Fever Beach by Carl Hiaasen
Fever Beach, Carl Hiaasen’s latest satirical novel, is a blistering send-up of modern extremism, corruption and delusion in a deeply dysfunctional Florida. Set in the fictional town of Tangelo Shores, the story revolves around Dale Figgo, a white nationalist so inept he’s kicked out of the Proud Boys for smearing dog faeces on the wrong statue. Figgo now leads a hapless hate group called the Strokerz for Liberty, whose antics range from absurd to dangerous.
Caught in his orbit is Viva Morales, a smart, progressive woman stuck renting a room from Figgo while working at a corrupt philanthropic foundation. She becomes entwined with Twilly Spree, a volatile but well-meaning millionaire environmentalist, and together they attempt to unravel a bizarre web of political deceit, dodgy charities and rising far-right influence.
The plot includes a sleazy congressman named Clure Boyette, billionaire benefactors with fascist leanings, a sex-toy smuggling operation and a failed plan to intimidate voters. It’s a farce teeming with over-the-top characters yet grounded in the uncomfortable reality of modern America’s political and cultural fractures.
Hiaasen blends slapstick humour with sharp political commentary, skewering everything from performative patriotism to the misuse of philanthropy as a tool for influence. The satire is biting, sometimes uncomfortable, but often laugh-out-loud funny. In the end, Fever Beach is both chaotic and cathartic. It’s a wild ride that exposes the absurdities of hate and the resilience of those who refuse to give in to it. It’s peak Hiaasen: irreverent, incisive and wickedly entertaining.
Checking Out by Meryem El Mehdati
Checking Out is a sharply observed, darkly funny debut by Meryem El Mehdati, set in the Canary Islands and translated from Spanish by Julia Sanches. Twenty-five-year-old Meryem, the daughter of Moroccan immigrants, is stuck in a demoralising admin job at Supersaurio, the largest supermarket chain in the region.
Meryem is overqualified, underpaid and increasingly bitter. With three degrees to her name, she had imagined a life of purpose or at least some excitement, not one filled with soul-sapping office work, a passive-aggressive boss and colleagues who still can't pronounce her name.
She spends her days enduring casual racism, sexist assumptions and the daily grind of a workplace that never expected her to succeed. Her only outlets are fantasising about disasters befalling her enemies, crying in the storeroom and, more unexpectedly, a growing interest in Omar — a charming, complicated and unexpectedly human high-ranking manager.
As Meryem moves from intern to temp to permanent employee, she begins to realise what’s being lost in the process: not just time and energy, but a sense of self. Beneath the dry humour and sharp commentary, this is a story about alienation, cultural identity and the quiet devastation of low expectations.
El Mehdati writes with wit, anger and tenderness in this vivid portrait of what it means to feel out of place both at work and in your own hometown. Meryem’s voice is biting and relatable, a strong reminder that ambition doesn’t always survive the workplace intact.
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
In Atmosphere, Taylor Jenkins Reid tells the story of 34-year-old Joan Goodwin, an astrophysics professor who joins one of Nasa’s first astronaut training programmes to include women. At Houston’s Johnson Space Center, Joan trains alongside a small group of candidates: Top Gun pilot Hank Redmond, mission specialists Lydia Danes and John Griffin, and Vanessa Ford, a brilliant but reserved aeronautical engineer.
Joan is used to excelling, but space training brings unexpected physical and emotional pressures. As she adapts to the demands of the programme, she forms a close relationship with another trainee, forcing her to confront her sexuality for the first time. Reid has spoken openly about drawing on her own later-in-life coming out, giving this storyline added depth and authenticity.
Outside Nasa, Joan remains deeply involved in the lives of her sister and young niece, often stepping in as a second parent. That emotional responsibility complicates her approach to risk, ambition and commitment. These tensions come to a head as the team prepares for the 1984 launch of mission STS-LR9, a turning point that will determine Joan’s future.
While the novel includes accurate historical and technical detail, its heart lies in Joan’s personal evolution. As in The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones & the Six, Reid focuses on character and connection. Atmosphere is a thoughtful exploration of identity and duty, and a moving tribute to the women who made space history.
When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa Ridzén
When the Cranes Fly South is a moving and understated novel by Swedish author Lisa Ridzén, translated into English by Alice Menzies. It tells the story of 89-year-old Bo, a man living alone in a small village in northern Sweden. His wife, Fredrika, is in a care home with advanced dementia and no longer recognises him.
His body is weakening, his memory unreliable, and his world has shrunk to a quiet routine of care visits, phone calls with his old friend Ture, and short walks with his ageing, beloved elkhound, Sixten.
When his son Hans suggests that the dog be rehomed for Bo’s safety, it feels like one loss too many. Bo resists, not out of pride but because he sees in Sixten a part of his life he can still manage. Told from Bo’s perspective, with short excerpts from the carers’ logbooks offering a contrasting outside view, the novel captures the tension between needing help and wanting to stay in charge of your own life. Ridzén portrays old age without sentimentality, showing how easily the elderly can feel invisible, even to those who care.
Based on her own experience supporting her grandfather at the end of his life, When the Cranes Fly South is a powerful and compassionate look at ageing and the everyday things that make life feel worth holding onto.
The Village Indian by Vanessa Govender
SA journalist Vanessa Govender’s memoir The Village Indian offers a straightforward, often humorous look at family life in a small rural village. After years in high-pressure newsrooms, Govender moves with her husband and children to a quiet part of KwaZulu-Natal. The shift brings a different set of challenges, from school drop-offs and unreliable electricity to close neighbours and even closer gossip networks.
The book focuses on raising a mixed-race family in a tight-knit community where everyone knows your business. Govender reflects on her Indian identity and how her childhood and career influence how she parents and lives.
She writes openly about marriage, motherhood, frustration and the reality of giving up a certain kind of professional life to focus on family.
Each chapter covers a different moment or theme: encounters with snakes, cultural misunderstandings, parenting highs and lows, and the complex relationships that come with village life. The writing is honest, plain-spoken, and sharply observant, often highlighting the contrast between public appearances and private struggles.
While lighter in tone than her previous book, Beaten But Not Broken, this memoir still tackles serious themes of identity and how past trauma affects the present.
The Village Indian is also a portrait of SA village life, where social expectations, family structures and community ties shape daily experience. It’s a relatable story about adapting to change, finding your place, and learning to live on your own terms.
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