Fiction
Unrecorded lives: Tell Me Everything, by Elizabeth Strout, reviewed
The pandemic’s aftershocks are still felt in Crosby, as Strout’s best-loved characters, Olive, Lucy, Jim and Bob, reminisce about people they have known, imbuing their lives with meaning
Heartbreaking scenes: Annihilation, by Michel Houellebecq, reviewed
Set in 2027, with France in a state of economic and moral decay, Houellebecq’s deeply affecting novel is really a meditation on love and death and the way we treat the dying
Undercover in the Dordogne: Creation Lake, by Rachel Kushner, reviewed
An American spy-for-hire uses her feminine wiles to infiltrate an eco-warrior group in rural France. But will she go off-piste and become indoctrinated?
The pitfalls of privilege and philanthropy: Entitlement, by Rumaan Alam, reviewed
An ambitious young black woman working for a charitable trust clashes with its white octogenarian founder over what each thinks they deserve
From tragedy to mockery: Munichs, by David Peace, reviewed
The devastating crash at Munich-Riem airport in 1959 haunts Manchester United fans to this day. Peace defies anyone to read his novel and use ‘Munichs’ as an insult ever again
An outcast among outcasts: Katerina, by Aharon Appelfeld, reviewed
A peasant girl flees her abusive home, to find happiness working for Jewish families in the lush Carpathian countryside – until anti-Semitic pogroms change everything irrevocably
An accidental spy: Gabriel’s Moon, by William Boyd, reviewed
Having chanced to interview the Congolese politician Patrice Lumumba shortly before his assassination, a travel writer finds himself targeted by British Intelligence
Rather in the lurch: Small Bomb at Dimperley, by Lissa Evans, reviewed
In 1945, a dilapidated Tudor manor risks being demolished – unless an impoverished evacuee with a gift for organisation can galvanise its despairing owner
More curious canine incidents: Dogs and Monsters, by Mark Haddon, reviewed
Mesmerising accounts of dogs feature in these latest stories, including Actaeon’s tragic hounds, St Antony’s comforting mutt and Laika, the husky hurled into space
Two young men in flight: Partita and A Winter in Zürau, by Gabriel Josipovici reviewed
Kafka, spitting blood, escapes Prague to join his sister in Bohemia, and a fictional lover flees the wrath of an outraged husband in Josipovici’s delightful two-in-one trick
Tales with a twist: Safe Enough and Other Stories, by Lee Child, reviewed
Child has fun with the short story form, shooting from the hip. Sometimes the bad get their comeuppance, sometimes they don’t – but the good are rarely rewarded or even recognised
A death foretold: The Voyage Home, by Pat Barker, reviewed
Cassandra prophesies Agamemnon’s death as punishment for his crimes in Troy. But she knows that she too must share his fate -- since ‘you can’t cherry-pick prophecy’
An unlikely comeback: Rare Singles, by Benjamin Myers, reviewed
Dinah, a soul aficionado from Scarborough, persuades the forgotten elderly singer ‘Bucky’ Bronco to be guest of honour at a special concert. But will it all be hugely embarrassing?
Women beware women: Wife, by Charlotte Mendelson, reviewed
The claustrophobic bullying in this story of a lesbian marriage that sours is so well done it’s nauseating
A miracle beckons: Phantom Limb, by Chris Kohler, reviewed
When a severed hand, buried in the 17th century, is accidently unearthed, it proves to have magical powers. Will its discovery propel the local church minister to stardom?
After the Flood: There Are Rivers in the Sky, by Elif Shafak, reviewed
Water – essential to life and civilisation, but also a potentially destructive force – is the theme linking three disparate strands in Shafak’s magnificent new novel
A haunting theme: The Echoes, by Evie Wyld, reviewed
The many ghosts in Wyld’s novel include the recent occupant of a London flat, a girl in a faded photograph, and, most disturbingly, traumatised indigenous children in Australia
Absinthe and the casual fling: Ex-Wife, by Ursula Parrott, reviewed
A sensational bestseller, first published anonymously in 1929, centres around the adventures of a bright young American divorcée, seizing love wherever she can
Small mercies: Dead-End Memories, by Banana Yoshimoto, reviewed
Rape, poisoning, child abuse and betrayal feature in Yoshimoto’s dramatic stories – but gratitude and forgiveness run alongside sadness, stitched in the same cloth
Doomed to immortality: The Book of Elsewhere, by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville, reviewed
For the past 80,000 years, our protagonist has been fated to respawn himself. With a similar being now tracking him, he longs for the option of non-existence
Mother of mysteries: Rosarita, by Anita Desai, reviewed
On a break in Mexico, a young Indian woman is regaled with stories of her mother’s past by a total stranger. But is it all a con?
No laughing matter: The Material, by Camille Bordas, reviewed
A graduate course at the University of Chicago teaches stand-up to a group of aspiring young comedians. But the more you analyse humour, the less funny it becomes
Making the fur fly: Mary and the Rabbit Dream, by Noémi Kiss-Deáki
When a poor peasant named Mary Toft claimed to have given birth to 17 rabbits, many in Georgian Britain believed her, including senior members of the medical profession
The hunt for the next Messi: Godwin, by Joseph O’Neill, reviewed
A video file of an African teenager with legendary ball skills is circulating far from his homeland – wherever that is. How hard can it be to track him down?
In search of kindred spirits: An Absence of Cousins, by Lore Segal, reviewed
When Ilka Weisz, a young refugee from Vienna, accepts a teaching post in smalltown Connecticut, she struggles to make friends in the close-knit academic community
