Author Pat Barker continues her quest to give voice to women’s stories from ancient Greece…

1. The Voyage Home by Pat Barker is published in hardback by Hamish Hamilton and costs £20 (e-book £10.99). Available now

Pat Barker has a talent for telling grim stories in a way that is both compelling and understandable to those who can stomach them. Since her gripping 1982 debut novel, Union Street, Barker has tackled subjects such as World War I and the Trojan War with a matter-of-fact approach. The Voyage Home is the third installment in The Women of Troy trilogy, which looks at the events of Homer’s ancient Greek epic The Iliad from the perspective of often powerless women. Ritsa is now a servant to Cassandra, the priest’s daughter of King Priam, who has been taken to the bed of the victorious Agamemnon. Meanwhile, Agamemnon’s wife Clytemnestra awaits his return, furious, mourning the loss of the daughter he sacrificed to the gods to plead for calm seas. While it can be helpful to know a little about the characters, it is not essential to have read the earlier novels in the trilogy, as Barker also sprinkles in the highlights of the backstory in a gripping and fast-paced read. 9/10 (Review by Beverley Rouse)

2. Shy Creatures by Clare Chambers is published in hardback by W&N and costs £20 (e-book £11.49). Available on 29 August

The novel is set in Croydon in 1964. William, a 37-year-old mute man with a beard down to his waist, is discovered locked in a house with his elderly aunt. He is taken to the local psychiatric hospital, where art therapist Helen Hansford tries to uncover his story. The novel is cleverly constructed, moving back and forth between the hospital stay and William’s childhood and his everyday life as an adult. The novel slowly unravels the mystery of how he got into this predicament, and highlights how even the best intentions can have negative consequences. Helen, too, must face her situation – she is in love with a married man, a doctor at the hospital who does not want to leave his wife. Clare Chambers had a big hit with Small Pleasures in 2020, but for more than 20 years she has been writing intelligent, sensitive stories about mostly ordinary lives that are extraordinary in their own way. She has learned her craft. This haunting novel pays tribute to the value of kindness and compassion against the waves of human frailty. 9/10 (Review by Bridie Pritchard)

3. The Examiner by Janice Hallett is available in hardback from Viper at £18.99 (e-book £10.99). Available from 29 August

Janice Hallett has done it again, turning her attention to another hotbed of out-of-control jealousy: the university lecture theatre. The Examiner is much less grim than her last book, The Mysterious Case Of The Alperton Angels, which centred on rumours of a notorious cult, and slightly less funny than The Appeal, but no less fascinating. Her new crime thriller begins with an external examiner using notes from an online student messaging service, project essays and WhatsApp conversations to try to cobble together what happened on an art masters course after a murder may have taken place. A standout is the character of young sculptor Jem, whose pompous arrogance will make you giggle as she annoys her classmates with rudeness and a belief that their grades should be better. The only downside to this tome, which will have you up late at night trying to figure out the ending, is the lack of drawings of the mixed media art the students create. 8/10 (Review by Charlotte McLaughlin)

4. The Red Emperor: Xi Jinping And The New China by Michael Sheridan is published in hardback by Headline Press and costs £25 (e-book £12.99). Available from 29 August

Chinese President Xi Jinping has been the country’s leader since he took office in 2012, but the story of his rise to power was written in the generations before he was born. Today, he is arguably one of the most powerful men in the world. Veteran journalist Michael Sheridan’s new book, The Red Emperor: Xi Jinping And The New China, takes an in-depth look at his rise. Sheridan’s book is easy to understand and very readable, especially given the complexity of the material at hand. Historical facts are easily explained and interwoven with anecdotes from various fields, making it a truly engaging read. If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about the man behind modern-day China, this is the perfect place to start. 8/10 (Review by Kathy Iffly)

5. Open Wide! by Letizia Diamante, illustrated by Ed J. Brown, is published in hardback by What On Earth!, priced £14.99 (not an e-book). Available from 5 September

This is a picture book, but not quite as you know it. Rather than a narrative arc, Open Wide! is a cheerful bombardment of facts amid colorful illustrations. The approach is a little special—author Letizia Diamante focuses specifically on the mouths of the animal world, but there’s a lot more scope in that than you might think. From discovering that tigers have 30 teeth to a rabbit’s hidden incisors, there’s a lot to learn here. It turns out that mouths can reveal a whole lot about an animal—and kids aged seven and up will love picking up this book to learn a new little fact. Well researched and beautifully illustrated, it’s the kind of book that kids will return to again and again. 8/10 (Review by Prudence Wade)

BOOK CHARTS FOR THE WEEK END 24 AUGUST

HARDBACK (FICTION)1. Death At The Sign Of The Rook by Kate Atkinson2. The Voyage Home by Pat Barker3. Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon4. There Are Rivers In The Sky by Elif Shafak5. Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid6. When The Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker7. Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors8. Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros9. Guilty By Definition by Susie Dent10. You Are Here by David Nicholls(Compiled by Waterstones)

HARDBACK (NON-FICTION)1. Pinch Of Nom Air Fryer: Simple, Slimming Meals by Kay & Kate Allinson2. Eighteen: A History of Britain in 18 Young Lives by Alice Loxton3. Imminent: Insights into the Pentagon’s Hunt for UFOs by Luis Elizondo4. Avoidance, Drugs, Heartbreak and Dogs by Jordan Stephens5. Hitler’s People by Richard J. Evans6. Trelawny’s Cornwall: A Journey Through Western Lands by Petroc Trelawny7. How to Win the Premier League by Ian Graham8. Buy Yourself the Damn Flowers by Tam Kaur9. Stop Lying to Yourself by Simon Gilham10. Catherine, the Princess of Wales: The Biography by Robert Jobson(Compiled by Waterstones)

AUDIOBOOKS (FICTION AND NON-FICTION)1. Imminent by Luis Elizondo2. It Starts With Us by Colleen Hoover3. Atomic Habits by James Clear4. Message Deleted by KL Slater5. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman6. The Letters Of JRR Tolkien by JRR Tolkien, edited by Humphrey Carpenter & Christopher Tolkien7. Unruly by David Mitchell8. Holmes, Margaret And Poe by James Patterson9. The Family Game by Catherine Steadman10. None Of This Is True by Lisa Jewell(Compiled by Audible)