From Emma Straub’s spry and satisfying tale to Ask Me Anything by P. Z. Reizin, this week’s best new fiction
Ask Me Anything
P. Z. Reizin Sphere £16.99
Our devices are spying on us – but whose side are they on? Daisy’s smart fridge is tired of harvesting marketing data on her toxic food and dating choices. So it recruits a secret squad of rogue appliances ready to risk everything to find her Mr Right.
Beneath the madcap plot and spiralling absurdity lies an impish AI rom-com that skewers the data economy and the corporate erosion of private space.
Madeleine Feeny
All Adults Here
Emma Straub Michael Joseph £14.99
After seeing an old acquaintance mown down by a bus, Astrid Strick is determined to shake things up. She may be a grandmother but she still has it in her to surprise her grown – if not yet convincingly adult – kids.
Set over the course of an upstate New York summer, this shrewd, kindly tale embraces a topical spread of inter-generational challenges, yielding tart truths about love, class and family. It’s spry and satisfying.
Hephzibah Anderson