THE BEST NEW FICTION

Beautiful World, Where Are You

Sally Rooney

Faber £16.99

In Rooney’s hotly anticipated third novel, two clever Irish millennials navigate the challenges of life and love in their late 20s via long emails. Eileen works for a Dublin literary mag; Alice is a successful novelist recovering from a nervous breakdown. With lashings of emotional drama, philosophical angst and, of course, sex, Rooney is on scintillating form.

Hephzibah Anderson

Harlem Shuffle

Colson Whitehead Fleet £16.99

Harlem, 1959. Ray Carney owns a furniture store and fences stolen jewellery on the side. He thinks he can straddle two worlds and achieve social respectability while being ‘only slightly bent’, but he’s dragged way out of his depth in a hotel heist. The deft storytelling and affectionate evocation of time and place are a constant pleasure.

Max Davidson

Freckles

Cecelia Ahern HarperCollins £16.99

Awkward Allegra Bird, nicknamed Freckles, is out of step with most people. Keen on order, the Dublin traffic warden finds her equilibrium upset by an irate motorist who tells her we’re all a mix of the five people we spend the most time with – and that her five must be all losers. It tees up a surprisingly hopeful novel about finding your place in the world.

Eithne Farry