With spring almost upon us, Amaurea has some new books on the way, spanning memoir, fiction and theatre. From award-winning Cuban literature to a deeply personal journey through music and love, and powerful anti-war theatre, our upcoming releases showcase bold voices and compelling narratives.
Anima Fatua – Winner of English PEN Translates Award
We’re thrilled that Anna Lidia Vega Serova’s Anima Fatua, translated from Spanish by Robin Munby, has won a PEN Translates Award from English PEN, with Arts Council support. Set to be published on 12th June 2025, this novel is a haunting coming-of-age story exploring linguistic, racial, and sexual identity amid the turmoil of perestroika-era Russia. Vega Serova’s work has been praised for its raw and unsettling style. As the Cuban critic, Marilyn Bobes, has written, this “is without doubt one of the greatest examples of the way in which Cuban women have taken the written word by the horns.”
The book’s translator, Robin Munby, has said: “I am always drawn to books that feel as though they could never have been written in English. This book feels like it could have been written by no one else. It is not just the dizzying story itself, which lurches from fairytale to nightmare in the blink of an eye, but Anna Lidia’s twisted, playful approach to language. Anima Fatua is a book that resists interpretation at every turn.”
Highlife, & my other lives – A Memoir of Love, Music & Travel
Richard Walker’s Highlife, & my other lives (out 22nd May 2025) is an unforgettable memoir that moves from Ghanaian dance floors to global adventures. It’s a story of art, music, love, and loss—an ode to a life well-lived and the resilience to carry on after profound grief. It has already received some praise: “From its tragic, heartfelt lows to hilarious highs, Walker’s personal odyssey lingers long in the mind” (Mark Townsend, The Guardian). “Dice-rolling adventure with twists and surprises. Snakes, dad’s double. Mr Auden’s slippers” (John Hegley, poet). “A joyful, intelligent celebration of music, literature and friendship” (Charlie Lee-Potter, writer & broadcaster). “A vivid journey through a varied and eventful life” (James Bluemel, film director).
Walker, a former British Council director, also revisits his groundbreaking 1989 novel, A Curious Child, which will be republished by Amaurea Press later this year. While Ronny recovers in a Cairo clinic from a sex-change operation, her grandmother, mother and Ronny sift through their pasts in search of what has led to this bold self-transformation. From decades of Home Counties respectability emerge buried family secrets – of illicit love, thwarted hopes and desires, stifled by conformity and the bonds of duty from which Ronny is breaking free.
Two Plays of War and Peace: Birds Still Fly & Over The Top
Marking the 20th anniversary of the first performance of Rodney Quinn’s Over The Top, in April we will be publishing a diptych of his one-act plays confronting the realities of war. Birds Still Fly follows a father searching for his son on a Crusades battlefield, while Over The Top brings us into a WWI trench, where soldiers wrestle with the futility of their orders. These plays, infused with Quinn’s signature wit and irreverence, have been performed in Ireland, London, and Australia.
