HopeRoad

JAGUARMAN by Raoul de Jong, translated from Dutch by John Eyck, with illustrations by @e_tomasetti is out next week. 📰“Written two years before the Netherlands’ ‘apology’ at the end of 2022 for having practiced slavery for two hundred fifty years, JAGUARMAN paints, at last, from life, the portrait of a worldly country.” — Le Monde 📰“A unique mix of non-fiction and fiction, classic quest, travel story, life lesson, prayer and fairy tale, literature and historiography” — NRC Handesblad

Act Normal: Joy and Despair in Postcolonial Britain by Pete Kalu has been shortlisted for the 2026 Jhalak Prose Prize 🧡 Act Normal: Joy and despair in Postcolonial Britain – a memoir , presents a kaleidoscopic view of the author’s life. Through fragmented memories, vivid imagery, and introspective musings, Kalu explores a range of themes, from the joys and anxieties of childhood to the complexities of adult relationships, career struggles, and the enduring search for meaning. Huge congratulations to Pete Kalu for this recognition from the landmark Jhalak Prize & it's judges! 🎉 Congratulations to all the shortlisted titles 🧡 Call Me Ishmaelle, Xiaolu Guo (Vintage) Foreign Fruit, Katie Goh (Canongate) Hail Mary, Funmi Fetto (Magpie) I Want to Talk to You, Diana Evans (Chatto & Windus) The South, Tash Aw (Fourth Estate) Winner announcement: 10 June 2026 #jhalakprize26 #jhalakprizeat10

Dua’s July Read is here! “I didn’t ask you to leave.” “The opening line of Vincent Delecroix’s masterful short novel Small Boat gains increasing significance as he spins together threads of a story which is as shocking as it is familiar. Small Boat, which was shortlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize, fictionalises events around the real-life drowning of 27 people in the English Channel in November 2021. Those who lost their lives – always referred to as ‘migrants’ in the press – were crowded into a sinking inflatable dinghy and made increasingly desperate calls for help – in French, in English, and in Kurdish. But no help came. Vincent takes us inside the mind of the French radio operator receiving these distress calls. I was deeply shocked that, instead of scrambling to help the drowning people, the operator casually responds to their calls for help with that frank opening line – “I didn’t ask you to leave” – as the phone goes dead. Her attitude seems inhumane, but perhaps it is reflective of society’s detached attitude to ‘migrant’ deaths at sea, and the dehumanisation that allows us to turn away as innocent men, women and children drown on a pitch-black night in the English Channel. Was she just doing her job? Or have we all lost our humanity? These are questions asked repeatedly in Small Boat as the story unfolds, and the answer is not an easy one to stomach. These aren’t just ‘migrants’ or ‘refugees’, they are people – with names, faces and stories, united by their desperation and determination to escape conflict, persecution or poverty. As conflicts continue to force people away from their home countries across the globe, this book pushes us to think: will we help them? Or will we turn away as the small boats continue to sink and bodies of the innocent wash up on beaches on both sides of the Channel? This book challenged me profoundly. It moved me, and stayed with me. It’s not an easy read – but as our politics descend into hate-mongering and point-scoring, it’s an essential story that needs to be told.” – Dua x

Just last week Raoul de Jong was in the UK to chat about all things JAGUARMAN and to sign copies. 🐆 JAGUARMAN, his memoir translated from Dutch by John Eyck, is out now with HopeRoad. 📖 Signed copies are available in select bookshops, including Book Bar Chelsea and Queen’s Park Bookshop in London, and La Biblioteka in Sheffield. Run to get yours 🏃 🏃‍♂️ 🏃‍♀️

📚Amis parisiens venez écouter @khalid_lyamlahy parler de son livre Évocation d’un mémorial à Venise maintenant traduit en anglais par @rosschwartz et publié par @hoperoadpublishing intitulé Venice Requiem 🗓️rdv @theredwheelbarrowbookstore le 12 mai à 19h

New in at the @inpressbooks office this week: Jaguarman by Raoul de Jong, from the publishers behind Small Boat and Venice Requiem. Part family history, part mystical quest, @raouldejong_jaguarman journeys into the Surinamese jungle in search of a legendary ancestor said to have transformed into a jaguar. Blending myth, memoir, travel writing and historiography, this is a luminous, life-affirming exploration of inheritance, belonging and what it means to be human. Translated from Dutch by John Eyck, and accompanied by illustrations throughout by @e_tomasetti , Jaguarman has been praised as a classic quest, a fairy tale and an optimistic manifesto. A moving, singular book, both intimate and expansive, and one we’re very glad to to see in real life. Plus, look at that author photo by @kaineharrys !! Publishing 7th May by @hoperoadpublishing - you’re going to love it!

🗣️Round-up review🗣️ Okechukwu Nzelu reviews Act Normal: Joy and Despair in Postcolonial Britain' by Pete Kalu for Writers Mosaic. 'It is incorrigibly plural, a memoir that dispenses with chronology in favour of curiosity, and this is one of its greatest strengths ... It is a big-hearted book, and a big-brained one too. This book is, among other things, a testament to the broad curiosities and cultural fluency of its author.' Thank you to @nzeluwrites for the thougtful review. Find the other shortlilsted Jhalak books @jhalakprize Read the full review at Writers Mosaic and explore Pete Kalu's creative & polemic memoir at 🔗 in bio.

Almost two months since publication, the reviews of Venice Requiem are in… ‘A vibrant and poetic tribute to all African migrants. A necessary book.’- Jury of the Alain Spiess Second Novel Prize Find your copy direct at our website or your local bookshop 🩵

We spoke with Ros Schwartz (@rosschwartz ) on her recent translation of Venice Requiem by Khalid Lyamlahy. In the interview for our series ‘Talking with Translators’, we discuss pitching to publishers, translating across mediums, her notion of hospitality as a translator, and the re-translations of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince, and Jacquline Harpman’s I Who Have Never Known Men. We loved speaking with Ros! Read the full interview on the link in our bio. [Photo credit: Camila Franca]

Act Normal: Joy and Despair in Postcolonial Britain by Pete Kalu has been longlisted for the 2026 Jhalak Prize 🎉 ‘I’ve been stunned by the rich and diverse tapestry of contemporary fiction and non-fiction…Each longlisted entry here is a powerful act of creative resistance.’ - Jacob Ross Through fragmented memories, vivid imagery and introspective musings, Kalu explores a range of themes from the joys and anxieties of childhood to the complexities of adult relationships, career struggles, and the enduring search for meaning. Praise for Act Normal A brilliant, compelling collection — politically sharp, dryly witty, and underpinned by a lyrical genius. Bravo’ Tariq Mahmood ‘You will laugh, catch your breath and question the narrative, but ultimately you will marvel at the patterns that Pete has produced. A polycultural masterpiece in being’ Muli Amaye ‘In Act Normal you will discover ideas and events as imaginative light bulbs which remain permanently switched on’ Julia Davies ‘Chronology be damned, this is all exquisitely crafted visceral prose meandering where it may. Hang on to your hat as we encounter an almost Dickensian roll call of characters for whom the word eccentric barely scratches the surface’ Marcia Hutchison, author of The Mercy Step Congratulations to all the longlisted authors! Before We Hit the Ground, Selali Fiamanya Call Me Ishmaelle, Xiaolu Guo I Want to Talk to You, Diana Evans The South, Tash Aw Love Forms, Claire Adam Saraswati, Gurnaik Johal The Science of Racism: Everything you need to know but probably don’t - yet, Keon West Foreign Fruit, Katie Goh Minority Rule: Culture Wars and the Rentier Class: Adventures in the Culture War, Ash Sarkar Hail Mary, Funmi Fetto Shamiso, Brian Chikwava

Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025, @DuaLipa 's monthly pick for the Service95 Book Club and, best of all (for us), longlisted for the Queen Mary Small Press Fiction Prize 2026 is 'Small Boat' by Vincent Delecroix, tr. Helen Stevenson, from @hoperoadpublishing . Our judge Stu Hennigan called it "a dense and powerful novel for our times that examines how political and public discourse is allowed to frame the plight of refugees as an administrative problem while studiously ignoring the devastating reality of their lives.” See why it's getting so many plaudits by purchasing it directly from the press at /books/small-boat #queenmarysmallpressfictionprize #republicofconsciousness #writingcompetition #writersofinstagram #bookstagram #instabooks #books #independentpublishing #bookstack #booklovers

Happy publication day to Venice Requiem by Khalid Lyamlahy, translated by Ros Schwartz. We celebrated publication last night with a great event @bricklanebookshop Signed copies available at South Kensington Books, Foyles & Waterstones Picadilly. Event tonight - Khalid Lyamlahy in conversation with Lisa St Aubin de Téran at @verandabookshop - tickets in bio! These events are supported by Institut Français Royaume-Uni.