For April, an eclectic combination of fiction, non-fiction and poetry to stimulate the mind and appease the soul.

The God Desire by David Baddiel

David Baddiel has spent a lot of time fantasising about how much better life would be if there actually was a God. Unfortunately for him, there isn’t. Or at least, that is Baddiel’s view in this book, which argues that it is indeed the very intensity of his, and everyone else’s, desire for God to exist that proves His non-existence. Anything so deeply wished-for we will, considers Baddiel, make real.

The God Desire emerges as a philosophical essay that utilises Baddiel’s trademarks of comedy, storytelling and personal asides, offering a highly readable new perspective on the most ancient of debates.
Published by William Collins on April 13^th

Homecoming by Kate Morton

Many years ago, a police investigation is called and the small town of Tumbilla becomes embroiled in one of the most shocking and perplexing murder cases in the history of South Australia.

Six decades on, Jess, a journalist in London, who finds herself laid off from her full-time job and struggling to make ends meet. A phone call out of nowhere summons her back to Sydney, which leads her to begin digging into her past, and that long-forgotten tragedy.

Published by Mantle on April 13^th

 A House for Alice by Diana Evans

Alice wants to go home to her native Nigeria to die, though three daughters are divided on whether she stays or goes, and tasked with realising her dream of a house in Africa, conflict stirs and old wounds rise to the surface. Meanwhile their father wanders the flames of purgatory, unable to pass into the light. Will Alice get back home and complete the circle of her life, or will London be her final refuge?

Set against the shadows of Grenfell and a country in crisis, these ordinary people are faced with fundamental questions about who they are, what they want and where, and with whom, they want to be.

Published by Chatto on April 6^th

Divisible by Itself and One by Kae Tempest

A new poetry collection from Britain’s foremost truth-teller, Kae Tempest masterfully steers a path between public-facing performance, dramatic work and the contemplative voice that came to the fore in Running Upon the Wires.

Questions of integrity are addressed in direct, affecting terms: how can we be true to ourselves while under constant pressure to conform? Throughout the poems, ideas of form – of the body, gender, and in nature – resurface and resolve, as the poet considers the changes that are sometimes required to be oneself.

Published by Picador on April 27^th