The main protagonist of Douglas Stuart's novel, John of John, is John-Calum (Cal) Macleod, a 22-year-old closeted gay man, a recent graduate of the Edinburgh College of Art with a degree in textiles. Although brilliantly talented and at the top of his class, he's unable to find a job and has been relying on the charity of friends ("surfing from one settee to the next, waiting for them to leave for work, so he could forage like a wood mouse, taking just enough food to sate his hunger but never so much as to get caught"). In his weekly phone call with his father, John, he learns that his grandmother's health is failing, and John insists that his son return to the family croft to take over her care. … continued

Review by Kim Kovacs

The Hill is very loosely based on author Harriet Clark's experiences as a girl visiting her mother, Judith Clark, in prison. Judith Clark's crime was driving a getaway car during the robbery of a Brink's truck that was making deliveries to banks. One guard and two police officers were killed. In the novel, Suzanna's mother went to prison for participating in a bank robbery. In both cases, the crime was politically motivated.

Judith Clark was a member of the Weather Underground, a Marxist guerrilla organization that branched off from the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) in 1969. … continued

Article by Lisa Butts

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From the Jacket

Twin sisters Clara and Dempsey have always struggled to relate, their familial bond severed after their mother vanished into the Thames. In adulthood, they are content to be all but estranged, until Clara sees a woman who looks exactly like their mother on the streets of London. The catch: this version of Serene, aged not a day, has enjoyed a childless life.

In her riveting first foray into fiction, Yrsa Daley-Ward conjures a kaleidoscopic multiverse of daughterhood and mother-want, exploring the sacrifices that Black women must make for self-actualization.