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Radio 2 Book Club - Winter Season with Sara Cox

The Radio 2 Book Club has settled in nicely to its new home with Sara Cox. As well as coverage on Sara’s show, and other shows on Radio 2, there is a weekly podcast on BBC Sounds.

The Radio 2 Book Club’s weekly podcast will shine a light on some of the best new fiction being published in the UK, across all genres. The books are chosen with help from library staff and other reading experts from across the UK to ensure a fair and unbiased selection process. On alternate weeks, the podcast will feature other great book-related content, including librarians, book clubs, readers and other fantastic guests.

As it always has done, the Radio 2 Book Club will champion new voices as well as featuring some of the most popular authors writing today, with a range of novels that listeners will love. Sara will also get an insight into the craft and writing process of the chosen authors and hear from listeners about what they have been reading and enjoying too.

We’re delighted to share the six books that will be featured in this season of the Radio 2 Book Club with Sara Cox:

A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage by Asia Mackay

Hazel and Fox are an ordinary married couple with a baby. Except for one small thing: they’re ex-serial killers.

They had it all. An enviable London lifestyle, five-star travels, and plenty of bad men to kill. Not many power couples know how to get away with murder.

Then Hazel fell pregnant and they gave it all up for life in the suburbs; dinner parties instead of body disposal.

But recently Hazel has started to feel that itch again. When she kills someone behind Fox’s back and brings the police to their door, she must do anything she can to protect her family.

This could save their marriage – unless it kills them first.

Reader comments

“I’d recommend it to anybody wanting a thrilling tale full of secrecy, potential for disaster, and vigilante vibes”
“This is a fun and original look at the problems within a marriage from an entirely unexpected perspective”
“A comic, fast-paced and engaging crime novel…very entertaining”

Nesting by Roisin O’Donnell

On a bright spring afternoon in Dublin, Ciara Fay makes a split-second decision that will change everything. Grabbing an armful of clothes from the washing line, Ciara straps her two young daughters into her car and drives away. Head spinning, all she knows for certain is that home is no longer safe.

This was meant to be an escape. But with dwindling savings, no job, and her family across the sea, Ciara finds herself adrift, facing a broken housing system and the voice of her own demons. As summer passes and winter closes in, she must navigate raising her children in a hotel room, searching for a new home and dealing with her husband Ryan’s relentless campaign to get her to come back. Because leaving is one thing, but staying away is another.

What will it take for Ciara to rebuild her life? Can she ever truly break away from Ryan’s control – and what will be the cost?

Tense, beautiful, and underpinned by an unassailable love, hope and resilience, this is the story of one woman’s bid to start over.

Reader comments

“Nesting was stark, steeped in reality with a vibrancy that I utterly loved”
“A deceptively powerful, accessible read, a real page-turner”
“Captivating throughout, well-researched with compelling storytelling”

Human, Animal by Seth Insua

Since the death of his brother, dairy farmer George Calvert has fought to keep the family business afloat. Worried about the future but resistant to change, he refuses to face the reality of his failing farm, his elderly mother’s declining health and his troubled relationship with his youngest son, Tom.

Newly returned from university, Tom isolates himself in his childhood bedroom, guarding the truth of his burgeoning identity.

When animal rights activists break into the cowshed one morning, Tom appears to side with the protesters. As the Calverts begin to unravel, a decades-old secret surfaces – one that might rip them apart completely, or finally unite them.

Reader comments

“This is a well written highly original debut”
“Engaging, dramatic, moving and emotional, a great read”
" I couldn’t put this emotional and heart-wrenching book down – it had me gripped to the end"

The Favourites by Layne Fargo

Everyone thinks Heath Rocha was my first love. He wasn’t. My first love was figure skating.

Katarina Shaw has always known she’s destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating – and each other – to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers, captivating fans with their scorching chemistry, rebellious style and rollercoaster relationship.

Until, at the Olympic Games, as the world holds its breath, a shocking incident instantly destroys their partnership.

Ten years later, an unauthorised tell-all documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha. If Kat wants to own her story, she must break her silence. As Kat’s account of her dramatic rise and fall alternates with scandalous interviews from the film, The Favourites spins into a dance between passion, ambition and what it truly means to win.

Sensational rumours have haunted Kat and Heath’s every step for years, but the truth may be even more outrageous than the headlines.

Reader comments

“Layne Fargo will be one to watch in that realm of fiction. INCREDIBLE
“This novel jumped up and slapped me in the face, proving to be anything but just another love story”
“I loved this book because I could actually picture the dances and the costumes and it is a novel about relationships, the angst and turmoil, the determination to succeed, young love developing, and finding yourself and what it is that you really want and is ultimately important and right for you”

Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis

When academic Nadia is disowned by her puritanical mother and dumped by her lover, she decides to make a getaway – accepting a UN job in Iraq. Tasked with rehabilitating ISIS women, Nadia becomes mired in the opaque world of international aid, surrounded by bumbling colleagues.

But then Nadia meets Sara, a precocious and sweary East Londoner who joined ISIS at just fifteen, and she is struck by how similar their stories are. Both from a Muslim background, both feisty and opinionated, with a shared love of Dairy Milk and rude pick-up lines, Sara and Nadia immediately connect and a powerful friendship forms. When Sara confesses a secret, Nadia is forced to make a difficult choice.

A bitingly original, wildly funny and razor-sharp exploration of love, family, religion, radicalism, and the decisions we make in pursuit of connection and belonging, Fundamentally upends and explores a defining controversy of our age with heart, complexity and humour – delivered by one of the most fearless and talented new voices in contemporary fiction.

Reader comments

“I loved this book; it was a really interesting read about a topic I haven’t come across in fiction before”
“I think this book would be a great book club read, as the topic – whilst uncomfortable and difficult – is something that simply must be discussed and made aware of”
“Fundamentally is a fantastic book; I raced through it…I will be recommending it to friends and colleagues”

Who Wants to Live Forever by Hanna Thomas Uose

Yuki and Sam are soulmates.

They are destined to spend the rest of their lives together.

They are supposed to love one another, forever.

But when a miracle drug is released which can extend a human’s life indefinitely, Sam chooses to live forever, instead of loving Yuki forever – and the world they know is spun inside out.

Who Wants to Live Forever plunges into a parallel universe where forever is on sale to the highest bidder. What comes next is a world-building epic narrated by an intersecting cast of characters that will drive you to the edge of reality and leave you to answer biggest questions of all: What is life without death? What is life without love?

Reader comments

“This was an absorbing book that explores how the reality of immortality impacts on society and relationships.”
“I absolutely loved this book! It approached the concept of life extending drugs in a way that felt incredibly authentic”
“This is a really interesting and quite complex read, full of conflicting ideas and opening up many questions…I’m still thinking about it”

For all the latest Book Club content, including interviews with the authors, visit BBC Sounds. You can even subscribe, to make sure you never miss an episode.

Planning to buy any of these books for your book club? Buy books from from Bookshop.org and support The Reading Agency and local bookshops at no extra cost to you.

Keep visiting our News page as well as social media to find out more. You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

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