Stylist Best New Fiction of 2024

A Bookseller ‘One to Watch’

‘Manny and the Baby stood out for me from the first few lines. The beautifully balanced prose, the wonderful story, and sumptuous detail are constructed with poetic precision and held my attention right until the very end.’ Jacqueline Crooks, author of Fire Rush

‘An incredibly special writer, thoughtful and energetic, occasionally savage, wise beyond her years, with an eye and an ear for syntax that is masterful ... Varaidzo is the future, and Manny and the Baby is a book for the ages.’ Nikesh Shukla

Included in NetGalley’s 2024 Hot List

London, 1936. Two sisters are ready to take the city and the world by storm.

Bath, 2012. Two young Black men are figuring out who they are, and who they want to become.

Manny Powell is forthright, intellectual, and determined to make her mark on the London literary scene. Her younger sister, Rita ‘The Baby’, just wants to dance. Chasing their dreams across smoky Soho jazz clubs, they soon find themselves part of the burgeoning Black ambition movement, and must learn how to navigate it as women. As tensions rise, and fascism and war snap at their heels, Rita finds herself drawn to the mysterious mimic and trumpeter, Ezekiel Brown, from Jamaica, and the trio are faced with choices that will alter their lives forever.

Itai has fled London to his late father’s flat in Bath. Listening to cassette tapes his father made, he realises there is a lot he doesn’t know about the man’s life — who is Rita? Why did his father record her life story? And might she hold the answers to Itai’s questions? Meanwhile, his developing friendship with Josh, a young athlete who moonlights as a dealer to fund his training, is on unsteady ground. As the country prepares for the 2012 Olympics, Josh is under increasing pressure from his bosses to find out just what the hell Itai is really doing in their city.

Manny and the Baby is a character-driven debut novel, full of heart, about what it means to be Black and British, now and in the past.

"

‘Transporting … an uplifting ode to the power of family and enduring love.’

"

‘Varaidzo provides telling portraits of black British lives, past and present.’

"

‘The writing draws you in with the warmth of a crackly two bar heater. Varaidzo is a careful, skilful writer who has pulled off a layered story with verve and style. Varaidzo’s debut novel offers a beautifully clear window into lives and histories that would be otherwise hidden, just out of sight. I’ll walk Soho’s streets differently after Manny and the Baby.’

"

‘One of my favourite books this year.’

"

‘Loved the exquisite writing, the scene-setting, the absolute energy of the characters, how it all plays out.’

"

‘Manny and the Baby was the first book I read this year, and I already know it will be the best book I read this year.’

"

‘The descriptions of smoky Soho Jazz clubs are vivid and enticing, and the struggles of black people then, contrasted with now, are thought provoking and important. It’s great on relationships of all kinds, grief, and shared history.’