Maybe you’ve made a resolution to read more novels in 2015. Or possibly to read more widely, to explore new authors, new perspectives, alternative world views. I have compiled a list of 10 books scheduled for release in 2015 by 10 very individual authors. Whatever your goal, there’s something on this list that will meet it.

1. Disgruntled by Asali Solomon

3 Feb 2015

A coming-of-age story that follows pre-teen Kenya Curtis from her settled life in Philadelphia, through the breakdown of her afrocentric parents’ marriage and into the white, elite high school where she matures into womanhood.

Kenya is a larger-than-life personality and her experiences lead to explorations of race, feminism and sexuality that are witty and fresh.

 

2. God Help the Child by Toni Morrison

April 2015

Toni Morrison’s 11th novel explores how childhood trauma can ripple down through the entire length of a life.

3. Pleasantville by Attica Locke

April 2015

It’s election night in 1996 in Pleasantville, a neighbourhood populated with well-heeled blacks. It has been a heated campaign and when a girl goes missing the nephew of a candidate is arrested and a local lawyer finds himself putting life and reputation on the line.

http://www.atticalocke.com/

 

4. The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah

5 April 2015

We meet the central character, Memory, in a Harare jail. She has been convicted of murder and has been told to write a full account of the events in a bid to avoid the death penalty. Memory has been convicted of the murder of her adopted father but why did she kill him? And why does she feel no remorse? An intriguing tale unfolds.

http://www.faber.co.uk/author/petina-gappah/

5. A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

Paperback out – 16 April 2015

Marlon James employs an impressive array of characters to tell the story of the attempted assassination of Bob Marley. It’s a sweeping story that delves into the tangled relationship between politics and violent criminal gangs in 1970s Jamaica.

http://marlon-james.blogspot.ca/

6. Inside a Silver Box by Walter Mosley

27 Jan 2015

Two people brought together by a horrific act work together to save humanity from an alien race. The action continues from Mosley’s SF novel Crosstown to Oblivion and tackles cosmic questions about the nature of good and evil.

http://www.waltermosley.com/

7.  The Jumbies by Tracey Baptiste

April 2015

12-year-old Corrine La Mer is fearless. She’s not afraid of scorpions, boys or the mythical creatures, jumbies. But after encountering a jumbie in the forbidden forest one night, she discovers the beings are running rife on her island and if she doesn’t find a way to fight them everything she loves will be doomed.

http://traceybaptiste.wordpress.com/

 8. Driving the King by Ravi Howard

Jan 2015

It’s 1945 when jazz legend Nat King Cole is attacked during a show in Alabama, and his childhood friend, Nat Weary, jumps up to defend him. His act of bravery leads to a 10-year jail sentence but when he is released from jail, Nat King Cole repays the debt by taking him on as his driver and bodyguard. It’s the chance for a fresh start in LA, far from the violence of the Jim Crow South, but it turns out discrimination and intolerance will follow a black man wherever he goes, even one as talented and successful as Nat King Cole. The story – a work of fiction that rings with truth – reveals a remarkable friendship, cemented in the harsh climate of pre-Civil Rights America.

http://www.ravihoward.com/

9. X: A novel by Ilyasah Shabazz with Kekla Magoon

Jan 2015

What was Malcolm X like as a boy? When he was Malcolm Little did he hear the message from his parents when they told him he could achieve anything? Or was he deflated by the teachers who warned him he could “be as good as you want in the classroom but out those doors, you’re just a nigger”? How did he handle the murder of his father and the removal of his mother by the authorities?

Malcolm X’s daughter has co-written a riveting, first-person narrative of young Malcolm. It takes readers into his head, imagines his mindscape, and follows him from childhood to the imprisonment at 20 that changed the course of his life. It’s a revealing portrait of a man in the years that formed the legend.

http://www.ilyasahshabazz.com/

10. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

This award-winning memoir is already out and included in this list as an honourary mention. The book is written in verse and is the story of Woodson’s childhood growing up in Brooklyn and South Carolina in the 1960s and 70s. It really is as wonderful as it looks.

http://www.jacquelinewoodson.com/