Ah, September. Summer’s wrapping up, routines are kicking back in, and it’s the perfect time to pick up a book that makes you think, feel or just escape for a bit. This month’s picks are a mix of everything – from raw, emotional stories to bold, mind-bending reads. Whether you’re catching those last warm rays or already cosying up as the nights get cooler, these are the books to dive into right now. Here’s what’s on our September reading list...
A Splintering by Dur e Aziz Amna
“A razor-sharp, emotionally charged novel about one woman’s fight to escape the confines of village life in Pakistan and claim something more. Tara escapes her violent brother and stifling village life by marrying into the middle class and moving to Pakistan’s capital. But domesticity and respectability quickly sour, and her hunger for freedom and status grows into obsession. As she chases the lives of the wealthy mothers around her, the past looms darkly. Set against political unrest and natural disaster, Dur e Aziz Amna’s novel is a fierce, unflinching portrait of class, ambition, and a woman pushed to the edge.”– Samantha de Haas, Creative Production Manager
Good & Evil & Other Stories by Samanta Schweblin
“Acclaimed American writer Lorrie Moore says, “No one writes like Samanta Schweblin,” and Samanta’s third short story collection proves why. This slim but haunting volume opens with a mother surfacing from a lake after a suicide attempt, setting the tone for six quietly unsettling tales. Each story begins with the ordinary – a family visit, childhood memory, romantic reconnection – but swiftly shifts into the strange and emotionally charged. Her characters stand at tipping points, caught between understanding and confusion, presence and disappearance. The ‘horror’ here is subtle, psychological and deeply personal – and what stayed with me wasn’t just what unfolds in these stories, but often what was left unspoken or implied. They linger like a strange aftertaste, forcing anyone who reads to confront ambiguity, dread and the raw complexity of being human.” – Lisa Harvey, Editorial Director
Half Light by Mahesh Rao
“Set on the cusp of India’s landmark ruling to decriminalise homosexuality, Mahesh Rao’s Half Light is a tender yet piercing exploration of what it means to live in the shadows of concealment. Through Pavan and Neville – two men whose paths cross at different moments in their lives – Mahesh captures the suffocating weight of secrecy, shame and longing. This isn’t a romance, but a portrait of survival in a world that criminalises your existence. I felt the ache of Pavan and Neville’s lives held back by fear, the enduring desire for connection, and the fragile hope that intimacy can still break through. – Annie Le Santo, Digital Marketing Manager
Soon Come by Kuba Shand-Baptiste
“This sparkling debut is a love-letter to British-Jamaican culture. Based on the true stories of the Windrush generation – those from Caribbean countries who were invited to help rebuild post-war Britain – it is a lyrical mediation on migration, friendship and the spaces we create when the world gives us none. A beautiful celebration of the everyday defiance and quiet dreams of London’s Caribbean community, and what it means to belong.”– Maria Padget, Book Club Director
Big Time by Jordan Prosser
“In this psychedelic rush of a debut novel set in the not-too-distant future, Australia’s eastern states have become the world’s newest autocracy – a place where pop music is propaganda, science is the enemy and moral indecency is punished with indefinite detention. This is the world in which Julian Ferryman and his band, The Acceptables, produce inoffensive music, approved by the algorithm. Yet on a whirlwind tour of the east coast, Julian gets hooked on a new designer drug, F: a powerful synthetic hallucinogen that gives users a glimpse of their own future. With echoes of Jennifer Egan, Philip K Dick and even Black Mirror, this is a wildly funny and anarchic read.” – Maria Padget, Book Club Director
