THE BEST NEW FICTION

A Hunger Ross Raisin

Jonathan Cape £16.99 As a sous-chef at a top London restaurant, Anita prides herself on her work ethic and looks forward to becoming her own boss. But how can she advance her career while her husband is housebound with dementia and her children are reluctant to share the burden of care? It is not hard to sympathise with her plight and, in the capable hands of Raisin, a touching human story develops.

The vignettes of working under pressure in a high-end kitchen are particularly good.

Max Davidson

Mercury Pictures Presents Anthony Marra

John Murray £16.99 Mercury Pictures International is a small-time, struggling Hollywood studio churning out B-movies. Headed by the mercurial Artie Feldman, it is staffed largely by emigres from Nazi-occupied Europe, who are subsequently designated enemy aliens when war breaks out. Focusing predominantly on the fortunes and back story of an Italian exile, assistant producer Maria Lagana, Marra’s second novel is a stylish examination of displacement and assimilation. Set in an endemically racist Los Angeles, its inventive prose pulses with humour, wit and affection.

Simon Humphreys

The Night Ship Jess Kidd

Canongate £16.99 Kidd’s latest historical novel is a cleverly constructed splittimeline saga drawn on the disturbing events that followed the wreck of a Dutch merchant vessel off the coast of Australia during the 17th Century. Chapters alternate between two children: Mayken, a girl caught up in the unfolding horror on board ship, and Gil, an island boy haunted by her story nearly 400 years later. A slow-build tale with a supernatural tint, it’s uplifting despite the grim source material.

Anthony Cummins