Violets Alex Hyde

Granta £12.99

Towards the end of the Second World War, a woman suffers a stillbirth and is left desolate as her husband is deployed overseas. Meanwhile, another woman conceals her pregnancy to join up and is sent to Italy. The twist? Both are named Violet, and their alternating stories eventually merge. Brimming with bodily fluids, and written in staccato sentences interspersed with fragments of verse, this ambitious novel bites off more than it can chew.