Books from United Kingdom — The Book Roads

Amy Twigg

Lena is consumed by a hunger she can no longer control. Alone in her luxury apartment, she gorges herself on everything from loaves of bread to cat food, while doctors dismiss her growing distress. When Joan, a glamorous actress on the brink of stardom, moves upstairs, Lena is drawn into a world of beauty, wealth, and privilege she has always desired. But as her appetite becomes increasingly grotesque, Lena’s carefully constructed identity begins to unravel. A disturbing, darkly comic body-horror novel about invisible illness, class inequality, loneliness, and the impossible expectations placed on women.

2027

Black Bag

Luke Kennard

What happens when an unemployed actor agrees to spend his university lectures zipped inside an oversized black leather bag? Hired by Professor Dr. Blend for an unusual psychological experiment, the nameless protagonist soon discovers that his strange new role has consequences far beyond the classroom. As a professor develops an unexpected fascination with the person hidden inside the bag and his childhood friend sees an opportunity to turn the experiment into a business, anonymity becomes both a refuge and a trap. Surreal, absurdly funny, and unexpectedly tender, Black Bag is a satirical campus novel exploring masculinity, identity, loneliness, and the struggle to connect in a world obsessed with visibility and self-promotion.

2026