New Fiction Releases Blend Romance, Ghosts and Sexual Themes

This week’s literary roundup highlights a diverse slate of new fiction. Andrés Barba’s horror novel Last Day of a Prior Life follows a real‑estate agent who encounters a mysterious seven‑year‑old boy that refuses to leave a house, turning the property into a gothic, time‑bending mystery. Bobby Palmer’s contemporary romance Main Characters tells the story of a London film‑industry couple, Clara and Seb, from the perspective of the people who observe them, creating a multi‑voiced love narrative.

The selections span settings from Australia to India and even the afterlife, while the accompanying non‑fiction titles examine Australian colonial violence, the national legal system, and a re‑issue of Camille Paglia’s controversial 1990 work Sexual Personae, which surveys sexual decadence in Western literature and art.