Fiction
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
Repenting at leisure: Early Sobrieties, by Michael Deagler, reviewed
Back with his family in suburban Philadelphia after seven years of solid boozing, Dennis Monk tries to make amends for past misdemeanours. But will he succeed?
Another mistress for Victor Hugo: Célina, by Catherine Axelrad, reviewed
A young chambermaid joins the Hugo household in Guernsey and soon finds herself summoned at night to her master’s adjoining bedroom
The downside to being rich: Long Island Compromise, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, reviewed
A rollicking family saga set on Long Island revolves around the kidnapping of a wealthy businessman and the effects of it on his wife and children
Echoes of Tom Brown’s School Days: Rabbits, by Hugo Rifkind, reviewed
When 16-year-old Tommo moves to an elite, brutish boarding school, he longs to fit in and even manages to join the inner circle. But can he ever really become ‘one of them’?
A tale of impossible love: The End of Drum Time, by Hanna Pylväinen, reviewed
A 19th-century missionary’s daughter falls for a Sami herdsman and flees with him to the tundra – only to find that, as an incomer, she will always be cold-shouldered
Portrait of an artistic provocateur: Blue Ruin, by Hari Kunzru, reviewed
A once fashionable YBA now scraping a living in America meets old friends by chance, prompting a deep dive into memory
A sea of troubles: The Coast Road, by Alan Murrin, reviewed
The sudden return of the liberated Colette Crowley to the Donegal fishing village of Ardglas stirs fear and resentment in the closed community
No Sir Lancelot: A Good Deliverance, by Toby Clements, reviewed
Imprisoned in Newgate, Sir Thomas Malory spins wondrous tales of his ‘gentle acts of valour’ to the jailor’s son. And who cares whether they are true or not?
An insight into the American Dream: Table for Two, by Amor Towles, reviewed
Recent short stories and a novella all feature protagonists in pursuit of an ambition that puts them in varying degrees of peril
Citizens of nowhere: This Strange Eventful History, by Claire Messud, reviewed
A fictionalised version of Messud’s recent family history traces the many moves of three generations forced into exile from Algeria
Kapows and wisecracks: Fight Me, by Austin Grossman, reviewed
A mild-manned academic with special powers joins forces with three similarly gifted friends to defeat the Dark Adversary, Sinistro
A Native American tragedy: Wandering Stars, by Tommy Orange, reviewed
Shocked to find that his Cheyenne forebears had been imprisoned in Florida, Orange was inspired to write a story of displacement and abuse spanning generations
Second life: Playboy, by Constance Debré, reviewed
Having abandoned her marriage and her career as a lawyer, Debré re-emerges as a lesbian, a writer, and a seducer equal to Casanova
Haunted by the past: Winterberg’s Last Journey, by Jaroslav Rudis, reviewed
A garrulous nonagenarian and his patient carer make a long train trip to Sarajevo, hoping to solve a decades-old murder mystery
A tragedy waiting to happen: Tiananmen Square, by Lai Wen, reviewed
A moving coming-of-age novel sees a shy, introverted girl finding friends and freedom at Beijing university – until the authorities begin their murderous clamp-down
Visitants from the past: The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley, reviewed
An experimental project transports people across centuries. Lieutenant Graham Gore, an Arctic explorer whisked from the 1840s to present-day London, is not overly impressed
A haunting mystery: Enlightenment, by Sarah Perry, reviewed
The story of the disappearance from an Essex manor house of a Romanian astronomer named Maria Vaduva starts to obsess a local journalist a century later
A middle-aged man in crisis: How to Make a Bomb, by Rupert Thomson, reviewed
Travelling home from an academic conference, Philip Notman suddenly feels sick and disorientated. But it will take a long time for him to identify the cause, and possible cure
Women on a wind-swept island: Hagstone, by Sinéad Gleeson, reviewed
Nell, an artist, lives peacefully on an island, presumably off the west coast of Ireland. But all changes when a group of women occupy a crumbling convent overlooking the sea
