The God of Good Looks
Breanne McIvor
Fig Tree, £14.99, pp384
Bianca Bridge is a heroine to root for. A young Trinidadian journalist who’s lost her mother and has only a distant relationship with her self-made father, she’s been outed as the mistress of a corrupt government minister and is all but unemployable when fearsome makeup mogul Obadiah Cortland hires her to reboot his in-house magazine. Their fates become further enmeshed after her ex threatens them both, teeing up a punchy romance with plenty to say about Caribbean class, poverty and sexism. The value of cosmetics as a metaphor may seem obvious but every aspect of the business becomes unexpectedly riveting.
Rental Person Who Does Nothing
Shoji Morimoto (translated by Don Knotting)
Picador, £14.99, pp160
In his publishing job, Shoji Morimoto became used to being berated for “doing nothing” – so much so that he started to wonder: can a person who truly does nothing have value and a place in contemporary Japan? In order to find out, he tweeted an offer to do just that for people. Soon, he was in demand and even making a decent living from it. His memoir makes for a disjointed reading experience, perhaps because, ever committed to inactivity, he hired someone else to actually write it for him, but persevere and you’ll be rewarded with some distinctively Japanese musings on meaning and connection.
Starling
Sarah Jane Butler
Fairlight Books, £9.99, pp272 (paperback)
Shimmering, immersive descriptions of nature instantly conjure up the world of teenage nomad Starling. When she was small, she and her complex, forceful mother, Mar, had travelled with “the tribe”, but lately it’s just been the two of them in their Luton van, living off the land, bound by seasons and self-made rituals. Then Mar vanishes one spring day and Starling is forced to find her own way, following a path that challenges her idealism. The tension between community and ecology helps propel a memorable coming-of-age novel.
• To order The God of Good Looks, Rental Person Who Does Nothing or Starling, go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
