Property

By: Lionel Shriver Who? Lauded journalist and author of the award-winning We Need To Talk About Kevin, which was also made into a film starring Tilda Swinton. Got two hours? Read: The Standing Chandelier. This novella about the friendship between a woman and a man (and his jealous fiancée) is ideal for train journeys. Got 12 minutes? Read: The Royal Male. At just six pages, you could read it in the kitchen while your pasta cooks. Bluff it: “Shriver’s theme here is ‘property’ in all senses of the word: examining our relationship with our homes, as well as the people who inhabit them. Essentially she’s asking: do we own parts of our friends and family?” £14.99, The Borough Press, out 19th April