The Mars Room

By Rachel Kushner Jonathan Cape, 352pp, £16.99

Rachel Kushner’s second novel The Flamethrowers

– a macho tale of motorcycle racing and 1970s political activism – scorched the book charts and divided critics. In her follow-up, the Oregon-born writer restricts her gaze to the drab walls and iron bars of a women’s prison in contemporary America – but Netflix comedy drama

Orange Is The New Black this ain’t. Kushner went undercover in a maximum security facility in order to better embody The Mars Room’s main character, Romy, who is serving a double life sentence for murder. Our sympathies shift to and fro as the details of her crime – and those of her cellmates’ – are skilfully revealed and Kushner takes every opportunity to expose the frailties of the justice system. At times a visceral portrait of prison life, the novel also paints a picture of a seedy outside world which can stealthily suck unfortunate souls into lives of crime. ■