Scottish Books: On our Radar for 2016

Let’s open with a titan. James Kelman, the Booker Prize botherer and master of formalism is set to have his new novel Dirt Road (Canongate) published in August. The story tells of a 'journey out of darkness' which follows father and son Tom and Murdo on an expedition that takes them from their Scottish island home to the American South, after the tragic death of Murdo's mother. The new work of one of the most important writers currently working should be a publishing date set on literary calenders the world over.

In April, a good son of Edinburgh resurrects a bad seed. Franco Begbie – or Jim Francis as he identifies himself for his new artist’s life on America’s West Coast – returns to Irvine Welsh’s pages for new novel The Blade Artist (Jonathan Cape). It seems to be a tale inspired by Jimmy Boyle, one which could spill over into bloody violence and possibly high hilarity at any point. In a year when filming begins on Danny Boyle's sequel of sorts to Trainspotting, it seems perfect timing to revisit its most visceral force.

Jenni Fagan’s long awaited sophomore novel The Sunlight Pilgrims (William Heinemann) hits bookshelves in February. Following up her formidable debut The Panopticon must be a nervy process, but a pitfall which a writer of this talent, heart and vision should nonchalantly stride past. Set in a time when it is snowing in Jerusalem, the Thames is overflowing, and an iceberg separated from the Fjords in Norway is expected to arrive off the coast of Scotland, this may be an environmental apocalypse novel for the current age. Yet, true to Fagan's form, expect something even more complex, angry, political and human.

Jenni Fagan returns in February with The Sunlight Pilgrims, her second novel

Further novels of note come from our more local Scottish presses: always taking risks, always punching above their weight. Freight Books will introduce the 2015 Dundee International Literary Prize winner to readers by publishing Martin Cathcart Froden’s novel Devil Take the Hindmost in March, a thriller centred around velodrome racing and the criminal underworld of 1920s London. There is also huge expectation around Neil Mackay’s historical novel The Wolf Trial (also Freight/March). If the premise of a 16^th century serial killer being tried as a werewolf is not gruesomely intrigueing enough, the comparison to 'The Name of the Rose meets American Psycho' should whet bloodthirsty appetites even further.

There is further excitement around the debut short story collection Treats from Manchester-based writer Lara Williams (Freight/March) – in fact there has been raving. It is described as a break-up album of tales covering relationships and their aftermath. So far, so Adele – but if the inescapable singer is the beige paint on a crumbling wall, this is more akin to sniffing that paint and seeing every colour in the rainbow.

After the huge critical lauding of his novel The Book of Death and Fish, Ian Stephen justifies the first claim of his ‘poet, writer, sailor’ designation with new collection Maritime (Saraband/April). These lyrical works evoke the dramatic waterscapes, rocky shores and wind-blasted textures of his native Hebrides. It’s a collection that, as Kirsty Gunn claims, “splits the form open like a fresh catch, glistening and raw and singing with the sea.”

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The Scottish publisher Saraband is also publishing the translation of a Dutch novel of greed, lust and the battle for women’s bodies. A fictional thriller based in fact, The Hormone Factory (March) by Saskia Goldschmidt looks at a pre-WWII Dutch pharmaceutical entrepreneur determined to develop the contraceptive pill, no matter what the cost, testing hormonal treatments on his female workers and sexually exploiting them. This is historical fiction which will resonate deeply with issues facing women across the globe today.

Lauren A. Forry was PA to Zooey Deschanel on The Happening – that being an M. Night Shyamalan movie, she's obviously well versed in nightmares. Perfect grounding then for her gothic thriller Abigale Hall (Black & White/February). Set in the late 1940s, two orphan sisters are sent from their home in London to a remote part of Wales to work at a crumbling estate run by the vicious and cold-hearted Mrs Pollard. The house begins to take its toll on Rebecca, who slowly descends into her own twisted world of madness. This debut novel of the Faber & Faber Creative Writing MA prize winner, touted as Daphne Du Maurier meets Hitchcock, is one to watch.

Granta usually get it right with their Best of Young Novelists predictions. So with one of their British batch, Tahmim Anam, having her new novel published in May, it’s reason to take an interest. An epic love story, The Bones of Grace (Canongate) follows the thwarted passions of Zubaida Bashir for Elijah Strong, a man from whom she cannot bear to be separated and yet cannot face the consequences of what a life together would mean.

To conclude this list, and his recent trilogy of subject-related collections, we have Charles Bukowski musing On Love (Canongate/Feb). The Skinny has delighted in the two previous parts, On Writing and the fantastic feline-based prose of On Cats. We look forward to his unique take on the indefinable.