The acclaimed novelist's fourth novel tells of a chance encounter in London, between a Ghanaian psychiatrist and an American scientist. This encounter sets off a series of quite unexpected connections, in which disparate lives intertwine. This is a powerful and rich novel of character and relationships, revealing and celebrating the lives of London's migrant community, raising questions of society's values and the nature of happiness. A very enjoyable and profound novel.

In this book length poem, Robin Robertson achieves that near-impossible feat - a noir narrative as compelling as a novel. In fact, it was shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize for fiction. It tells of the drifting struggle of Walker, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following D-Day, as he tries to piece his life together. He moves from Nova Scotia to New York, then on to Los Angeles and San Francisco, all cities whose collapse from corruption, paranoia and racism are brilliantly evoked. An outstandingly original work.

I don't read a lot of graphic novels, but as this one was on the Booker Longlist I needed to find out what the fuss was about. It's quite an achievement, a very ambitious story, formally ingenious, beautifully written and sensitively drawn. It's a mystery of a girl who has disappeared, her depressed boyfriend, and his friend who he stays with while the disappearance is being investigated. But it's really about contemporary paranoia, misinformation, and the trauma of tragedy and violence in modern America. It's mighty powerful.

Very much a return to form here, after 2 or 3 not-quite-there novels from one of my favourite novelists Michael Ondaatje. 12 years after the war, the narrator Nathaniel pieces together the events that took place when he was a young man. Unexpectedly abandoned by their parents, 14 year old Nathaniel and his sister are cared for by a series of enigmatic and mysterious characters, who are clearly up to something which he doesn't fully understand. Written with typical Ondaatje lyricism, the reader comes on events obliquely, and it does take some attention to put together the puzzle.

As expected from this author, her new book is very much of the present moment in America. It's told in two time periods: 1871, and 2016, in the same house in the same small town, and describes how little human nature has changed in that time. In the historical section, which alternates chapters with the contemporary thread, a young science teacher is struggling against ostracism in the town for daring to teach Darwin's new theories.

The Dunedin Star was shipwrecked in 1942 on the Skeleton Coast of Namibia. 63 passengers and crew made it to shore, the most violent and inhospitable shore imaginable - 500 miles of raging seas and burning desert, all but inaccessible by land, air or sea. From interviews with survivors, historical archives and diaries the author reconstructs the epic rescue attempts and incredible survival against all the odds of most of the survivors. A real true life thriller.