Launched in 2018, VERVE Books is an independent publisher of page-turning, diverse and original fiction penned by fresh and impactful voices.
Our books are connected by rich storytelling, vividly imagined settings and unforgettable characters. The list is tightly curated by a women-led team of passionate booklovers whose hope is to bring together an eclectic collection of books for modern readers.
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THE BOOK OF X
SARAH ROSE ETTER
From the author of Ripe – one of VERVE’s bestselling titles – comes a surreal exploration of one woman’s life and death against a landscape of bad men, bad mothers and meat.
The Book of X tells the tale of Cassie, a girl born with her stomach twisted in the shape of a knot. From childhood with her parents on the family meat farm to a desk job in the city and finally experiencing love, she grapples with her body, men and society, all the while imagining a softer world than the one she is in.
Twinning the drama of the everyday – school-age crushes, paying bills, the sickness of parents – with the surreal –rivers of thighs, fields of throats, men for sale – Cassie’s realities alternate to create a blurred, fantastic world of haunting beauty.
‘I loved every page of this gorgeous, grotesque, heartbreaking novel’
– CARMEN MARIA MACHADO
‘A truly original writer, Etter continues to push the boundaries of her imagination... and ours’
– MELISSA BRODER
‘Utterly unique and remarkable... Etter brilliantly, viciously lays bare what it means to be a woman in the world’
– ROXANE GAY
PBO 978-0-85730-903-7 £10.99 // FORMAT B (198 x 129mm)
** Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel **
SARAH ROSE ETTER is the author of the chapbook Tongue Party and the novels The Book of X and Ripe. Her work has appeared in Time, Guernica, BOMB, The Bennington Review, The Cut, VICE, and elsewhere. She earned her MFA in fiction from Rosemont College. She lives in Los Angeles.
sarahroseetter.com
@sarahroseetter
A KIND OF MADNESS
UCHE OKONKWO
A searing, unflinching collection of stories set in Nigeria that explore community expectations, familial strife and the struggle for survival.
Across ten evocative stories, A Kind of Madness dips in and out of the lives of Nigerians, unravelling the tensions between mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, best friends, siblings and more. Brimming with vitality, these bites of mundane madness mark the arrival of an extraordinary new talent in fiction and will leave you hungering for more.
‘Steady-handed and gut-punching. I’m in awe of this mad collection, this necessary writer’ – NOVIOLET BULAWAYO
‘Absorbing. I was immersed in the familiar world of these tender, playfully haunting, darkly funny stories. Okonkwo is a writer to watch’ – CHINELO OKPARANTA
‘Hilarious and heartbreaking... A delightful debut’ – JENNIFER NANSUBUGA MAKUMBI
‘Like Jhumpa Lahiri, Okonkwo’s mastery of the form is as rich as some of the short story’s best practitioners and deserves every recognition it is sure to get’ – CHIGOZIE OBIOMA
** An Oprah Daily Most Anticipated Book of 2024 **
** ‘Animals’ – included within the collection –has been shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African Writing 2024 **
JANUARY 2025 vervebooks.co.uk /A-Kind-of-Madness
PBO 978-0-85730-901-3 £12.99 // FORMAT B (198 x 129mm)
£6.99// CATEGORY Contemporary Short Stories // RIGHTS UK & Comm ex Canada, Nigeria & Anglophone West Africa
AUDIO EDITION W F Howes // OTHER PUBLISHERS Tin House – USA & Canada, Narrative Landscapes – Nigeria
AUTHOR LOCATION Nebraska, USA
UCHE OKONKWO ’s stories have been published in A Public Space, One Story, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019 and Lagos Noir, among others. A former Bernard O’Keefe Scholar at Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and resident at Art Omi, she is a recipient of the George Bennett Fellowship at Phillips Exeter Academy and a Steinbeck Fellowship. Okonkwo grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, and is currently pursuing a creative writing PhD at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. ucheokonkwo.com @ucheanne
GONE TO EARTH
JEN SHAW #3
JANE JESMOND
From the author of On The Edge and Cut Adrift – a Sunday Times Best Crime Novel of 2023 –comes the third and final instalment in the action-packed, ‘pulse-pounding’ Jen Shaw series.
Still reeling from a life-threatening experience on the coast of Calais, daredevil climber Jen Shaw finds herself in Glasgow for a funeral, devastated with grief and in search of answers.
As her dogged determination propels her closer to the criminal underworld than ever before, Jen and her family become the target of some dangerous and powerful people with links to the heart of Glasgow’s Police Force.
JANUARY 2025 vervebooks.co.uk /gone-to-earth
PBO 978-0-85730-871-9 £10.99 // FORMAT B (198 x 129mm)
PAGE EXTENT 320pp // EB 978-0-85730-872-6 £6.99 // CATEGORY Crime Thriller // RIGHTS World // AUDIO EDITION W F HOWES // AUTHOR LOCATION Le Conquet, France
In the absence of anyone she can truly trust, Jen has no option but to rely on her own instincts and everything she’s learnt from her close bond with police officer Nick Crawford for survival. Even if it means going undercover herself and disappearing into the city’s dark underbelly. Also AVAILABLE
PB
JANE JESMOND writes crime, thriller and mystery fiction. Her debut novel, On The Edge – the first in a series featuring dynamic, daredevil protagonist Jen Shaw – was a Sunday Times Best Crime Fiction of the Month pick. The second in the series, Cut Adrift, was the Times Thriller of the Month and a Sunday Times Best Crime Book of 2023. Jesmond is also the author of a speculative standalone, Her (Storm Publishers, 2023). Although she loves writing (and reading) thrillers and mysteries, her real life is very quiet and unexciting. She lives by the sea in the northwest tip of France with a husband and a cat and enjoys coastal walks and village life. Unlike Jen Shaw, she is terrified of heights!
jane-jesmond.com
@AuthorJJesmond
HUMAN, ANIMAL
SETH INSUA
Human, Animal is an ode to the wild, an elegy for what we have lost and a realisation of the power in finding common ground.
Since the death of his brother, dairy farmer George Calvert has been struggling to keep the family business afloat. His troubles only worsen when animal rights activists descend on his cowshed one morning to film social media content.
The fallout is unprecedented, especially since George’s youngest child appears to side with the activists. As the Calverts navigate the real-world consequences of going viral, a decades-old family secrets begins to surface – one that could change everything for them all.
‘A moving tale of belonging, family and land that brings country life into fierce reckoning with the modern world’ – SCOTT PRESTON
‘Blisteringly emotional, exploring the complex folds of family bonds. The last page left me haunted. Completely unmissable’
– LUCY ROSE
‘Timely, funny and moving, Human, Animal reminds us how powerful the novel can be in the hands of a true writer’
– CHARLES FERNYHOUGH
‘I could not get enough of this beautiful book’ – EIRINIE LAPIDAKI
FEBRUARY 2025 vervebooks.co.uk /human-animal
PBO 978-0-85730-889-4 £10.99 // FORMAT B (198 x 129mm)
PAGE EXTENT 320pp // EB 978-0-85730-890-0 £6.99
CATEGORY Contemporary Fiction // RIGHTS World English Language // AUDIO EDITION W F Howes // AUTHOR LOCATION Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
SETH INSUA is an Anglo-Spanish writer and artist. He was born in Kent in 1989. He graduated from the University of Oxford with a First in English Language and Literature. He has been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize and The London Magazine’s Short Story Competition and was a semi-finalist in the BlueCat Screenplay Competition. He currently lives with his husband, David, between Newcastle upon Tyne and Madrid. Human, Animal is his first novel.
sethinsua.com @sethinsua
Perfect for fans of Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart, A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson and The Discomfort of Evening by Lucas Rijneveld.
HOPE YOU ARE SATISFIED
TANIA MALIK
Hope You Are Satisfied welcomes you to Dubai as you’ve never seen it before…
1990. Twenty-five-year-old Riya works for Discover Arabia, a tour guide company in the far-flung outpost of Dubai. In the months leading up to the first Gulf War, the city’s iconic skyline and global reputation are just a gleam in developers’ eyes. For Riya, it’s a desert purgatory that spreads out between her family back home in India and her unknown future.
As political tensions run high, international arms dealers, American soldiers, CIA consultants, corrupt bosses and wayward vacationers all compete for Discover Arabia’s attention. Meanwhile, Riya and her colleagues begin to plan their exit strategies.
Will a favour from Dubai’s most notorious fixer offer Riya the chance to fulfil her financial obligations and escape to the United States?
‘Exuberant, thrilling, and compassionate to the last page, Malik’s sun-soaked novel is a testament to the power of friendships forged far from home’
– LEIGH N. GALLAGHER
‘Set in the 90s as the world teeters on the precipice of Desert Storm, Malik brings her cast of characters skillfully to life, then introduces a smart mousetrap of a plot that keeps the pages turning at breakneck pace. A truly absorbing read!’
– SUZANNE RINDELL
FEBRUARY 2025
vervebooks.co.uk /Hope-You-Are-Satisfied
PBO 978-0-85730-891-7 £10.99 // FORMAT B (198 x 129mm)
PAGE EXTENT 224pp // EB 978-0-85730-892-4 £6.99
CATEGORY Contemporary Fiction/Espionage
RIGHTS UK & Comm ex Canada // AUDIO EDITION W F Howes
OTHER PUBLISHERS Unnamed Press – USA & Canada
AUTHOR LOCATION San Francisco, USA
An astute social satire exploring privilege, immigration and gender, with a touch of espionage –The White Lotus meets Below Deck.
TANIA MALIK is the author of Three Bargains and Hope You Are Satisfied. She was educated in boarding schools in the foothills of the Himalayas and has had a varied career in the travel and non-profit fields. She was raised in India, Africa and the Middle East and currently lives in San Francisco’s Bay Area.
taniamalik.com @taniamalik
A LANGUAGE OF LIMBS
DYLIN HARDCASTLE
A love story about the almost crossovers of our lives …
1972. On a quiet summer night in Newcastle, Australia, two teenage girls must each make a choice: to act upon their desires or suppress them? To live an openly queer life or to try desperately not to?
Over the following three decades, these girls grow into women and live out their decisions, always almost crossing paths at pivotal moments. In an era that spans Australia’s first Mardi Gras and the AIDS pandemic, there is joy and grief and loss and desire for each of them – but will their lives ever collide?
A Language of Limbs is about love and how it’s policed, friendship and how it transcends, and hilarity in the face of heartbreak. A celebration of queer life in all its vibrancy and colour, this story finds the humanity in all of us and demands we claim our futures for ourselves.
‘Immersive and vividly descriptive... instances of queer joy in the novel, and moments of hardship are written with such grace. I will be thinking about this book for a long time’
– CHLOE MICHELLE HOWARTH
‘A life-affirming, deeply-felt novel ... To read A Language of Limbs is to be reminded of the power of queer joy and community. I loved it’
– HANNAH KENT
‘Poetic, fresh and mesmerising ... I am desperate for more stories like this’
– JESSIE STEPHENS
MARCH 2025 vervebooks.co.uk /a-language-of-limbs
PBO 978-0-85730-907-5 £10.99 // FORMAT B (198 x 129mm)
PAGE EXTENT 272pp // EB 978-0-85730-908-2 £6.99
CATEGORY Literary Fiction/LGBTQIA+ // RIGHTS UK & Comm ex Canada ex ANZ // OTHER PUBLISHERS Pan Macmillan - Australia & New Zealand, Dutton - USA & Canada
AUDIO EDITION W F Howes // AUTHOR LOCATION Sydney, Australia
DYLIN HARDCASTLE was born in 1993. They are a queer and transmasculine person of Welsh and Irish settler migrant descent living on stolen and unceded Gadigal Land. Dylin is an award-winning author, artist, screenwriter and former Provost’s Scholar at the University of Oxford. They are the author of Below Deck (2020), Breathing Under Water (2016) and Running Like China (2015). Their work has been published to critical acclaim in ten territories and translated into eight languages. In 2023, A Language of Limbs won the Kathleen Mitchell Award through the Australia Council for the Arts. The novel has been optioned by Curio (Sony Pictures) and is in development.
dylinhardcastle.com @dylin_hardcastle
VIPER IN THE NEST
Lizzie Hardwicke #3
GEORGINA CLARKE
A gripping and vividly imagined historical mystery set in 18th century London, from the author of The Dazzle of the Light.
London, June 1759. When a charmless civil servant takes his own life, few are interested in his death. But Lizzie Hardwicke, who plies her trade in the brothels of London whilst also working as an undercover sleuth for the magistrate, can see no reason why a man who had everything to look forward to would wish to end his life.
Lizzie’s search for answers takes her from the smoke-filled rooms of fashionable gambling houses, where politicians mix ambition with pleasure, to the violent streets of Soho, ready to erupt with riots in the sultry summer heat. All the while, she is navigating her complicated feelings for the magistrate’s trusted assistant, Will Davenport, and a disturbing situation at home.
Then a gambling house owner is brutally murdered, and Lizzie finds herself tangled in a chaos that she cannot control. The darkest of secrets threatens to turn Davenport against her forever; its exposure will send her to the gallows.
APRIL 2025 vervebooks.co.uk /Viper-in-the-Nest
PBO 978-0-85730-895-5 £10.99 // FORMAT B (198 x 129mm)
PAGE EXTENT 320pp // EB 978-0-85730-896-2 £6.99
CATEGORY Historical Mystery // RIGHTS World English Language
AUDIO EDITION W F Howes // AUTHOR LOCATION Worcester, UK
**VERVE will also re-issue the first two novels in the series, Death and the Harlot & The Corpse Played Dead (previously published by Canelo), in March 2025 in a striking new series design. A fourth Lizzie Hardwicke mystery will follow in December 2025 **
DEATH AND THE HARLOT
MARCH 2025
PB 978-0-85730-897-9 £10.99
EB 978-0-85730-898-6 £6.99
THE CORPSE PLAYED DEAD
MARCH 2025
PB 978-0-85730-899-3 £10.99
EB 978-0-85730-900-6 £6.99
GEORGINA CLARKE has a degree in theology and completed a PhD in history part-time, while working as a parish priest. Her love of the past is at the heart of her fiction: her Lizzie Hardwicke crime series is set in the mid-eighteenth century, and her standalone novel –The Dazzle of the Light – unfolds in 1920s London and is inspired by the real-life activities of the womenled Forty Thieves crime syndicate. Georgina is currently a tutor at the Queen’s Foundation in Birmingham. When she’s not working, she enjoys dressmaking, running and mooching around old houses. She lives in Worcester with her husband, son and two lively cats.
georginaclarkeauthor.com @clarkegeorgina1
MADE FOR YOU
JENNA SATTERTHWAITE
She got the bachelor. Now he’s dead …
Julia Walden – a Synth – was designed for one reason: to compete on the reality TV show The Proposal and claim the heart of bachelor Josh LaSala. Her casting is controversial, but Julia seems to get her fairytale ending when Josh gets down on one knee.
Fast-forward fifteen months, and Julia and Josh are married and raising their baby in small-town Indiana. But with haters around every corner, Julia’s life is a far cry from the domestic bliss she imagined. Then her splintering world shatters: Josh goes missing, and she becomes the prime suspect in his murder.
With no one left she can trust, Julia takes the investigation into her own hands. But the explosive truths she uncovers will drive her to her breaking point – and isn’t that where a person’s true nature is revealed? That is... if Julia truly is a person.
The Bachelor and Humans collide in this twisty debut that merges artificial intelligence, murder mystery and reality TV.
‘ The Bachelor meets Black Mirror (with a splash of Barbie gone dark) in this captivating, empowering, and wildly original thriller... A spectacular debut’ – MEGAN COLLINS
‘A thrill ride that never stops twisting and turning ... Addictive and thought-provoking’ – LAURIE ELIZABETH FLYNN
‘It’s Mary Shelley in The Bachelor era, as unpredictable as it is inevitable, and feminist as hell’ – KATIE GUTIERRE
APRIL 2025 vervebooks.co.uk /made-for-you
PBO 978-0-85730-909-9 £10.99 // FORMAT B (198 x 129mm)
PAGE EXTENT 320pp // EB 978-0-85730-910-5 £6.99
CATEGORY Sci-Fi Thriller // RIGHTS UK & Comm ex Canada
OTHER PUBLISHERS MIRA – USA & Canada
AUDIO EDITION W F Howes // AUTHOR LOCATION Chicago, USA
Born in the Midwest, JENNA SATTERTHWAITE grew up in Spain, lived briefly in France, and is now happily settled in Chicago with her husband and three kids. Jenna studied classical guitar, English Lit and French, and once upon a time was a singersongwriter in folk band Thornfield. She loves sushi, reading in her natural habitat (aka her bed), and women taking back their power. Made for You is her debut novel.
From a #1 New York Times bestselling author comes a powerful novel about family, the weight of secrets, the choices we make and the repercussions of the decisions made for us.
When Bunny Linden abandons her three children with her older sister, Jayne, in 1972, she knows Jayne will be the perfect mother. The mother Bunny, a teen runaway, could never be.
As months turn into years without word, Jayne and her husband, Rodger, a rising star of New York’s journalism scene, strive to give the children the opportunity to flourish and feel loved. When Jayne and Rodger finally have a child of their own, a seemingly stable home is built. But then, after nearly a decade, Bunny resurfaces and sets a chain of events in motion that detonates all their lives.
As adults, their children try to reassemble the pieces and solve the mystery that has always haunted them: who were their parents? What really happened between them? And who is ultimately to blame for the destruction?
‘Kraus perfectly captures the ache and stretch of adolescence, the grief and rage of middle age and the loss and doubt that form the drumbeat beneath it all. Consistently surprising in all the best ways, this book is a beacon!’
– CATHERINE NEWMAN
‘A unique, deeply moving story told with heart, depth and humor’
– REBECCA SERLE
‘So heartbreaking and so good I couldn’t stop reading ... Like Ann Patchett, Kraus gets at the heart of how people can disconnect from their truest selves, and how, if they’re lucky, they can find their way back’
– CAROLINE LEAVITT
MAY 2025 vervebooks.co.uk /the-best-we-could-hope-for
PBO 978-0-85730-913-6 £10.99 // FORMAT B (198 x 129mm)
PAGE EXTENT 320pp // EB 978-0-85730-914-3 £6.99
CATEGORY Literary Fiction // RIGHTS UK & Comm ex Canada
OTHER PUBLISHERS Little A - USA & Canada
AUDIO EDITION W F Howes // AUTHOR LOCATION New York, UK phot
NICOLA KRAUS has coauthored, with Emma McLaughlin, ten novels, including the international #1 bestseller The Nanny Diaries, Citizen Girl, Dedication and The Real Real Nicola has contributed to the Times, New York Times, Redbook, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Town & Country and Maxim, as well as two short story collections to benefit the War Child fund: Big Night Out and Girls’ Night Out. In 2015 she cofounded the creative consulting firm The Finished Thought, which helps the next generation of aspiring authors find their voice and audience. Through her work there, she has collaborated on several New York Times nonfiction bestsellers.
nicolakrausauthor.com @nicolakrausauthor
EVERY VERSION OF YOU GRACE CHAN
Never Let Me Go meets Black Mirror, with a dash of Murakami surrealism thrown in, this is speculative literary fiction at its best.
In late twenty-first century Australia, Tao-Yi and her partner Navin spend most of their time inside an immersive, consumerist virtual reality called Gaia. They log on, go to work, socialise, and even eat in this digital utopia. Meanwhile their aging bodies lie suspended in pods inside cramped apartments.
Across the city, in the abandoned real world, Tao-Yi’s mother remains stubbornly offline, dwindling away between hospital visits and memories of her earlier life in Malaysia.
When a new technology is developed to permanently upload a human brain to Gaia, Tao-Yi must decide what is most important: a digital future, or an authentic past.
‘It’s like Ready Player One meets Station Eleven and Ex Machina, and it’s the book I can’t stop thinking about this year’ – TIME OUT
‘Confronting what might one day be left on a ruined, “offline” Earth is a powerful way to refocus the lens on the world we are presently creating, and the politics informing what we build – whether it’s from bricks or code’ – GUARDIAN
‘Striking science fiction steeped in absurdity and dystopian menace’
–
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
MAY 2025 vervebooks.co.uk /every-version-of-you
PBO 978-0-85730-915-0 £10.99 // FORMAT B (198 x 129mm)
PAGE EXTENT 288pp // EB 978-0-85730-916-7 £6.99
CATEGORY Speculative Fiction // RIGHTS World English Language, ex ANZ // OTHER PUBLISHERS Affirm - Australia, & New Zealand // AUDIO EDITION W F Howes
AUTHOR LOCATION Victoria, Australia
GRACE CHAN is an awardwinning speculative fiction writer. She writes about brains, minds, and space. Her debut novel, Every Version of You, won the University of Sydney’s People’s Choice Award, and was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards Christina Stead Prize and The Age Book of the Year. It was longlisted for the Stella Prize and the Indie Book Awards. It has been optioned for a film adaptation by Cognito Entertainment. Grace’s short fiction can be found in Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Escape Pod, Fireside, Black Cranes: Tales of Unquiet Women, Going Down Swinging, Aurealis, Andromeda Spaceways Magazine and many other places. Grace was born in Malaysia and lives and works on the unceded lands of the Boonwurrung and Wurundjeri people. In her other life, she works as a psychiatrist.
gracechanwrites.com @gracechanwrites
THE DIRTY VERSION
TURNER GABLE KAHN
Book Lovers meets Romantic Comedy in this fun, juicy enemies-to-lovers romance about love-cynic writer Tash and the suspiciously handsome intimacy coordinator she’s forced to collaborate with.
Florida surf-town college professor Tash Grover never expected her small-press debut to hit the bestseller lists, but her world turns even further upside-down when she finds herself cornered into partnering with way-too-charming Hollywood ‘sex designer’ Caleb Rafferty on new, steamy scenes for her book’s streaming adaptation.
When the words they write together threaten to jump off the page and burn up the bedsheets, Tash must confront her own narratives about sex and power – before she betrays her book’s legacy, her fans and the one man finally worth a closer read.
‘An of-the-moment, juicy conversation about power and the representation of female sexuality in entertainment and art. The character of Caleb captures the emerging roles intimacy coordinators play in today’s Hollywood, and his chemistry with Tash hooked me from the first page. I loved their smart romp toward happily-ever-after!’
–ROBBIE TAYLOR HUNT, Intimacy Coordinator for projects including Netflix’s You and BBC’s Everything I Know About Love
Perfect for fans of Emily Henry, Beth O’Leary and Curtis Sittenfeld.
JUNE 2025 vervebooks.co.uk /the-dirty-version
PBO 978-0-85730-911-2 £10.99 // FORMAT B (198 x 129mm)
PAGE EXTENT 320pp // EB 978-0-85730-912-9 £6.99
CATEGORY Contemporary Romance
RIGHTS UK & Comm ex Canada // AUDIO EDITION W F Howes
OTHER PUBLISHERS Harper Perennial – US & Canada
AUTHOR LOCATION Singapore / Florida, USA
TURNER GABLE KAHN grew up in the extra-hold-hairspray ribbon of sunshine between the Everglades and the Atlantic’s best beach. Her higher education happened along the banks of the Schuylkill, and then the Hudson. She commuted endlessly across the East River in the blood, sweat and tears of a design career, before leaving her heart on Victoria Harbor’s dance floors and the South China Sea’s cliff hikes. She now writes in the bright heat near the Singapore Strait during the school year; in the summer she greets the sunset with her family, on a back deck overlooking the Puget Sound.
turnergablekahn.com @turnergablekahn
photo: Naoko Kaneda
SEND FLOWERS
EMILY BUCHANAN
Whip-smart and inspiring, Send Flowers is a poignant debut exploring the human spirit, the importance of community in weathering life’s storms and love’s enduring presence, even in the wake of profound loss.
Fiona, better known as eco-influencer @FoliageFifi, hasn’t left her apartment since her boyfriend, Ed, died. But when Ed’s favourite houseplant randomly appears on her doorstep with an anonymous note, Fiona takes this as a sign. Pouring Ed’s ashes into the soil, she finds the plant has vibrantly flowered. And can... talk? There’s only one logical explanation: Ed is back. This time as a houseplant.
Intent on keeping Ed alive, and making up for her past mistakes, Fiona slowly ventures back out into a world on the verge of a climate crisis. With the plant’s voice and budding flowers acting as her guiding compass, Fiona is not only urged towards people and places that left her scarred, but also finds herself at the heart of a life-or-death activist plot. How far will she go to keep him blooming?
PBO 978-0-85730-893-1 £10.99 // FORMAT B (198 x 129mm) PAGE EXTENT 320pp // EB 978-0-85730-894-8 £6.99
CATEGORY Contemporary Fiction // RIGHTS UK & Comm ex Canada // AUDIO EDITION W F Howes // OTHER PUBLISHERS Park Row – US & Canada // AUTHOR LOCATION Norwich, UK
EMILY BUCHANAN is an author and environmental activist from Thanet. She studied English Literature at the University of East Anglia, graduating with a first-class Creative Writing dissertation. She worked for Greenpeace as a Creative Campaigner before freelancing as a graphic designer and illustrator for nonprofits. Notable campaign wins include the UK fracking ban, Shell abandoning its search for oil in the Arctic and most recently, the UN agreeing to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. Emily wrote her first novel at twelve – a bedtime story for her little sister – and has been telling stories in one way or another ever since. She lives in Norwich with her pianist spouse and a brood of four-legged friends.
emilybuchanan.co.uk @emilyebuchanan
Perfect for fans of The Overstory by Richard Powers, Weather by Jenny Offill and Death Valley by Melissa Broder.
photo:
Priya Oades
SLASHED BEAUTIES
A. RUSHBY
History meets fantasy in A. Rushby’s tale of sisterhood, betrayal and reclamation based on the real-life Anatomical Venuses – hyperfeminine wax cadavers from the eighteenth century.
Seoul, present day: antiques dealer Alys is mysteriously paid a vast sum of money to transport one of three highly coveted Anatomical Venuses to the UK and then destroy it. An offer she can’t refuse...
London, 1769: Eleanor is new to the city and, after a chance meeting at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, is taken under the wing of beautiful and charismatic Elizabeth and her protégé, Emily, who promise her a life of luxury. But it quickly becomes clear that Elizabeth is not what she seems.
In a darkly intriguing and magical plot, prepare to discover the dangerous secret shared by these four women – a secret that spans centuries, and which will unearth horrors not of this world.
Perfect for fans of Weyward by Emilia Hart and The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow, as well as readers of Jessie Burton, Leigh Bardugo and Stacey Halls.
SEPTEMBER 2025 vervebooks.co.uk /slashed-beauties
DEMY HB ( 216 x 315mm) 978-0-85730-885-6 £18.99
PAGE EXTENT 320pp // EB 978-0-85730-886-3 £9.99
CATEGORY Historical Fantasy // RIGHTS UK & Comm ex Canada
OTHER PUBLISHERS Berkley - USA & Canada
AUDIO EDITION W F Howes
AUTHOR LOCATION Queensland, Australia
A. RUSHBY (often found writing as Allison Rushby) was gifted the middle name of Jane, for Jane Austen. Wordsmithing was duly destined and, under several pseudonyms, she has published more than thirty books. She has long been a fan of cities steeped in history, wild, overgrown cemeteries, red brick Victorian museums, the curious and the uncanny. She prefers to write with a cup of French Earl Grey tea by her side and a cat curled up in her lap.
allisonrushby.com @allisonrushbyauthor
HEAP EARTH UPON IT
CHLOE MICHELLE HOWARTH
A creeping story of sapphic obsession with a delicious mid-twentieth century feel and Gothic undertones, from the author of Sunburn.
When the orphaned O’Leary siblings – Tom, Jack, Anna and Peggy – arrive in the village of Ballycrea in January 1965, they are desperate for a fresh start. However, they offer few, contradicting details about their troubled past and the reason for their sudden move.
Treated with suspicion by most of the locals, the foursome are thrilled when they are offered companionship and support from Bill and Betty Nevan, a wealthy farming couple who live nearby. But for one of the O’Leary’s, this new friendship sparks an intense attachment that makes the dynamic dangerous for all...
Heap Earth Upon It revisits the rich, rural Irish setting of Chloe’s critically acclaimed debut, evocatively rendering claustrophobic relationships and tangled identities, and leaving you wondering who to trust until the very last page.
PRAISE FOR SUNBURN
‘A tender and heartfelt coming-of-age tale’ – HEAT
‘A compassionate take on the push and pull between what’s expected and what is felt’ – HERALD
OCTOBER 2025 vervebooks.co.uk /heap-earth-upon-it
DEMY HB ( 216 x 135mm) 978-0-85730-905-1 £18.99
ROYAL PB - EXPORT ( 234 x 156mm) 978-0-85730-917-4 £14.99
EB 978-0-85730-906 - 8 £9.99 // CATEGORY Historical Fiction / LGBTQIA+ // RIGHTS UK & Comm ex Canada
AUDIO EDITION W F Howes // AUTHOR LOCATION Brighton, UK
Perfect for fans of Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield and Mrs S by K. Patrick, as well as readers of Shirley Jackson.
SUNBURN
PB 978-0-85730-841-2 £10.99
EB 978-0-85730-842-9 £6.99
CHLOE MICHELLE HOWARTH was born in July 1996. She grew up in the West Cork countryside, which has served as an inspiration for her writing. She attended university at IADT in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin, where she studied English, Media and Cultural Studies. Chloe currently lives in Brighton. Her debut novel, Sunburn, was shortlisted for the 2023 Nero Book Award for Debut Fiction and the 2024 Book of the Year: Discover Award by the British Book Awards and has been longlisted for the 2024 Polari First Book Prize and the 2024 Diverse Book Awards. chloemichellehowarth.com @chloemichelleh Also AVAILABLE
WHEN ON HIGH
JAMES ROSEMAN
A raw and poignant novel about masculinity, brotherhood, alcoholism and grief, from the perspectives of two men who have vastly different experiences of the same mother.
Phillip has grown up surrounded by friends and assured of the love of his mother, who filled his childhood with praise, encouragement and frequent trips to the cinema, just the two of them. So why, on the brink of a promising future at university, does he find himself feeling worryingly lost and developing unhealthy habits?
Elder brother Donald remembers a very different childhood, one spent caring for a mother who was struggling with their father’s absence and a troubled relationship with alcohol. He is both the glue holding the family together and utterly alone, and the sense of duty he feels only intensifies once Phillip leaves for college, along with a simmering brotherly resentment.
When an unforeseen tragedy strikes the family, there’s an explosion of tension and a shift in dynamics. But can generational patterns and long-held grudges ever be overcome?
PRAISE FOR PLACEHOLDERS
‘There’s no way around it: James Roseman writes beautifully. Confident, complex, moving, funny’ – DECLAN TOOHEY
‘Humane, heartfelt and beautifully observed ... A quietly powerful novel, from a writer I’m keen to keep my eye on’ – SHEILA ARMSTRONG
‘An intimate, unflinching, and, above all, heartfelt novel, the best debut I’ve read this year’ – RONAN RYAN
NOVEMBER 2025 vervebooks.co.uk /when-on-high
PBO 978-0-85730-918-1 £10.99 // FORMAT B (198 x 129mm)
PAGE EXTENT 320pp // EB 978-0-85730-919-8 £6.99
CATEGORY Contemporary Fiction // RIGHTS UK & Comm ex Canada
AUDIO EDITION W F Howes // AUTHOR LOCATION Dublin, Ireland
Perfect for fans of Close to Home by Michael Magee, The Wren, The Wren by Anne Enright and The Topeka School by Ben Lerner, as well as readers of Colm Tóibín.
JAMES ROSEMAN is an American author born in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and raised outside of Boston. He’s lived in Dublin, Ireland, since 2019. He received his MFA in Creative Writing and Literature from the Bennington Writing Seminars at Bennington College, Vermont. His debut novel, Placeholders, was published by VERVE Books in 2024 and shortlisted for the First Novel Prize.
jamesroseman.com @jamestheroseman
photo: Sarah Conn
RECENT HIGHLIGHT…
ISAAC
CURTIS GARNER
Set in London across a single, life-altering summer, Isaac explores masculinity and queerness in the digital age and offers a fresh take on desire and intimacy, adolescent obsession and dangerous first love. Perfect for fans of Outline Of My Lover by Douglas Martin, What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell and 100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell.
‘So vivid and real, it brought a thousand memories rushing back’
– RUSSELL T DAVIES
‘An instant queer classic’ – JON RANSOM
NOVEMBER 2024 vervebooks.co.uk /isaac
PBO 978-0-85730-865-8 £10.99 // FORMAT B (198 x 129mm)
PAGE EXTENT 288pp // EB
CATEGORY Contemporary Fiction / LGBTQIA+ // RIGHTS World
OTHER PUBLISHERS Urano - Spain // AUDIO EDITION W F HOWES
Jonathan Ball Publishers 66 Mimetes Road, Denver Johannesburg, 2094, South Africa
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