Billed as the “black Bridget Jones,” Queenie secured its 25-year-old author a six-figure deal, soared to number two on the U.K.’s Sunday Times bestseller list and is being adapted for television. Candice Carty-Williams’s debut novel follows Queenie Jenkins, a young British Jamaican woman working at a newspaper in London, whose life starts to unravel when she splits up with her long-term boyfriend. Queenie’s troubled friendships and romantic misadventures can be hilarious, but the comparison to Bridget Jones’s Diary understates the depths of Queenie’s difficulties. Carty-Williams deftly depicts a woman struggling through depression and self-destruction, and offers an astute commentary on prejudice in Britain today.
Buy now: Queenie