RESIN

(Doubleday £12.99)

THIS haunting, claustrophobic novel about love and obsession was a sensation when it first appeared in Denmark.

It tells the story of an isolated family living on a tiny Danish island called the Head. The principal narrator, Liv, was six years old when she died — or at least when her father, Jens, told the authorities she had died in an accident.

In fact, she’s helping her father in his workshop on the edge of the forest while her overweight mother languishes at home in bed. Indeed, Liv was there when Jens smothered her grandmother and set fire to her corpse.

This chilling story is told from a variety of viewpoints, including Liv’s and her grandmother’s, and through Liv’s mother’s letters. It slyly reveals the history of a fractured family that no one is allowed to leave because of Jens’s fixation that he alone can keep them safe. This is a moving tale of a love that morphs into madness.