The Slowworm’s Song by Andrew Miller

SCEPTRE, £18.99 (EBOOK £9.99)

Stephen, an ex-soldier and recovering alcoholic, has just found the daughter he never knew – but fears losing her when he is summoned to an enquiry about his involvement in an incident during The Troubles in Ireland. Unable to face telling her, he writes to her. The result is partly a love letter: for her, for his life at the time she was born, for the country, for life itself – and part confession of his own role in something he struggles to forgive himself for. Andrew Miller’s gentle, beautifully crafted sentences belie the often brutal truths behind the narrative. Memories of lost colleagues and Stephen’s own childhood sit alongside a darker past.