Northants, Leics &amp; Rutland


<div class="wp-block-create-block-muddy-shopping" data-title-side="right" data-block-type="1"><div class="shopping-spotlight-large" data-order="1"><div class="shopping-item-card large-item"><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/katabasis-r-f-kuang/14b1f7ed1933fafe" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><div class="product-image sticky"><img decoding="async" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/09/KATABASIS-RF-KUANG-copy.jpg" alt="KATABASIS RF KUANG" /><div class="shopping-item-card--shader"></div><div class="shopping-item-card--overlay"><h6>Katabasis by R.F. Kuang</h6><p class="shopping-item-card--brand">HarperVoyager</p><p class="shopping-item-card--price">£22</p></div></div></a></div></div><div class="shopping-spotlight-small"><div><p><strong>KATABASIS, by R.F. Kuang</strong></p><p>The campus novel has always loosely inhabited something of a bleak space on the shelf &#8211; think The Secret History or Normal People &#8211; so it&#8217;s not a huge stretch to get to the terrifying inverted ivory tower underworld Kuang has rendered in Katabasis (an ancient Greek term referring to a decent into the abyss). Skewering the world of academia much in the way she skewered publishing in her bestselling Yellowface, Katabasis is richly textured and darkly humorous. </p><p>Published by HarperVoyager 26 August 2025.</p></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-create-block-muddy-shopping" data-title-side="left" data-block-type="1"><div class="shopping-spotlight-large" data-order="0"><div class="shopping-item-card large-item"><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/helm-sarah-hall/7746708" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><div class="product-image sticky"><img decoding="async" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/09/Helm-Sarah-Hall.jpeg" alt="Helm Sarah Hall" /><div class="shopping-item-card--shader"></div><div class="shopping-item-card--overlay"><h6>Helm by Sarah Hall</h6><p class="shopping-item-card--brand">Faber &amp; Faber</p><p class="shopping-item-card--price">£20</p></div></div></a></div></div><div class="shopping-spotlight-small"><div><p><strong>HELM, by Sarah Hall</strong></p><p>A novel twenty years in the making, Helm posits the Helm Wind as its central character &#8211; Tom Cox did similar in Villager with his landscape narrator, but perhaps Helm resides in a somewhat more furrow-browed space, though there are similar themes of our human connection to the earth and its elements. Hall&#8217;s writing is impressively woven and yet it flows, like the wind itself though the Eden Valley in which the novel is set, across the millennia. </p><p>Published by Faber &amp; Faber on 28 August 2025.</p></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-create-block-muddy-shopping" data-title-side="right" data-block-type="1"><div class="shopping-spotlight-large" data-order="1"><div class="shopping-item-card large-item"><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/indignity-a-life-reimagined-lea-ypi/81e61b870621130e" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><div class="product-image sticky"><img decoding="async" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/09/Indignity-Lea-Ypi.jpg" alt="Indignity Lea Ypi" /><div class="shopping-item-card--shader"></div><div class="shopping-item-card--overlay"><h6>Indignity by Lea Ypi</h6><p class="shopping-item-card--brand">Allen Lane</p><p class="shopping-item-card--price">£22</p></div></div></a></div></div><div class="shopping-spotlight-small"><div><p><strong>INDIGNITY, by Lea Ypi</strong></p><p>This is more creative non-fiction, but it really deserves a read if you love to be immersed in beautifully crafted storytelling. Indignity tells the story of a photograph the author comes across on Facebook of her own grandmother, living the high life in Mussolini&#8217;s Italy. Cue: a reimagining of the life of the grandmother Ypi thought she knew in a sweeping, novelistic style &#8211; a style that has previous bagged Ypi the Ondaatje prize for her memoir, Free. The paper trail doesn&#8217;t give up all of its ghosts, but the journey Ypi takes her reader on is richly compelling.</p><p>Published by Allen Lane on 4 Sept 2025</p></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-create-block-muddy-shopping" data-title-side="left" data-block-type="1"><div class="shopping-spotlight-large" data-order="0"><div class="shopping-item-card large-item"><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/it-was-the-way-she-said-it-short-stories-essays-and-wisdom-ishmael-reed/da7e46c9029b7d00" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><div class="product-image sticky"><img decoding="async" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/09/It-was-the-way-she-said-it-terry-mcmillan.jpeg" alt="It was the way she said it terry mcmillan" /><div class="shopping-item-card--shader"></div><div class="shopping-item-card--overlay"><h6>It Was The Way She Said It by Terry McMillan</h6><p class="shopping-item-card--brand">Ballantine Books Inc.</p><p class="shopping-item-card--price">£20</p></div></div></a></div></div><div class="shopping-spotlight-small"><div><p><strong>IT WAS THE WAY SHE SAID IT, by Terry McMillan</strong></p><p>Author of big hitters like How Stella Got Her Groove Back and Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan is one of those writers who has plenty to say about contemporary culture, often framing her stories around the pursuit of romance, but smashing the glass as she does so. This new collection of stories, essays and speeches, spanning McMillan&#8217;s career, is a deep dive into the times we&#8217;re living in &#8211; recommended reading for avid fans of McMillan&#8217;s beloved novels.</p><p>Published by Ballantine Books on 9 Sept 2025.</p></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-create-block-muddy-shopping" data-title-side="right" data-block-type="1"><div class="shopping-spotlight-large" data-order="1"><div class="shopping-item-card large-item"><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/what-we-can-know-ian-mcewan/7824205" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><div class="product-image sticky"><img decoding="async" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/09/What-we-can-know-Ian-McEwan.jpg" alt="What we can know Ian McEwan" /><div class="shopping-item-card--shader"></div><div class="shopping-item-card--overlay"><h6>What We Can Know by Ian McEwan</h6><p class="shopping-item-card--brand">Jonathan Cape</p><p class="shopping-item-card--price">£22</p></div></div></a></div></div><div class="shopping-spotlight-small"><div><p><strong>WHAT WE CAN KNOW, by Ian McEwan</strong></p><p>Dystopian dread, the terrifying consequences of bad decisions &#8211; is there a theme developing in this season&#8217;s new fiction? This time it&#8217;s Ian McEwan turn, back with his perpetual sense of hopeless longing in this new novel, set a hundred years in the catastrophic future and looking back towards somewhat a nostalgic past (ie. today) in which fiction is undergoing a crisis of identity, It&#8217;s all very meta. </p><p>Published by Jonathan Cape on 16 Sept 2025.</p></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-create-block-muddy-shopping" data-title-side="left" data-block-type="1"><div class="shopping-spotlight-large" data-order="0"><div class="shopping-item-card large-item"><a href="https://www.wildhuntbooks.co.uk/books/p/theretreat/9781068563126" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><div class="product-image sticky"><img decoding="async" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/09/The-Retreat-Wild-Hunt-Books-copy.jpg" alt="The Retreat by Gemma Fairclough Wild Hunt Books" /><div class="shopping-item-card--shader"></div><div class="shopping-item-card--overlay"><h6>The Retreat by Gemma Fairclough</h6><p class="shopping-item-card--brand">Wild Hunt Books</p><p class="shopping-item-card--price">£12.99</p></div></div></a></div></div><div class="shopping-spotlight-small"><div><p><strong>THE RETREAT, by Gemma Fairclough</strong></p><p>Fancy dipping in to the dark side of wellness culture? The Retreat is the latest book to be released as part of publisher Wild Hunt Books&#8217; <em>Northern Weird</em> project, examining just that. Presented as a collection of blog posts, interview transcripts, news articles and letters, the novella is a Gothic thriller, piecing together the investigations of Richard, an avid rambler, into an exclusive wellness retreat that may have been responsible for his sister&#8217;s death over three decades ago. </p><p>Published by Wild Hunt Books on 18 Sept 2025</p></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-create-block-muddy-shopping" data-title-side="right" data-block-type="1"><div class="shopping-spotlight-large" data-order="1"><div class="shopping-item-card large-item"><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/cursed-daughters-the-glittering-follow-up-to-the-sensation-my-sister-the-serial-killer-oyinkan-braithwaite/7882562" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><div class="product-image sticky"><img decoding="async" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/09/CURSED-DAUGHTERS.jpg" alt="Oyinkan Braithwaite, Cursed Daughters" /><div class="shopping-item-card--shader"></div><div class="shopping-item-card--overlay"><h6>Cursed Daughters by Oyinkan Braithwaite</h6><p class="shopping-item-card--brand">Atlantic</p><p class="shopping-item-card--price">£18.99</p></div></div></a></div></div><div class="shopping-spotlight-small"><div><p><strong>CURSED DAUGHTERS, by Oyinkan Braithwaite</strong></p><p>Oyinkan&#8217;s highly anticipated follow-up to 2018&#8217;s My Sister, The Serial Killer, Cursed Daughters follows the fate of the women in the wealthy Falodin family in upper-class Lagos, who believe they&#8217;ve been cursed to never find love. It&#8217;s a tragic, cross-generational family saga about self-determination vs. folklore, written in lusciously crafted prose with just enough arch-humour to keep you turning those pages.</p><p>Published by Atlantic on 25 September 2025.</p></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-create-block-muddy-shopping" data-title-side="left" data-block-type="1"><div class="shopping-spotlight-large" data-order="0"><div class="shopping-item-card large-item"><a href="https://www.moistbooks.com/books/p/ghostdriver" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><div class="product-image sticky"><img decoding="async" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/09/ghostdrivermoist.jpg" alt="Ghost Drive Nell Osborne" /><div class="shopping-item-card--shader"></div><div class="shopping-item-card--overlay"><h6>Ghost Driver by Nell Osborne</h6><p class="shopping-item-card--brand">Moist Books</p><p class="shopping-item-card--price">£12</p></div></div></a></div></div><div class="shopping-spotlight-small"><div><p><strong>GHOST DRIVER, by Nell Osborne</strong></p><p>Fiction for the more intrepid reader, with echoes of Sartre and Kafka, there&#8217;s a sense we&#8217;re living through the protagonist Malory&#8217;s fever dream, with a blurring of reality and a good helping of body horror. Osborne examines the numbing of experience and the performative nature of modern life. If you&#8217;re looking for a jolly romp of a page turner, this probably isn&#8217;t it, but if you fancy something a bit murky and thought-provoking, it may flick the switch you&#8217;re looking for.</p><p>Published by Moist Books on 30 Sept 2025.</p></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-create-block-muddy-shopping" data-title-side="right" data-block-type="1"><div class="shopping-spotlight-large" data-order="1"><div class="shopping-item-card large-item"><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/heap-earth-upon-it-chloe-michelle-howarth/7c8017b243e972c1" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><div class="product-image sticky"><img decoding="async" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/09/Heap-Earth-Upon-It.jpg" alt="Heap Earth Upon It" /><div class="shopping-item-card--shader"></div><div class="shopping-item-card--overlay"><h6>Heap Earth Upon It by Chloe Michelle Howarth </h6><p class="shopping-item-card--brand">Verve</p><p class="shopping-item-card--price">£16.99</p></div></div></a></div></div><div class="shopping-spotlight-small"><div><p><strong>HEAP EARTH UP ON IT, by Chloe Michelle Howarth</strong></p><p>This intense, atmospheric and sometimes claustrophobic narrative examines themes of shame and repression in 1960s rural Ireland, and one family&#8217;s struggle towards a brighter future that may never find them. There&#8217;s desperate desire, long-held secrets and dark obsession and Howarth picks out the period details so wonderfully. If you love Claire Keegan&#8217;s stories, this is definitely one to get the juices flowing. </p><p>Published by Verve on 30 October 2025.</p></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-create-block-muddy-shopping" data-title-side="left" data-block-type="1"><div class="shopping-spotlight-large" data-order="0"><div class="shopping-item-card large-item"><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-eleventh-hour-salman-rushdie/1ffb60c6c6c4d341" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><div class="product-image sticky"><img decoding="async" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/northantsleicsrutland/wp-content/uploads/sites/26/2025/09/Salman-Rushdie-the-eleventh-hour.jpg" alt="Salman Rushdie the eleventh hour" /><div class="shopping-item-card--shader"></div><div class="shopping-item-card--overlay"><h6>The Eleventh Hour by Salman Rushdie</h6><p class="shopping-item-card--brand">Jonathan Cape</p><p class="shopping-item-card--price">£18.99</p></div></div></a></div></div><div class="shopping-spotlight-small"><div><p><strong>THE ELEVENTH HOUR, by Salman Rushdie</strong></p><p>This new collection of five short stories is all about, you guessed it, death. Or rather, how we humans might experience the final chapter of our lives. Peace, acceptance, denial, panic and rage play out across the spaces Rushdie himself has inhabited, harnessing a sense of universality. Certainly there&#8217;s a resounding echo in the collection of Rushdie&#8217;s own experiences of being in that liminal space and it is his first published fiction since he was attacked on stage in 2022.</p><p>Published by Jonathan Cape on 4 November 2025.</p></div></div></div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-buy-from-your-local-independent-bookshop">Buy from your local independent bookshop:</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.suddenlybookshop.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Suddenly on Sheaf Street</a>, Daventry</li>
</ul>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://kibworthbooks.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kibworth Books</a>, Kibworth Beauchamp</li>
</ul>



<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.oldhallbooks.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Old Hall Bookshop</a>, Brackley</li>
</ul>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/theoundlebookshop" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Oundle Bookshop,</a> Oundle</li>
</ul>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.quinnsbookshop.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Quinns Bookshop</a>, Market Harborough</li>
</ul>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://walkersbookshops.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Walkers Bookshops</a>, Stamford and Oakham</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-in-the-mood-for-more-try-these">IN THE MOOD FOR MORE? TRY THESE</h2>



<ul>
<li><a href="https://northantsleicsrutland.muddystilettos.co.uk/things-to-do/arts-culture-things-to-do/curtain-up-the-hottest-arts-culture-events-in-northants-leics-rutland-this-autumn/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Curtain up! The hottest arts &amp; culture events in Northants, Leics &amp; Rutland this autumn</a></li>



<li><a href="https://northantsleicsrutland.muddystilettos.co.uk/eat-out/local-producers/nice-buns-local-bakeries-we-love-in-honour-of-gbbo/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nice buns! Local bakeries we love</a></li>



<li><a href="https://northantsleicsrutland.muddystilettos.co.uk/lifestyle/fashion-lifestyle/all-change-new-season-fashion-buys-from-local-boutiques/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">All change! New season fashion buys from local boutiques</a></li>
</ul>


Turn over a new leaf: 10 fresh new fiction books to read this autumn

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