3 clients of Aitken Alexander on the 10 must-read books by black female authors for 2019

Award-winning author Diana Evans’ first novel 26a, released in 2006, was shortlisted for a number of awards, including the Guardian First Book and Whitbread First Novel prizes. She’s since written two more novels, The Wonder and Ordinary People, which came out in 2018 and was named a book of the year by the New YorkerNew Statesman and Financial Times. Set in London, it follows two couples at a moment of reckoning. Evans is a former dancer, and her journalism has appeared in Time and the New York Review of Books among others.

Ordinary People is out now (Chatto & Windus, £14.99)

For years, women of colour have been excluded from mainstream beauty coverage and books, with much of the advice geared towards white women. But women of colour want beauty advice as well. Step up Funmi Fetto, Vogue UK’s contributing beauty editor and Observer Magazine’s beauty columnist, whose book Palette, out this autumn, is aimed at women of colour, covering hair, skincare, makeup and body products for those who often find themselves left out of the beauty conversation.

Palette is out on 3 October (Hodder & Stoughton, £25)

Oyinkan Braithwate is a front runner for 2019’s best titled novel for My Sister, the Serial Killer about, well, a woman whose sister is a serial killer. The novel is a sharp and darkly comic look at a sibling relationship, as well as a serial killer thriller. Braithwaite worked as an assistant editor at a Nigerian publishing house and at a children’s educational and entertainment company before becoming a freelance writer and editor. She’s also a spoken-word artist and was a finalist for the prestigious Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

My Sister, The Serial Killer is out now (Atlantic Books, £12.99)

Click here to see the full list.