritical one" (Allen Lane UK). Siimon Sebag Montefiiore's new non-fiction work is THE ROMANOVS, the story of the family who ruled Russia for 300 years (Weidenfeld UK; Knopf US; rights also sold in Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden). Giilles Tremllett's ISABELLA OF CASTILE is a biography of the Spanish queen who successfully overcame the obstacles to her sex in the 15th century and turned Spain into one of the first great global superpowers (Bloomsbury WEL). Conviilllle & Wallsh EVERYONE IS WATCHING by Megan Bradbury (Picador UK) guides the reader through New York via the lives of Robert Mapplethorpe, Robert Moses, Edmund White, and Walt Whitman. FOR F**K'S SAKE: THE SURPRISING SCIENCE OF OUR DIRTIEST WORDS by Dr Emma Byrne of Queen Mary College London (Profile UK) is "a spirited and hilarious defence of our dirtiest words". The hero of RATTLE by Faber Academy graduate Fiiona Cummiins (left) is a man whose son suffers from Stone Man Syndrome but who may be in danger from another, more sinister source. THE SUNSHINE CRUISE COMPANY by JJohn Niiven (Wm Heinemann UK, Heyne Germany) is about a woman who, after her husband has been found dead with a fortune in debts left behind him, decides to rob a bank with a friend. DEMOCRACY by Allecos Papadatos and Abraham Kawa is a graphic novel set on the eve of the Battle of Marathon (Bloomsbury USA, and publishers in Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Spain). "Pan's Labyrinth meets Station Eleven” in Desmond Elliott Prize-winner Allii Shaw's THE TREES, in which the hero's suburban street is transformed into a forest (Bloomsbury UK and US). Curtiis Brown Curtis Brown is certain to attract huge interest at the Fair in the sequel to Nellson Mandella's Long Walk to Freedom, based on the late South African leader's text and on archive material (Macmillan UK). Tracy Chevalliier's new novel is WINDFALL, centred on a pioneering family in the US in the 19th century (HarperCollins UK; Dutton US). SOMEWHERE INSIDE OF HAPPY by Anna McPartlliin is about a woman whose son died 25 years earlier (Transworld UK). In SISTERS AND LIES by Berniice Barriington, two sisters must piece together the events leading up to a car crash that put one of them in a coma.