LATEST TITLES

I AM, I AM, I AM: SEVENTEEN BRUSHES WITH DEATH by Maggie O’Farrell, Tinder Press, £18.99 (ebook £9.49) HHHHH

I AM, I Am, I Am is nimble, emotionally bruising and stunningly written. Divided into 17 distinct moments from the author’s life, out of chronological order, it explores terrifying junctures at which Maggie grappled with the fact she may not take another breath.

There are instances many of us have experienced – sinking out of your depth while swimming, and others so brutal and horrifying, you have to put the book down between paragraphs to rebalance.

When you discover that Maggie’s daughter suffers an immunological disorder and anaphylactic attacks leading to alarmingly frequent hospital visits, the strength, urgency and reasoning that underpins I Am, I Am, I Am becomes palpable. It’s a beautiful, strangely reassuring read.

MY ABSOLUTE DARLING by Gabriel Tallent, Fourth Estate, £12.99 (ebook £7.99) HHHHH

THIS debut novel from Gabriel Tallent brings us the story of Turtle Alveston – or ‘kibble’ to her charismatic but twisted survivalist father Martin – a 14-year-old who spends her time cleaning guns and preparing for the apocalypse she believes will soon come.

One day, she escapes Martin’s control and meets Jacob, a lost boy of a similar age whose comfortable and cosseted life reveals to her an ordinary world she never knew existed, opening an irreparable rift in the love-hate relationship between Martin, one of the most well painted characters in recent memory, and his ‘absolute darling’ of the title.

The way Tallent unravels the tale that follows, of a rapid descent into mistrust and violence at their ramshackle house on a hill, is invigorating, paranoia-inducing and often dizzying in its beauty. While his pacing creates a necessary sense of unease, Tallent is prone to rushing towards his set-pieces, many of which stack up across the 400 pages.