Hay Festival Book Club
By Hay Festival
Hay Festival Book Club
By Hay Festival
Our monthly recommendation of new books we think hold particular resonance today...
Anansi's Gold: The man who swindled the world
Yepoka Yeebo
£20.00Our Book Club pick for September 2024 is Yepoka Yeebo's thrilling account of one of the 20th century's longest-running frauds.
The Odyssey
Homer
£14.99Our August 2024 Book Club pick is Emily Wilson's breathtaking translation of Homer's great masterpiece.
A Waiter in Paris: Adventures in the Dark Heart of the City
Edward Chisholm
£10.99 £10.44Our Book Club pick for July 2024 is Edward Chisholm's jaw-dropping account of serving tables in the French capital.
A Brief History of Seven Killings: Special 10th Anniversary Edition of the Booker Prizewinner
Marlon James
£10.99 £10.44Our June 2024 Book Club pick is Marlon James' Booker-winning novel, A Brief History of Seven Killings.
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder
Salman Rushdie
£20.00 £19.00Our Book Club pick for May 2024 is Salman Rushdie's powerful account of the attempt on his life.
Metamorphosis and Other Stories
Franz Kafka
£8.99 £8.54Our April 2024 Book Club pick is Franz Kafka's influential novella, Metamorphosis.
Fresh Apples
Rachel Trezise
£9.00 £8.55Our Book Club pick for March 2024 is Rachel Trezise's searing short story collection.
Giovanni's Room
James Baldwin
£7.99 £7.59Our February 2024 Book Club pick is James Baldwin's impactful novel, Giovanni's Room.
The Orange and other poems
Wendy Cope
£10.00 £9.50Our Book Club pick for January 2024 is the new collection of poetry from Wendy Cope.
Enchanted Wales: Myth and Magic in Welsh Storytelling
Miranda Aldhouse-Green
£18.99 £18.04Our November 2023 Book of the Month is Miranda Aldhouse-Green's magical collection of Welsh myths.
Grey Bees: A captivating, heartwarming story about a gentle beekeeper caught up in the war in Ukraine
Andrey Kurkov
£10.99 £10.44Our Book of the Month for October 2023 is quietly powerful novel from Andrey Kurkov.
Trust
Hernan Diaz
£9.99 £9.49Our September 2023 Book of the Month is Hernan Diaz's dazzling, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.
The Blue Book of Nebo
Manon Steffan Ros
£9.99 £9.49Our Book of the Month for August 2023 is the multi-award winning YA crossover novel from superbly talented author, Manon Steffan Ros.
Yellowface
Rebecca F Kuang
£16.99 £16.14Our July 2023 Book of the Month is R.F. Kuang's Yellowface, a darkly comic thriller that was a bestseller at Hay Festival 2023.
The Rooster House: A Ukrainian Family Memoir
Victoria Belim
£20.00 £19.00Our Book of the Month for June 2023 is Victoria Belim's quest to uncover her family’s difficult past.
Abyss
Pilar Quintana
£13.99 £13.29Our May 2023 Book of the Month is Pilar Quintana's Abysss, a spare, atmospheric novel that explores the high anxiety and the terrors of the adult world.
The Library Suicides: a captivating locked-room psychological thriller
Fflur Dafydd
£16.99 £16.14Our Book of the Month for February 2023 is the English-language reimagining of Fflur Dafydd's award-winning welsh thriller Y Llyfrgell
Papyrus: THE MILLION-COPY GLOBAL BESTSELLER
Irene Vallejo
£25.00 £23.75Starting the year in style, our January 2023 Book of the Month offers an enthralling history of the written word.
Hay Festival Faces
Billie Charity and Hay Festival Foundation Ltd
£16.99 £16.14Our Book of the Month for November 2022 is a visual record of this year's spring event, our first in-person for three years, from acclaimed photographer Billie Charity.
In Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas
Stanislav Aseyev
£17.95Our October 2022 Book of the Month illuminates the war in Ukraine with dispatches from the Donbas, a special selection as we partner the country's biggest book festival, Lviv BookForum.
Untold Microcosms: Latin American Writers in the British Museum
£9.99 £9.49
Our Book of the Month for September 2022 is a special collection of ten stories from ten Latin American writers, inspired by the narratives about our past that we create through museums.
All The Lovers In The Night
Mieko Kawakami
£14.99Our August 2022 Book of the Month is the third novel from internationally bestselling author Mieko Kawakami.
Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet
George Monbiot
£20.00Our Book of the Month for July 2022 was one of the most talked about titles at Hay Festival 2022. Regenesis is a breathtaking first glimpse of a new future for food and for humanity.
Drift: A story of love, magic and the irresistible lure of the sea
Caryl Lewis
£14.99Our June 2022 Book of the Month is the debut English language novel from one of Wales' most accomplished writers.
Welsh (Plural): Essays on the Future of Wales
£12.99 £12.34
Our Book of the Month for May 2022 is one very close to our hearts. Edited by a trio of former Hay Festival Writers at Work participants, Welsh (Plural) invites writers to consider the future of Wales and their place in it.
Paradais
Fernanda Melchor
£12.99 £12.34Our Book of the Month for April 2022 comes from one of our most thrilling new writers. Paradais explores the explosive fragility of Mexican society.
The Instant
Amy Liptrot
£14.99 £14.24Our March 2022 Book of the Month is is an unapologetic look at the addictive power of love and lust from the author of the bestselling The Outrun.
Free Love: The exhilarating new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author of Late in the Day
Tessa Hadley
£16.99Our January 2021 Book of the Month comes from Tessa Hadley, bestselling author of Late in the Day and The Past. Free Love is a compulsive new novel about one woman's sexual and intellectual awakening in 1960s London.
Real Estate: Living Autobiography 3
Deborah Levy
£10.99After hundreds had their say, we're delighted to reveal our Hay Festival Book of the Year 2021 is... Real Estate by Deborah Levy.
The Country of Others
Leila Slimani
£14.99 £14.24Our Book of the Month for August 2021 sees novelist Leïla Slimani follow up her bestsellers Lullaby and Adele with a novel about a woman in an interracial marriage whose fierce desire for autonomy parallels her adopted country’s fight for independence.
The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness
Suzanne O'Sullivan
£16.99Our July 2021 Book of the Month sees neurologist Suzanne O'Sullivan explore 'psychosomatic illnesses', travelling the world collecting fascinating stories of culture-bound syndromes.
Bachgen, Y Wahadden, Y Llwynog A'r Ceffyl, Y
Charlie Mackesy and Jackie Morris
£16.99 £16.14Our November Book of the Month sees acclaimed poet and Hay Festival fellow Mererid Hopwood translate an extraordinary Welsh edition of Charlie Mackesy's bestselling The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse, bringing its inspiring message to readers in Welsh for the first time.
Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Absolutely Everything
Jordan Ellenberg
£20.00Our Book of the Month for June 2021 is from the Sunday Times bestselling author of How Not to Be Wrong. Shape is a hugely entertaining exploration of the geometry that underlies our world, revealing the geometry underneath some of the most important scientific, political, and philosophical problems we face, from the spread of coronavirus to rise of machine learning.
China Room: The heartstopping and beautiful novel, longlisted for the Booker Prize 2021
Sunjeev Sahota
£16.99 £16.14Our May 2021 Book of the Month is Sunjeev Sahota's multigenerational novel of love, oppression, trauma and the pursuit of freedom, inspired in part by the author's own family history. China Room twines together the stories of a woman and a man separated by more than half a century but united by blood.
Male Tears
Benjamin Myers
£16.99Our Book of the Month for April 2021 is a debut collection of short stories from Benjamin Myers investigating modern masculinity in all its many and varied forms.
What We Owe Each Other: A New Social Contract
Minouche Shafik
£18.99Our March 2021 Book of the Month sees LSE director Minouche Shafik offer lucid and accessible new answers to age-old questions and equips every reader to understand and play their part in the urgent and necessary transformation ahead.
Poor
Caleb Femi
£10.99 £10.44Our Book of the Month for November 2020 sees Caleb Femi combine poetry and original photography to explore the trials, tribulations, dreams and joys of young Black boys in twenty-first century Peckham.
Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths
Natalie Haynes
£20.00Our October 2020 Book of the Month is a long overdue take on the Greek Myths, putting the women of those stories on equal footing with the menfolk.
The Midnight Library
Matt Haig
£18.99 £18.04Our August 2020 Book of the Month is the latest novel from Matt Haig, a poignant story about regret, hope and forgivenes
The Half-God of Rainfall
Inua Ellams
£10.00 £9.50Our Book of the Month for July 2020 is an epic story and a lyrical exploration of pride, power and female revenge.
Hamnet: WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2020 - THE NO. 1 BESTSELLER
Maggie O'Farrell
£9.99 £9.49Our June 2020 Book of the Month is a stunning new departure for Maggie O'Farrell's fiction, a lyrically written and emotionally devastating account of the Bard’s only son.