Novel of the week

Ordinary People by Diana Evans Chatto 336pp £16.99 The Week Bookshop £14.99

In this intelligent and thoughtful novel, Diana Evans charts the struggling relationships of two black couples in their 30s, said Hannah Beckerman in The Observer. Michael and Melissa live in Crystal Palace, while their friends Damian and Stephanie have decamped to Surrey. All four yearn for excitement and fulfilment, yet find themselves “stifled by the monotony of family life”. Deftly observed and “elegiac”, Ordinary People is a sharp portrayal of the “disenchantment and estrangement of long-term relationships”.

While this novel is very funny, you’d “better like your comedy acrid, bitter and spicy”, said Richard Godwin in the London Evening Standard. Much like John Updike, whom she recently praised, Evans “positively gambols over the crushed dreams of her characters”. While she isn’t afraid to “go deep into the foul rag-and-bone shop of the heart”, her tortured souls are always “warmly drawn”, said Jude Cook in the Literary Review. Written in “inquisitive, deliciously exploratory prose”, Ordinary People “is a joy from start to finish”.