LITERARY FICTION

Orbital

by Samantha Harvey (Cape £14.99, 144pp) 

One of our most consistently surprising novelists rips up the rulebook again, taking us into space in the company of six astronauts circling Earth on the ­International Space Station. A boldly imaginative meditation on time and the nature of existence.

The Black Eden

by Richard T. Kelly (Faber £20, 464pp)

Set in Scotland between the 1950s and 1980s, this pacy panorama of politics and petroleum follows five men whose paths are shaped by the discovery of North Sea oil. Kelly's eye for the nitty-gritty of life on the rigs is among the thrills of this action-packed ensemble narrative.

The Birthday Party

by Laurent Mauvignier (Fitzcarraldo £16.99, 504pp)

A rural French household finds itself under armed siege in this unsettling tale of family secrets violently unearthed. The horror unfolds in agonisingly glacial slo-mo as Mauvignier twisty sentences pinpoint every last thought of captives and perpetrators alike. 

Kit

by Megan Barker (Cheerio £12.99, 160pp)

Fusing prose and poetry, this poignant debut follows the painful turns in a passionate, decadeslong male-female friendship, as youthful high-jinks give way to the hurly-burly of married parenthood. A wrenching study of depression, but also a joyous ode to life.

Biography of X

by Catherine Lacey (Granta £18.99, 416pp)

Purportedly written by the widow of an iconoclastic celebrity, 'X', this fictional biography documents in scholarly yet gripping fashion X's endless reinventions, her collaborations with the likes of David Bowie and Tom Waits, her ambition and her cruelty. There are plenty of twists, but the biggest is that it's set in a world where the American South seceded. Singular, dizzying and brilliant.

Absolutely and Forever

by Rose Tremain (Chatto & Windus £16.99, 192pp)

Fall head- over-heels this Christmas with this beautiful tale of swooning first love. At just 15, Marianne is smitten by Simon and swiftly loses her innocence in a Morris Minor (it is the 1950s after all). But thereafter all goes wrong. Hers is a life shaped in the shadow of heartbreak and Tremain's bravery and brilliance in making from it something other than a tragedy is pure genius.

Chain-gang All-stars

by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Harvill Secker £18.99, 384pp)

A graphically violent satire that takes aim at the institutionally racist American justice system won’t be everyone’s cup of tea — but few others this year have touched Adjei-Brenyah for ideas and ambition. Add in commanding storytelling and you have perhaps the most indelible novel of 2023. 

Restless Dolly Maunder

by Kate Grenville (Canongate £16.99, 256pp)

Forbidden by her father from becoming a teacher, young Dolly Maunder instead established herself as a highly successful hotelier in early 20th century Australia. Yet she could also be difficult and cold. The masterful Grenville addresses the question of why this brilliant, frustrated woman struggled to express love to her children with clarity and compassion in a swift, thoroughly absorbing book.

The Maniac

by Benjamin Labatut (Pushkin Press £20, 368pp)

This beguiling novel tells the story of mathematician Johnny von Neumann, a pivotal contributor to the Manhattan Project. To read it is to almost feel your brain crack open as Benjamin Labatut summons the horrors and the wonders of science and technology, not least those of AI, whose nihilistic potential is made explicit in the final chapter.