Before We Hit the Ground by Selali Fiamanya
Set across Ghana, Scotland and England, Before We Hit the Ground is a tender, multigenerational novel about identity, homosexuality, faith and the many forms of love. It follows the life of Elom, a sensitive young man who struggles to understand love and find his place in the world. From the start, we know Elom has died — this revelation frames the story as both elegy and emotional excavation, as we trace the decades that shaped him and those he leaves behind.
Selali Fiamanya’s writing is lyrical yet precise, moving between perspectives to paint a rich portrait of a Ghanaian British family shaped by displacement, silence and devotion. There are no easy answers here, only moments of quiet understanding. Elom’s sexuality is handled with nuance and grace, particularly in the context of cultural and religious expectation.
The novel is particularly strong in its portrayal of the pressures of growing up between cultures and the often-unspoken dynamics within immigrant families. It’s a moving, well-structured story about connection, identity and the limits of understanding — even among those closest to us. It also explores the weight of unspoken emotion: what remains unsaid between parents and children, between siblings, between lovers. Fiamanya asks a central question: how do we live with love when it doesn’t take the shape we expected?
Heartbreaking yet full of compassion, Before We Hit the Ground is a powerful debut that speaks to anyone who has ever searched for belonging and found it in the messiness of being human.
Fiamanya, who was born in Glasgow and has Ghanaian heritage, is also a doctor in training, and he brings both emotional insight and lived experience to this deeply personal novel.
Deep Cuts by Holly Brickley
Deep Cuts is a smart, engaging debut novel by Holly Brickley that explores the blurred lines between creative partnership and romantic connection. Set between 2000 and 2008, the story follows Percy Marks, a sharp, opinionated music lover with no musical talent of her own, and Joe Morrow, a rising singer-songwriter who values her critical input.
The two meet as students at Berkeley and form a close bond built around Joe’s music and Percy’s ability to improve it. As the years go by, their partnership deepens creatively and emotionally, but never quite lands in one category. They write songs together, share credit unevenly and confront shifting boundaries as Joe gains fame and Percy searches for her place in the music world. At the heart of the novel is Percy’s question: is she part of Joe’s success or simply a bystander?
The book also follows Percy’s personal and professional life as she moves to New York, runs a music blog and tries to build a writing career while grappling with what success actually looks like. Alongside Percy’s evolving relationship with Joe, Brickley explores her close friendship with Joe’s ex, Zoe, and her more stable — though less intense — relationship with a boyfriend named Raj.
Brickley, a Canadian writer based in Portland, captures the early 2000s indie scene with accuracy and affection. Her writing is clear and observant, with a dry sense of humour. Deep Cuts is a thoughtful look at creativity, credit, and what happens when personal ambition and emotional ties collide.
Tilt by Emma Pattee
Emma Pattee’s debut, Tilt, is a tense, absorbing story about disaster in real time. Set over the course of 24 hours, it follows Annie, who is nine months pregnant and shopping for a crib at Ikea when a major earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. With no phone, no transport, and the city in chaos, Annie sets out on foot to find her husband, traversing a devastated city as she goes.
The plot is straightforward but compelling, driven by Annie’s need to survive and reconnect. Alongside the physical journey, we get a clear sense of her emotional state. Through short flashbacks and inner monologue — narrated to her unborn child “Bean” — Annie reflects on her relationship, her career and her mixed feelings about becoming a parent. Pattee handles these shifts in tone with care, and the book keeps a steady pace.
The writing is direct and engaging. Pattee avoids melodrama, even when describing the chaos or Annie’s panic. She’s a particularly well-drawn character, flawed, determined and relatable.
Tilt works as both a survival story and a character study. The disaster backdrop raises the stakes but never overwhelms the real focus, which is what Annie learns about herself. The ending may tie things up a bit too neatly for some, but the journey is worth it.
Pattee, a climate journalist by background, brings a sense of realism to both the environmental setting and the personal stakes in this solid, thoughtful first novel.
The Hymn to Dionysus by Natasha Pulley
Natasha Pulley reimagines the myth of the Greek god Dionysus with originality, emotional depth and a strong focus on character. Set in Bronze Age Thebes, The Hymn to Dionysus is a story about gods, war, trauma and love, told through the eyes of Phaidros, a soldier raised to obey who’s still carrying the scars of the Trojan War.
The novel begins with a rescue. Phaidros helps his commander save a mysterious baby from a fire, rumoured to be a child of Zeus. Years later, that child returns as Dionysus — now a strange, charismatic figure about whom chaos and transformation seem to swirl. As Thebes faces drought, unrest and political tension, Phaidros must decide where his loyalties lie: with the fading structures of duty and monarchy or with something more unruly, more human and possibly divine.
The mythology is present, but this is very much a fantasy novel. Pulley draws on familiar names and stories, but the focus is on people and how they cope with trauma, power, love and uncertainty. Phaidros is a strong lead, pragmatic, scarred, and torn between what he’s been taught and what he begins to feel. Dionysus is deliberately ambiguous — sometimes kind, sometimes chaotic. Their relationship is carefully drawn, full of tension and tenderness.
Pulley is known for blending historical settings with fantasy elements (The Watchmaker of Filigree Street) and she brings the same care and craft here. Some may find the politics a bit dense, but the reward is a rich, layered novel.
The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji
Sanam Mahloudji’s debut novel, The Persians, is a layered family saga that spans continents, generations and political upheaval. Centred on the Valiat family — once prominent in Iran, now scattered across the US and Tehran — it follows five women grappling with loss, identity and the weight of their shared history.
Opening with an absurd twist in Aspen, where Shirin, a flamboyant exile, is arrested for soliciting a police officer, the novel quickly reveals deeper tensions. Shirin’s daughters, Seema and Bita, are adapting to American life with varying degrees of disillusionment. Back in Tehran, Shirin’s niece Niaz lives with the everyday restrictions faced by women under the Islamic Republic, while her grandmother Elizabeth reflects on a life shaped by secrets.
Told from multiple perspectives, the book balances humour and heartache. The women are not always likable but they are always compelling. Shirin, in particular, is unpredictable and dramatic, sometimes tragic. Niaz, meanwhile, quietly becomes the novel’s most powerful presence, through her awareness of political reality and generational failure.
Mahloudji writes with sharpness and warmth, showing how exile, privilege and trauma shape each woman differently. The story doesn’t resolve neatly, and the result is an honest portrayal of how history fractures families and personal identity.
Born in Tehran and now living in London, Mahloudji brings personal insight and emotional complexity to this cross-cultural tale.
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