Fiction 1. The Midnight Feast by Lucy Foley is published in hardback by HarperCollins Sending up the sporadic foolishness of the super rich is certainly de rigueur, whether in hit movies like The Menu or Parasite, or in literature like Crazy Rich Asians and Pineapple Street, with real shenanigans like the ill-fated Fyre Festival also catching the public imagination. Lucy Foley’s novel The Midnight Feast blends concepts from the works and events cited above with an old-fashioned murder mystery and elements of the supernatural as chaos descends across the opening weekend at the fictional Manor, an exclusive coastal retreat for the wealthy and well-heeled, where the rage of resentful locals and long-buried secrets threaten to ruin everything for its fashionable and unflappable founder Francesca Woodland.
Excellently employing the multiple-narrator format, this twisty tale shifts between perspectives and through time to reveal the reasons why the crystal pouches left in guests’ rooms won’t necessarily save them from the darkness pouring out of the neighbouring forest. 2. Parade by Rachel Cusk is published in hardback by Faber & Faber Rachel Cusk’s novels, notably her Outline trilogy, deviated into ‘autofiction’ long before Baby Reindeer made self-revelation a hot topic.
Her latest, Parade, challenges not just novelistic fictionality but also narrative structure. Parade’s four chapters contain multiple perspectives. An artist named ‘G’ recurs, but each time diffe.