THE BEST PAPERBACKS

FICTION The Girls Emma Cline Vintage €8.24

Cline brilliantly evokes the fatal self-indulgence of Sixties California in a creepily sinister coming-ofage story that explores the insidious world of cults. You know from the beginning that something terrible is going to happen but you’re compelled to continue reading by the magnetic force of the writing.

FICTION The Lesser Bohemians Eimear McBride Faber & Faber €8.99

McBride’s second novel tells the story of a young drama student in London who falls for an older actor. The plot may sound conventional; the execution is anything but. McBride’s prose bursts on you like a vivid verbal collage. It’s rare to find experimental writing like this in the mainstream; rarer still for it to be so engrossing.

FICTION Reputations Juan Gabriel Vásquez Bloomsbury €12.60

The Colombian novelist has distanced himself from the school of magical realism and this fine novel is firmly rooted in his country’s history. It tells the story of a once-rebellious political cartoonist who, confronted by an unwelcome reminder of his past, is forced to examine his conscience and his sense of self.

NON FICTION Stalin And The Scientists Simon Ings

Faber & Faber €15.39 The Bolshevik Revolution was meant to allow science to help perfect society. To Stalin, however, truth was secondary to ideology, and questioning the Marxist line risked death. As Ings explains, Soviet science achieved an incredible amount in impossible circumstances.