10 Virago books not to miss

A pioneering marine biologist takes us down into the deep ocean in this 'thrilling blend of hard science and high adventure' (The New York Times)

Edith Widder grew up determined to become a marine biologist. But after complications from a surgery during college caused her to go temporarily blind, she became fascinated by light as well as the power of optimism.

Below the Edge of Darkness explores the depths of the planet's oceans as Widder seeks to understand bioluminescence, one of the most important and widely used forms of communication in nature. In the process, she reveals hidden worlds and a dazzling menagerie of behaviours and animals. Alongside Widder, we experience life-and-death equipment malfunctions and witness breakthroughs in technology and understanding, all of it set against a growing awareness of the deteriorating health of our largest and least understood ecosystem.

'A vivid account of ocean life' ROBIN MCKIE, GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE DAY

'Edie's story is one of hardscrabble optimism, two-fisted exploration and groundbreaking research. She's done things I dream of doing' JAMES CAMERON

'A book of marvels, marvellously written' RICHARD DAWKINS

'ONE NIGHT, NEW YORK transports the reader to the glitter and the danger of old New York. A page-turner with style.' ERIN KELLY

'ENTHRALLING' THE TIMES, BEST NEW HISTORICAL FICTION

A THRILLING DEBUT NOVEL OF CORRUPTION AND MURDER, SET IN THE NIGHTCLUBS, TENEMENTS AND SKYSCRAPERS OF 1930s NEW YORK - FROM THE WINNER OF THE VIRAGO/THE POOL NEW CRIME WRITER AWARD.

At the top of the Empire State Building on a freezing December night, two women hold their breath. Frances and Agnes are waiting for the man who has wronged them. They plan to seek the ultimate revenge.

Set over the course of a single night, One Night, New York is a detective story, a romance and a coming-of-age tale. It is also a story of old New York, of bohemian Greenwich Village between the wars, of floozies and artists and addicts, of a city that sucked in creatives and immigrants alike, lighting up the world, while all around America burned amid the heat of the Great Depression.

'An atmospheric portrait of a city in the grip of the Great Depression as well as a compelling crime story' GUARDIAN

'Thompson's impressive debut delivers a beautifully detailed and multifaceted account of Jazz Age New York' IRISH TIMES

'An assured debut so evocative you can almost smell the bathtub gin wafting off the pages' RED MAGAZINE

A REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK
A BBC 2 BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION FUTURES PRIZE
AN AMAZON BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

'A captivating story about a mixed-race British woman who goes in search of the West African father she never knew' REESE WITHERSPOON

Anna is at a stage of her life when she's beginning to wonder who she really is. She has separated from her husband, her daughter is all grown up, and her mother - the only parent who raised her - is dead.

Searching through her mother's belongings, she finds clues about the West African father she never knew. Through reading his student diary, chronicling his involvement in radical politics in 1970s London, she discovers that he eventually became the president (some would say the dictator) of a small nation in West Africa - and he is still alive. She decides to track him down and so begins a funny, painful, fascinating journey, and an exploration of race, identity and what we pass on to our children.

'A real pleasure, it's funny, thought-provoking and holds a light up to everything from cultural differences to colonialism' STYLIST

'I LOVED Sankofa SO MUCH' MARIAN KEYES

'Slick pacing and unpredictable developments keep the reader alert right up to the novel's exhilarating ending' GUARDIAN BOOK OF THE DAY

'Onuzo's sneakily breezy, highly entertaining novel leaves the reader rethinking familiar narratives of colonisation, inheritance and liberation' NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

'A really great book, very poignant' SARA COX

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
DAILY TELEGRAPH * DAILY MIRROR * DAILY EXPRESS * WALL STREET JOURNAL * BOSTON GLOBE * LIBRARY JOURNAL * CRIMEREADS

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The mesmerising new thriller, set in the hothouse world of a ballet school, from the bestselling and award-winning writer Megan Abbott.

Dara and Marie were trained as ballet dancers by their glamorous mother, founder of the Durant School of Dance. After their parents died in a tragic accident nearly a dozen years ago, the sisters took over running the school together with Charlie, Dara's husband and once their mother's prized student. But when a suspicious accident occurs, just at the onset of the school's annual performance of The Nutcracker - a season of competition, anxiety, and exhilaration - an interloper arrives and threatens their delicate balance.

'Compulsively readable' RUTH WARE

'A book you will not be able to forget' MARK BILLINGHAM

'My thriller of the year' JAKE KERRIDGE, DAILY TELEGRAPH, BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

'A twisting, turning story of revenge and redemption' STYLIST

'The feeling of menace grows stronger with every page' GUARDIAN

'Slow-burning and feverish, with all the intensity of a classic American film noir' MAIL ON SUNDAY

'Charged with foreboding, the novel throbs with gothic tension' IRISH TIMES

'Dark and juicy and tinged with horror' NEW YORK TIMES

'Dark and mesmerising' HARRIET TYCE

'This is Megan Abbott working at the absolute height of her talent' ATTICA LOCKE

'There's no one who captures the atmosphere of a tight-knit hothouse world, in all its feverish beauty and brutality, quite like Megan Abbott' TANA FRENCH

'Faultless storytelling . . . Wise, generous, atmospheric' Observer

Growing up after the war in Westmere, an English seaside town, Kitty has been sheltered by her parents, but meeting Danny changes all of that. She decides to leave everyone and everything she knows to follow Danny to London, in pursuit of glamour and opportunity, and this sets in motion a series of events that will echo down the generations. Over fifty years later, when Kitty's body is found in her beach hut with a suicide note by her side, her great-niece will help to unravel all the secrets which the family has kept hidden over the decades.

'Explores familial legacy, generational secrets and the effects of long-lasting trauma with a distinct tenderness' New Statesman

'A portrait of sisterhood . . . powerful' Daily Mail

'A writer who never lets you down' Ali Smith

LONGLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2020

A BARACK OBAMA BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020

America. In the twilight of the Gold Rush, two siblings cross a landscape with a gun in their hands and the body of their father on their backs . . .

Ba dies in the night, Ma is already gone. Lucy and Sam, twelve and eleven, are suddenly alone and on the run. With their father's body on their backs, they roam an unforgiving landscape dotted with giant buffalo bones and tiger paw prints, searching for a place to give him a proper burial.

How Much of These Hills is Gold is a sweeping adventure tale, an unforgettable sibling story and a remarkable novel about a family bound and divided by its memories.

'A daring and haunting epic' SUNDAY TIMES

'A unique reimagining of the American West adventure' THE TIMES

'A fierce, feminist Western' DAILY MAIL

'Remarkable' HARPER'S BAZAAR

'Reminiscent of both Cormac McCarthy and Toni Morrison' IRISH TIMES

'C Pam Zhang's arresting, beautiful first novel is filled with myths of her own making as well as sorrows and joys' NEW YORK TIMES

A GWYNETH PALTROW BOOK CLUB PICK

'Brighter and better than Thomas Hardy . . . a marvellous writer' Eloise Millar, Guardian

Prudence Sarn was born with a cleft palate, her 'precious bane', for which she is persecuted as a witch by her superstitious neighbours. Hiding from daily ridicule, she takes refuge in the wild Shropshire countryside, developing a profound love of nature. Furtively, Prue longs to be loved and harbours a hopeless passion for Kester Woodseaves, the weaver.

Prue's brother, Gideon, is engaged to her only friend, but in his ambition for wealth at any cost, he incurs the wrath of his would-be father-in-law whose act of vengeance results in Prue being accused of murder. Only Kester, who has perceived her true worth, can defend her from the wrath of her accusers.

Winner of the 1926 Prix Femina Vie Heureuse Prize, Precious Bane is a novel that enchants with its beauty and its timeless truths.

'With the publication of Precious Bane, a substantial readership came to respect Mary Webb's quiet genius . . . When she died at the age of 46, literature lost a voice that promised to speak for Shropshire as poignantly as Thomas Hardy had spoken for Wessex, Emily Bronte for Yorkshire - New York Times

BY ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL INDIAN WRITERS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

'The deftness with which Attia Hosain handles the interplay of manners, class, culture and different forms of female power is gorgeously done . . .' KAMILA SHAMSIE

'An extraordinary novel, with an extraordinary heroine' MONICA ALI

'A masterful examination of class, culture, family and women's lives set against the backdrop of Partition' KIRAN MILLWOOD HARGRAVE

'My life changed. It had been restricted by invisible barriers almost as effectively as the physically restricted lives of my aunts in the zenana. A window had opened here, a door there, a curtain had been drawn aside; but outside lay a world narrowed by one's field of vision.'

Laila, orphaned daughter of a distinguished Muslim family, is brought up in her grandfather's traditional household by her aunts, who keep purdah. At fifteen she moves to the home of her 'liberal' but autocratic uncle in Lucknow. As the struggle for Independence sharpens, Laila is surrounded by relatives and university friends caught up in politics, but she is unable to commit herself to any cause: her own fight for independence is a struggle against tradition.

With its stunning evocation of India, its political insight and unsentimental understanding of the human heart, Sunlight on a Broken Column is a classic of Muslim life.

Attia Hosain published only two books, but her writing has influenced generations of writers. Discover Phoenix Fled, Hosain's acclaimed short-story collection, also published in Virago Modern Classics.

THE RACHEL INCIDENT - Caroline O'Donoghue's bestselling new novel* - is out now

Charlie's life isn't going forward - so she's decided to go back

After a tough few years floundering around the British film industry and experimenting with amateur pornography, Charlie and her best friend Laura take a trip to her familial home on an island off the west coast of Ireland. Her father's health is rapidly declining and this could be the last chance to connect with her roots. But events on the island cause Charlie to doubt her father's childhood stories - and then there's her complicated relationship with Laura. Pursuing the truth will shatter everything she thought knew - but is that what it takes to grow up?

'A gorgeous exploration of the messy and fragile nature of friendship and all the many forms of love' IRISH TIMES

'A darkly humorous, keenly observed blend of millennial drift and murder mystery from a razor-sharp writer' RED

'Witty, tender and insightful' GUARDIAN

'A perfect page-turner. I loved it' DOLLY ALDERTON

'Wonderful. Had me gripped' MARIAN KEYES

*The Rachel Incident was a #2 bestseller in Ireland in June 2023

Now a Pedro Almodóvar film - THE ROOM NEXT DOOR - starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore

'I was totally overwhelmed by this extraordinary novel. A total joy - and laugh-out-loud funny' DEBORAH MOGGACH

The New York Times-bestselling, National Book Award-winning author of THE FRIEND brings her singular voice to a story about the meaning of life and death, and the value of companionship.

The woman at the heart of this extraordinary novel finds that everyone she meets has a common need: the urge to talk about themselves and to have an audience for their experiences. And so she tries to pay attention, to imagine and listen to what those around her are going through. But then an old friend makes an extraordinary request and draws her into an intense and transformative experience of her own.

'I just adore Sigrid Nunez' PAULA HAWKINS

'Brilliant. I loved it as much as The Friend' SUSIE STEINER

'When I open one of [Sigrid Nunez's] novels, I almost always know immediately: This is where I want to be ... As good as The Friend, if not better' NEW YORK TIMES

'A true pleasure to read, a novel bursting with wit, warmth, and human empathy' INDEPENDENT

'Brilliant ... The narrative control of this novel simply dazzles' SPECTATOR