We have a trio of terrific reads for November

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The long awaited sequel to A Handmaid’s Tale

In A Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood envisioned a world in which the US had become Gilead, a totalitarian world ruled by Commanders in which women were totally subservient. Told by one handmaid, Offred, it describes how women are forbidden to learn to read or write and are solely there to serve men in all ways, including sexually. The sequel, The Testaments, is set 15 years later and is told by three women – Aunt Lydia, a trainer and manager of handmaids, and two of Offred’s daughters, Agnes, who became the privileged child of an elite family, and Nicola, who was smuggled out to Canada. Resistance is growing in Gilead and Lydia is plotting its downfall… At a time when women are increasingly protesting against femicide, rape, unequal pay and often worse injustices at the hands of men, this book hits an extremely sensitive nerve. Chatto & Windus, R360.

Secrets. Affairs. Revenge. It’s all going on in the suburbs … where everyone has something to hide
Shari Lapena’s Someone We Know is set in a small suburb, where everyone is polite and friendly and neighbourly. When newcomers arrive in town – a handsome man and his extraordinarily attractive wife – the main conversation appears to be how much of flirt she is with the men in the area. Then she’s found murdered, and more than one man is ‘a person of interest’ to the police. At the same time, a family’s teenage son has been breaking into some of the houses … not to steal, but to practise his fairly impressive computer hacking skills. With secrets and affairs and revenge, Lapena keeps you guessing until the very end. Penguin, R290.

Chosen as one of the best thrillers of summer, this legal thriller is exceptional


They were a perfectly ordinary family. Interesting jobs. Yoga, basketball and trips to the library. Takeout on Fridays in front of the telly and a bottle of wine with their friends. Until the murder. Chosen as one of the best thrillers of the summer by the New York Times, A Nearly Normal Family is M. T. Edvardsson’s psychological, legal thriller that asks what would you do if your daughter was suspected of murder? How far would you go to protect her? Would you believe her, or the evidence against her? The father believes his daughter has been framed. The mother believes she’s hiding something. And the daughter believes they have no idea what she’s truly capable of. Could. Not. Put it down! Brilliant. Macmallan, R299.

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