International fiction
The Answers by Catherine Lacey
With The Answers, Catherine Lacey asserts herself as one of contemporary fiction’s freshest young voices; her work captures the anxiety of uncertainty and the challenges of living in a female body with immense power and ingenuity. Her debut novel…
Siracusa by Delia Ephron
What a treat it is to be in the hands of an accomplished storyteller; someone who has already provided me with hours of joy in her previous works. Ephron is, after all, the famous author of books, essays and such…
A Good Country by Laleh Khadivi
The path from stoner surfer to radicalisation seems hard to understand, but A Good Country connects those points in the journey of Reza ‘Rez’ Courdee. Born to Iranian immigrant parents in California, his childhood is one of high expectations and…
The Destroyers by Christopher Bollen
The Destroyers is a fast-paced, thrilling and engrossing holiday read. Sentences are thick with descriptors; the tight prose is rich with apt summations: ‘The imagination is a wild dog, it runs happily toward the meanest end.’
Set on Patmos, a…
Before Everything by Victoria Redel
Before Everything is a poetic and visceral exploration of friendship, life and death, and how we accept losing someone we can’t imagine life without. At the age of 11, Anna, Molly, Ming, Caroline and Helen decided to name themselves ‘the…
Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy
Maile Meloy is one of my favourite writers. Her short stories are regularly published in The New Yorker (and were recently adapted for the film Certain Women, with Laura Dern, Michelle Williams and Kristen Stewart); fans include Richard Ford…
Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong
I doubt I will enjoy another book in 2017 more than Rachel Khong’s Goodbye, Vitamin. This small miracle of a novel about family, friendship and memory is equal parts laugh-out-loud hilarious and acutely moving.
Thirty-year-old Ruth Young has been…
Defectors by Joseph Kanon
Simon Weeks and his older brother Frank had promising careers in the United States intelligence services. Members of a respected Boston family, their careers and life trajectories were mapped out for them. However, Simon’s career was destroyed when Frank was…
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
It’s unusual to come across a novel that makes you feel like you are part of a world, and simultaneously totally ignorant of every aspect of that world. This paradox of belonging is what I’ve taken away from Arundhati Roy’s…
Based on a True Story by Delphine de Vigan
Already a runaway bestseller in its native France, Based on a True Story is unlike anything else you are likely to read this year. A taut, ferocious psychological thriller, it combines the masterful plotting of The Talented Mr Ripley with…