STEPHANIE CROSS

THE MARS ROOM

(Cape £16.99) SeT largely inside a women’s prison, with a central character who’s serving a double life sentence, this isn’t your typical beach read.

Romy hall was once a stripper at San Francisco’s notorious Mars Room. Now, having been found guilty of murdering her stalker, her sole aim is to secure her young son’s future.

Subplots involving a corrupt cop and a failed academic are braided with prose-poem lists of institutional regulations, but ( happily) Kushner’s highdefinition, high-impact prose is as electrifying as it is daring.

Yes, this indictment of the American justice system contains much that appalls, but the brutality is relieved by unexpected lyricism and moments of pitchblack comedy.