THE BEST NEW FICTION

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

James McBride Weidenfeld & Nicholson, €25

Set in the rundown Chicken Hill neighbourhood of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, during the Depression, this wonderful novel recounts how an uneasy community of Jewish immigrants and African Americans pulls together to protect a deaf orphan threatened with incarceration in a brutal institution. McBride is a fabulous talent, and expertly marshals a vast array of characters with a polyphony of voices. Simon Humphreys

Undiscovered Gabriela Weiner

Pushkin, €19

As Weiner writes, ‘a great-great-grandfather is just a relic in a person’s life’ – unless, that is, he plundered pre-Columbian artefacts to bring back to Europe, fathered a child out of wedlock, and written a work of shocking racism.

How would anyone reconcile such knowledge of their ancestry with their daily life? This is the question at the heart of Weiner’s autobiographical novel, a lyrical, open-ended meditation that wrestles with questions of heritage and contemporary colonialism.

Francesca Peacock

The Witch’s Daughter

Imogen EdwardsJones

Head of Zeus, €25

In The Witches Of St Petersburg, Montenegrin princess Militza gained a reputation for occult powers, and introduced the conniving mystic Rasputin to the Romanov court. Now her daughter Nadezhda’s conflicted relationship with her own supernatural talents will be put to the test as she battles to survive the Russian Revolution. An abundance of research sometimes slows this tense tale but Edwards-Jones’ enthusiasm is hard to resist.

Hephzibah Anderson

The Mantis Kotaro Isaka

Harvill Secker €24

Isaka’s breakthrough novel, Bullet Train, featured a variety of assassins, all with unique killing techniques. The Mantis, by contrast, features just one hitman, Kabuto, and he’s unique only in his ordinariness. He dispatches his victims simply, without fuss or apparent concern. His main worry is that he will wake up his cantankerous wife when he comes home late from a murder. This is a decidedly offbeat, but ultimately strangely touching thriller, with a wonderful final twist. John Williams