What will we be reading next year? Five biggest trends from the London book fair | Books | The Guardian

4. Women's stories are getting darker

Among many of the big deals announced at the fair were a number of novels about women in dark and desperate situations, perhaps reflecting current discussions about women's health and safety.
Madeline Miller has won the Orange Prize for fiction for her book The Songs of Achilles. Photo by Linda Nylind. 31/5/2012.
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The Nursery by literary agent Szilvia Molnar is about a woman who begins to lose her grip on time after giving birth, while Christina Dalcher's Vita is a high-concept thriller about a world in which a prosecutor's life is forfeit if they seek the death penalty for someone who turns out to be innocent.

In historical fiction, The Witching Tide by Margaret Meyer is inspired by true events in 1645, following a woman who becomes witness to a witch hunt. The Beholders, by Hester Musson, is about a young maid in the 1870s who finds herself trying to uncover the mysteries of her workplace.