I am told that books published at the end of November are considered December titles. Whether or not this is true, I'm grateful because there are so many great books landing on our shelves during the final days of spring. There's a dark and erotic debut from Ghanaian author Kobby Ben Ben, and more life-affirming poetry from Lemn Sissay. Below, the new books you should know in December 2023.
Let the Light Pour in, Lemn Sissay
Release date: November 28, 2023
I came to Sissay through his 2019 memoir, My Name Is Why, which detailed his disrupted childhood in England's foster care system. Sissay's poetry is imbued with messages of resilience, life-affirming stanzas and a determination to not be engulfed by darkness.
The Flirtation of Girls / Ghazal el-Banat, Sara M Saleh
Release date: November 28, 2023
Barely months after her fiction debut, Sara M. Saleh has also published her first poetry collection The Flirtation of Girls. Like Songs for the Dead and the Living, it's a timely, essential read. The book negotiates the same context as her novel – the occupation of ancestral homelands, migration, colonial and patriarchal violence – with an intimate voice and clear-eyed conviction. The poems sing with the prismatic joys and complexities of what it is to be an Arab-Australian Muslim woman.
Stay True, Hua Hsu
Release date: November 28, 2023
Now, let me first just say that I know this book was published last year, and if you're from the US or UK, it's likely you've already read it. However, the trade paperback dropped on November 28 with Pan Macmillan and we can't help but show a little more love to an excellent, Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir. Liked Patti Smith's Just Kids? This tale of friendship, coming of age, grief is right up your alley.
No One Dies Yet, Kobby Ben Ben
Release date: November 28, 2023
Ben Ben's debut novel is set in Ghana during 2019, The Year of Return. It follows Elton, Vincent and Scott, three Black friends arriving from America to explore Accra's famous underground queer scene and visit historical sites from the transatlantic slave route within the city. They're shown around by two guides, who treat them more as foreigner than neighbour, and then there's a murder. The road to this discovery is paved with humour, eroticism and unsettling observations.
Image: @books.in.film
