Oyinkan Braithwaite is among the lineup of authors penning a new novella for Quick Reads in 2021. Caitlin Moran, Louise Candlish and Khurrum Rahman will also provide titles for the programme, which aims to tackle the UK’s adult literacy crisis by helping less confident readers get started.
Publishing on 4th February 2021, the new series of £1 books includes The Skylight (Simon & Schuster) a dark domestic thriller from Candlish, uplifting romance Saving the Day (Century) by Fforde and the holiday from hell for James’ creation Detective Roy Grace in Wish You Were Dead (Macmillan). There will be an abridged version of Moran’s How to Be a Woman (Ebury); an introduction to Rahman’s small-scale dope dealer Javid Qasim in The Motive (HQ) and The Baby is Mine (Atlantic), Braithwaite’s follow-up to her debut, My Sister, the Serial Killer (Atlantic).
Braithwaite added: “When I am writing, I don’t know what my readers will look like or what challenges they may be facing. So it was an interesting experience creating work with the understanding that the reader might need a story that was easy to digest, and who might not have more than a few hours in a week to commit to reading. It was daunting—simpler does not necessarily mean easier—I may have pulled out a couple of my hairs; but I would do it again in a heartbeat. Quick Reads tapped into my desire to create fiction that would be an avenue for relief and escape for all who came across it.”
Credit: The Bookseller
On her Instagram page she wrote: Each year, Quick Reads work with bestselling authors to produce 6 short and engaging books for adult readers…They work with public libraries, prisons, colleges, hospitals, and adult learning organisations to ensure these books are accessed by those who may find reading difficult as they are a perfect entry point to reading for pleasure.
We are excited about this!