Serpent's Tail

The best new debut novels — ghosts, down-at-heel aristos and a dead pingpong prodigy Tales of a spooky Norfolk village, a shamanic Nigerian astrophysicist — plus the ethics of fiction as murderous revenge

'Coolly questions the ethics and processes of fiction and art, examining the toll they take both on the practitioner and anyone unlucky enough to be in their orbit'

#Discipline by Larissa Pham is an FT best new debut novel, out now in hardback.

www.ft.com/content/735f...

A rectangular landscape graphic with an orange background. The cover for the paperback book Saraswati by Gurnaik Johal is on the left-hand side. The text to the right of this cover reads, 'Blackwell's Fiction Book of the Month. Saraswati. Gurnaik Johal'. There is a dark blue banner at the bottom of the graphic that reads, 'Buy instore or online at Blackwells.co.uk'.

We are over the moon that #Saraswati by Gurnaik Johal has been chosen as Blackwell's Fiction Book of the Month for March! ✨

Dive into this globe-trotting family saga exploring nationalism, climate change and folklore, now: tinyurl.com/SaraswatiBlackwells

Revealed: the final four authors for our Sunday Times Young Writer Award Two novelists, an undercover journalist and an anonymous short story writer make up our 2026 shortlist

ICYMI: #Saraswati author Gurnaik Johal is one of the four writers shortlisted for the prestigious Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award.

Find out more @thetimes.com here 👇

A graphic with an orange background. The paperback book Saraswati by Gurnaik Johal is in the centre of the graphic. The text at the top of the graphic reads, 'The Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award'. The text in the bottom left-hand corner of the graphics reads, 'Gurnaik Johal, Saraswati, Serpent's Tail'.

We are pleased to share that our brilliant author Gurnaik Johal has been shortlisted for the Sunday Times Charlotte Aitken Young Writer of the Year Award for his debut novel #Saraswati 🌊

The winner will be announced on 24th March. Congratulations to all the shortlisted writers!

#YoungWriterAward

Get 25% off the #AllConsuming paperback by Ruby Tandoh, when you pre-order from @waterstones.bsky.social until 23.59 PM tonight and use code: FEB26 🍓

www.waterstones.com/book/9781800...

What’s with everyone? In “Colorín Colorado”, the final story in Camille Bordas’s new collection, One Sun Only, a creative writing teacher recounts uncomfortable interactions

'Stories of brooding, obsession and wit'

A brilliant review for Camille Bordas' short story collection #OneSunOnly in @thetls.bsky.social, out now.

Promotional graphic for Waterstones reading: “25% OFF RRP – Books Coming Soon” (Online Only, 17–20 February). Featured title: All Consuming: Why We Eat the Way We Eat Now by Ruby Tandoh. The cover shows two strawberries coated in dripping chocolate against a pink-to-orange gradient background, with review quotes and a badge noting André Simon Food & Drink Book Awards longlist.

Why do we eat the way we eat now? 🍓

🍓 ‘Laugh-out-loud funny’ Vogue
🍫 ‘Delightful snark’ New York Times

Get 25% off the #AllConsuming paperback, when you pre-order from @waterstones.bsky.social until February 20th and use code: FEB26

“In the Dream House” by Carmen Maria Machado with a glass of champagne

I put off reading this for ages because, frankly, it seemed way too heavy, but now I can’t believe I waited so long to savour this incredible book. Bold and inventive and gorgeously written, I’m in love. Book: @serpents-tail.bsky.social Drink: Edouard Duval Brut d'Eulalie

In This Novel, a Mythical River Returns to an India in Crisis

'Clamorous, inventive and polyphonic ... Saraswati is a welcome shift from the family dramas and autofictions that have tended to dominate literary renderings of India'

A stellar @nytimes.com review for #Saraswati by Gurnaik Johal 🌊

Promotional image for This Is a Love Story by Jessica Soffer. A green paperback book with pink lettering appears on the left against a pale pink background. On the right is the quote ‘A revelation’ by Liz Moore in green and pink text.

'A revelation - the kind of novel to read in one sitting' Liz Moore, bestselling author of The God of the Woods.

#ThisIsALoveStory by Jessica Soffer is out next week in paperback 💚

Pre-order your copy here:
tinyurl.com/bdhnnbff

Larissa Pham's debut novel #Discipline is out today!

Taut and provocative, the novel follows Christine, a writer touring her debut novel – a fictionalised account of an affair with her professor. When he gets in touch she's drawn back into his orbit.

serpentstail.com/work/discipl...

Discipline by Larissa Pham | The Crack Magazine Larissa Pham is an artist and writer based in Brooklyn. She’s previously had success with her non-fiction book ‘Pop Song: Adventures in Art and Intimacy’, but ‘Discipline’ is her first novel. It conce...

'Combines deep philosophical inquiry with thriller vibes'

#Discipline by Larissa Pham reviewed in The Crack Magazine. Pham's taut and provocative debut novel is out tomorrow 💚

www.thecrackmagazine.com/view-editori...

For Fane Online, I'll be talking to the brilliant author & art criticism Larissa Pham about her debut novel, Discipline (pub. @serpents-tail.bsky.social), a work about control & creativity, the blurring of fiction & fact & above all the power of painting.

Book for FREE: www.fane.co.uk/larissa-pham

One Sun Only by Camille Bordas: a truly effortless collection Stories that capture the zeitgeist, without being expressly ‘contemporary’

'I, for one, could listen to Bordas's characters talking and thinking all day. One Sun Only is a truly effortless collection'

A stunning @irishtimes.com review for Camille Bordas' #OneSunOnly, out now 🍳

Join beloved comedian Robert Newman at the Sevenoaks Bookshop where he'll be discussing his upcoming novel #Intelligence.

An irresistible novel about love, secrets and espionage, set against the backdrop of the Second World War.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/author-tal... @sevenoaksbookshop.bsky.social

An rectangular, landscape ecard with a yellow background. There is the paperback book One Sun Only by Camille Bordas on the right-hand side. The text to the left of this is a quote from the book and reads, 'I remembered that traumatized children tended never to draw the sun ... What you wanted, really, as a parent, was for your child to draw one sun and one sun only'. The Serpent's Tail logo is in the bottom, left-hand corner.

'One of the best new collections I've read in a long time' TELEGRAPH 5-STAR REVIEW

☀️

Don't miss Camille Bordas' fresh, witty and poignant short story collection #OneSunOnly, publishing today: tinyurl.com/OneSunOnly

Adam Mars-Jones · ‘I’m not a radical, Dad’: Gurnaik Johal’s ‘Saraswati’ More than one variety of omniscience is on show in Saraswati. What is referred to as an omniscient narrator is usually...

'Admirable'

A brilliant @lrb.co.uk review for Gurnaik Johal's debut novel #Saraswati 🌊

The #NightSwimmers audiobook publishes today 🐚 💙

An unconventional and moving family story, for fans of Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge or Annie Proulx's The Shipping News on the edge on the Irish Sea.

'Heaven' Katherine May
'A glowing novel' Irish Times

www.audible.co.uk/pd/Night-Swi...

Old-fashioned – and astonishing – stories from a talented young writer Camille Bordas’s new collection is a deadpan and delightful feat. Plus, the best of January’s fiction

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

'One of the best new collections I’ve read in a long time'

A stellar review for Camille Bordas' #OneSunOnly, publishing new week 🍳

Thank you very much @robertloyko-greer.bsky.social for this fantastic surprise finished copy of Intelligence by Robert Newman coming from @serpents-tail.bsky.social 5th March

serpentstail.com/work/intelli...

#TheEndOfEverything by M. John Harrison is included in the New Statesman's list of fiction to look forward to in 2026.

A slyly satirical and unsettling post-apocalyptic adventure into the limits of human understanding, out this June 🌊

www.newstatesman.com/culture/cult...

Books to look out for in 2026 – fiction Maggie O’Farrell, Yann Martel and Julian Barnes are among the authors publishing new novels this year

#TheEndOfEverything by M John Harrison is one of the Guardian's books to look out for in 2026, described as an 'unsettling destabilisation of our contemporary moment'.

This slyly satirical and unsettling post-apocalyptic adventure is out in June.

www.theguardian.com/books/2025/d...

'Whether you're a long-time lover of short stories or new to the form, you're sure to find something to love here'

#OneSunOnly by Camille Bordas is a best January read in the Daily Express 🍳

A yellow square graphic featuring the words, 'Proud to support The National Year of Reading 2026'. The Go All In logo is in the bottom right-hand corner.

Go all in. We're supporting 2026 as The National Year of Reading! 📚

Find out more here: goallin.org.uk

We're logging off now for our winter break! We hope you have a wonderful festive holiday and we'll be back in the new year ✨

The 10 Best Books Of 2025 'Audition', 'Eurotrash', 'I Regret Almost Everything’ and more; here are the novels, memoirs and travelogues our editors loved reading this year

'Awkward, sad, bizarre and genuinely funny'

#Eurotrash by Christian Kracht is a Time Out best book of 2025 ✨

Books to give to people you actually like this Christmas Novelists and editors share the titles they're handing out to loved ones this holiday

Give the gift of a book this Christmas – #AllConsuming by Ruby Tandoh and #Eurotrash by Christian Kracht are on @gqmagazine.bsky.social's list of books to give to people you actually like this festive season 📚🎁✨

Our Favorite Books of 2025 by The Paris Review December 12, 2025 – This year, we asked our contributors, our readers, our current and former interns, and other friends of the Review for their favorite books of the past year. Here’s what they said.

'A discourse on the vagaries of writing: obstacles, setbacks, successes, tricks of the trade'

#Service by John Tottenham has been picked by Nancy Lemann as a book of the year for the Paris Review! An irreverent novel about life in an LA bookshop, out now.

www.theparisreview.org/blog/2025/12...

The Best Books For When You Need To Escape Your Family Over The Festive Period Has an elderly relative just told you how fast you’ve grown up – again – even though you’re at the age where you’re doing your own tax returns? Is there a child wailing somewhere among the wrapping

#WeAreAllCompletelyBesideOurselves by Karen Joy Fowler is one Service95's books to hide in the bathroom with this Christmas 🌲📚

'An absolute masterclass in twist writing and raises all manner of moral conundrums'

www.service95.com/best-books-t...

The Festive Literary Gift Guide: Our Friends On The Books They’re Giving This Year ’Tis the season for bringing family and friends together, for celebrations and great food and – let’s be honest – gifts. No matter what you’re celebrating this year (or even if you aren’t celebrati

We are delighted to see that Denai Moore has picked #InTheDreamHouse by Carmen Maria Machado for Service95's festive literary gift lift ✨🎁

'This memoir is unlike any other: structurally inventive and untamed, beautiful writing'

www.service95.com/festive-book...