WE ARE ATTEMPTING TO SURVIVE OUR TIME by A.L. Kennedy

Jonathan Cape, £16.99 (ebook £9.99)

★★★★★

FORMIDABLY insightful, A.L. Kennedy’s latest collection of short stories is a shrewd examination of life’s defining moments.

Not all these moments are loud – though the man having a panic attack at Kings Cross Station might disagree. And yet, however small, each story invites the reader to enter a

THE DISCOMFORT OF EVENING by Marieke Lucas Rijnevald

Faber & Faber, £12.99 (ebook £7.99)

★★★★★

THIS debut novel is at times so unnervingly vivid and disturbing, you have to put it down and walk away for a little while. very particular struggle with characters who not only feel real, but whose vulnerability will resonate long after the moment has ended.

Through a series of slice-of-life moments – from the man on the edge of fame to the woman who walks out on her honeymoon – Kennedy examines instances of failure and injustice, success and almost success, love and faith.

His closely observed prose is bleakly affecting – a writer who’s yet to disappoint.

Translated from Dutch, it concerns the extraordinary perspective of 10-year-old Jas who lives on her family’s dairy farm, where the day-to-day is dictated by the cows, the word of God, and what Jas’ mother is cooking for dinner.

Then an accident on the ice turns everything brutally sour, and Jas’ off-kilter understanding of the world begins to turn in on itself.

Rijnevald’s writing is incredibly visceral, so much so that often it’s difficult to keep reading.

Bold, intriguing, and quietly disconcerting, it’s hard to get out of your head.

NON-FICTION GREENERY by Tim Dee Jonathan Cape, £18.99 (ebook £9.99)

★★★★★ A RADIO producer, student of literature and dedicated birdwatcher, Tim

Dee has shown his aptitude for this blend of personal, cultural and natural histories in previous memoirs.

Greenery is an anatomy of spring, travelling northwards through the year, but its course meanders eclectically. Sometimes the lush prose overwhelms but many moments resonate, like the ‘rhyme’ between birds in the daylit arctic summer and in the sun-drenched south.

When scattered personal anecdotes finally crystallise into the recent events in Dee’s life, the heart breaks.