PRETEND I’M DEAD

(Oneworld £12.99) MONA meets Mr Disgusting at a needle exchange where she volunteers when not cleaning other people’s houses. he’s a junkie who’s dirty and wrinkled, but he has frank, dark eyes and quickly becomes a ‘furtive presence’ in her life, then more. But their relationship is far from plain sailing and ends abruptly with his suicide, where - upon she ups sticks and leaves for New Mexico, and a new start.

There, she meets a new set of misfits: Nigel and Shiori, her New- Age neighbours; henry, a client harbouring a disturbing secret; and Betty, a leopard-print-wearing psychic who is right alarmingly often.

And then, of course, there’s Mona herself, with her own set of idiosyncratic habits and preferences.

It’s Mona ’s ballsy , kickass voice that makes this novel tick . Unreliable, sharply observant and funny , she recounts her journey of self - discovery in a way that is immediate and intriguing.