GOOD PEOPLE by Patmeena Sabit (Virago £16.99, 400pp)
Akin to a true-crime podcast, this disturbing American debut unfolds as a fragmentary oral history of a school leaver’s mysterious death.
It centres on a rich Afghan family who arrive in the US as refugees before building their wealth through 24/7 hustle and grind.
The revelation that their eldest daughter Zorah has been fibbing about her grades is the start of a murky series of events that ends with the discovery of her body in a car at the bottom of a lake.
A bout of teenage rebellion gone tragically awry? Or something more sinister? The tale unfolds via the testimony of neighbours, friends, reporters and social services, each adding fresh layers to the story.
Gripping stuff, even if the structure ultimately feels like a workaround for the challenge of inhabiting the characters at the book’s heart.
THE TRUE TRUE STORY OF RAJA THE GULLIBLE (AND HIS MOTHER) by Rabih Alameddine (Corsair £22, 336pp)
The True True Story of Raja The Gullible (And His Mother) is available now
The winner of America’s National Book Award, this finely textured tragicomedy takes us on a whirlwind tour of Lebanon’s recent past in the company of a 63-year-old gay philosophy teacher and drag artist cooped up with his busybody mum in a cramped flat in Beirut.
Lewd as well as learned, the narrator free-wheels in seductively conversational style as he cuts between the aftermath of the city’s devastating port explosion in 2020 and bittersweet episodes from his youth – not least a complicated relationship with a teenage militiaman who held him hostage during the civil war that broke out in 1975.
That story starts as a digression yet lasts more than 100 pages, forming the molten core of a tale buoyed by consistently surprising tonal shifts and the infectious brio of its companionable voice.
DISCIPLINE by Larissa Pham (Serpent’s Tail £16.99, 224pp)
This US debut begins with the narrator losing her suitcase – and the return of baggage turns out to be exactly what the book is about.
It follows Christine, a young artist-turned-novelist on a tour to promote her launch, inspired by an affair she once had with a domineering older academic who put her off painting.
His resumption of contact via a cryptic email out of the blue brings drama to a narrative sustained chiefly by Christine’s random encounters on the road, as she listens to strangers’ stories while reflecting moodily on art, selfhood and past relationships.
All very much in the mould of Rachel Cusk’s Outline – still influential more than ten years on – yet there’s a wrong-footing climax once Christine confronts her demons in real life as well as on the page.
