SYCAMORE Bryn Chancellor HarperCollins $29.99

It is almost tempting fate for a lecturer in creative writing to present a novel but apart from the rather ponderous opening, this is an outstanding read. Maud Winters uproots her teenage daughter and moves to the rural Arizona town of Sycamore when her marriage breaks down. It’s not easy for either of them but Jess eventually makes some friends before embarking on a relationship that will tear apart half the town. Then she disappears. Sycamore examines the years that follow in a place almost paralysed by fury and fear, each chapter encapsulating a life forever changed. Dreams disintegrate to dust, potential seeps away and Maud, the local postie, waits for a letter that never comes. Jess’s poems, an explosive Thanksgiving dinner scripted as a play, and beautiful, poignant prose coalesce into a polished whole. A 10-tissue tear-jerker.