Serpent’s Tail Alumni Longlisted for the Booker Prize
Congratulations to Susan Choi and Katie Kitamura for their recognition
Saraswati is shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize
Gurnaik Johal's globe-trotting novel is picked by booksellers as a standout 2025 debut
Serpent’s Tail Spring Reading 2025
From sparkling debuts, to life-affirming memoirs, we have a wonderful assortment of reads to choose from for your bank holiday reads in the sun!
New releases
The Wolf of Whindale
Jacob Kerr
A chilling gothic tale of magic, cults and werewolves – perfect for fans of Paul Kingsnorth, Andrew Michael Hurley and Alan Garner
Flowers from the Void
Gianni Washington
Grotesquely gothic short stories to keep you awake all night
Herscht 07769
Laszlo Krasznahorkai
A masterpiece of form and fiction as one of our greatest living writers tackles our fears of environmental disaster
The Course of the Heart
M. John Harrison
The strange edges of reality are explored in M John Harrison's extraordinary cult classic, now with an introduction by bestselling author Julia A…
The Adversary
Michael Crummey
The internationally prize-winning, bestselling novel of exploitation and corruption on the North American frontier
Valencia
Michelle Tea
A fast-paced account of one year in San Francisco's underground scene, filled with sex, drugs and the never-ending search for true love.
No Small Thing
Orlaine McDonald
An exceptional Black British debut filled with desire and jeopardy and set on a south London estate
The Material
Camille Bordas
A literary star ascending makes her UK debut with a novel about the funniest people's saddest stories
Lush
Rochelle Dowden-Lord
A mysterious invitation to drink the oldest bottle of wine in the world – what could possibly go wrong?
Mrs Gulliver
Valerie Martin
A short, lush novel about sex, second chances and taking control in a man's world
Name
Constance Debré
France's most incendiary star continues her ascent with an excavation of her famous family's legacy
Shape of an Apostrophe
Uttama Kirit Patel
A fresh and taboo-breaking depiction of the Indian diaspora, for readers of Jhumpa Lahiri, Avni Doshi and Claire Kilroy
England is Mine
Nicolas Padamsee
An urgent debut set in multicultural London which takes the reader on a frightening journey into online radicalisation
Wild Ground
Emily Usher
A working-class Romeo and Juliet that will break your heart, this bittersweet debut novel follows two teenagers whose all-consuming relationship is te…
Stag Dance
Torrey Peters
Trans life past, present and future is explored in this kaleidoscopic follow-up to the Women's Prize-nominated Detransition, Baby
The Assault
Harry Mulisch
The classic that sold over 200,000 copies in the Netherlands: a richly crafted novel of post-war innocence and guilt
Dengue Boy
Michel Nieva
Borges meets Samanta Schweblin and Mariana Enríquez in this boldly imaginative punk dystopia
Night Swimmers
Roisin Maguire
A funny and moving family story with an unconventional heroine in a quirky coastal community – Olive Kitteridge or The Shipping News on the edge on th…
The Gorgeous Inertia of the Earth
Adrian Duncan
In this moving new novel, award-winning Irish writer Adrian Duncan explores love and grief while finding their resonance in works of art
Featured authors
Bestsellers and Classics
Detransition, Baby
Torrey Peters
A uniquely trans take on love, motherhood, and those exes who you just can't quit
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
Karen Joy Fowler
You can't choose your family, but they make choices for you.
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments
Saidiya Hartman
Revolution in a minor key: how young black women invented freedom
In the Dream House
Carmen Maria Machado
A revolutionary memoir about domestic abuse by the award-winning author of Her Body and Other Parties
Eat Up
Ruby Tandoh
Ruby Tandoh's radical manifesto takes the guilt out of eating and puts the pleasure back in.
The Essex Serpent
Sarah Perry
The literary sensation and Waterstones Book of the Year: a thrilling and unforgettable historical novel of love and intrigue now out in paperback
African Psycho
Alain Mabanckou
Alain Mabanckou's uproarious, fleet-footed English-language debut, reissued as a Serpent's Tail Classic to coincide with the publication of…
Seiobo There Below
Laszlo Krasznahorkai
One of László Krasznahorkai's finest novels available in stunning redesigned paperback
I Love Dick
Chris Kraus
The cult novel – now a major TV series by Jill Soloway, the creator of TRANSPARENT, starring Kevin Bacon and Kathryn Hahn
Serpent's Tail Classics
The Course of the Heart
M. John Harrison
The strange edges of reality are explored in M John Harrison's extraordinary cult classic, now with an introduction by bestselling author Julia A…
Valencia
Michelle Tea
A fast-paced account of one year in San Francisco's underground scene, filled with sex, drugs and the never-ending search for true love.
The Assault
Harry Mulisch
The classic that sold over 200,000 copies in the Netherlands: a richly crafted novel of post-war innocence and guilt
Closer
Dennis Cooper
The brutally frank and daring gay classic from countercultural icon Dennis Cooper
Pedro Páramo
Juan Rulfo
A new translation of the legendary Mexican classic of magic realism which inspired the works of Gabriel García Márquez, Mario Vargas Llosa a…
Cold Nights of Childhood
Tezer Özlü
A lyrical autofictional account of the author's fight to survive depression and carve out her own path in 1950s and 60s Istanbul
Haruko/Love Poems
June Jordan
Searingly beautiful poems about compassion, resistance and desire by an iconic Black American activist and writer
The Impostor
Silvina Ocampo
Fantastical, unnerving short stories from a Surrealist master of the form
Passing
Nella Larsen
A classic of the Harlem Renaissance reissued to coincide with the major Netflix adaptation of Passing (2021)
To the Friend Who Did Not Save My Life
Hervé Guibert
The cult classic that describes with devastating, darkly comic clarity the experience of living with and dying from AIDS
Man Enough to Be a Woman
Jayne County
The true story of trans punk performance art sensation Jayne County's wild and daring life
And the Band Played On
Randy Shilts
A masterpiece of investigative reporting on the AIDS crisis in the USA
Mysteries
Knut Hamsun
Serpent's Tail Classics edition of a wild masterpiece by a Nobel prize winner championed by influential writers such as Karl Ove Knausgaard and D…
Devil in a Blue Dress
Walter Mosley
The bestselling, award-winning first novel by the internationally acclaimed crime writer Walter Mosley introduces his most famous character – Easy Raw…
Selected Poems
Langston Hughes
Classics edition with new introduction by Kayo Chingonyi of the essential poems of 'the poet laureate of black America' New Yorker.
Eat My Heart Out
Zoe Pilger
Zoe Pilger's wildly funny debut novel, reissued as a Serpent's Tail Classic