THE COURSE OF THE HEART by M. John Harrison (Serpent’s Tail £10.99, 288pp)
Although known primarily for his acclaimed fantasy and science-fiction novels, Harrison has shown little regard for genre in his 40-plus-year career.
This disturbing novel, first published in 1992 and now reissued, combines realism with horror and dream logic; parodies convoluted historical narratives and centres on an arcane rite that is never revealed.
What is certain is the fallout: 20 years on from the ritual, the novel’s unnamed narrator is brought back into the orbit of fellow participants Pam and Lucas, the former crippled by epilepsy and hallucinations, the latter pursued (he believes) by a dwarf.
However, it’s the moving, desperate efforts the two make to connect with Pam in her torment, increased by a terminal cancer diagnosis, that make the greatest impression.
OPT OUT by Carolina Setterwall (Bloomsbury Circus £16.99, 384pp)
Swedish novelist Setterwall’s autobiographical debut, Let’s Hope For The Best, earned comparisons with Karl Ove Knausgaard for its rendering of raw grief and the texture of life.
There’s an undramatic focus on the mundane in Opt Out too, with the novel spanning the years following a couple’s decision to divorce.
Businessman John and airline worker Mary have been good together for 13 years – or so John thinks. But having successfully navigated their children’s toddlerhoods, Mary now wants something more. It’s John, however, who is able to move on, while Mary struggles to negotiate ageing, find purpose and define her role as a mother on new terms.
Written in unshowy prose, it’s not exactly thrilling, but as we alternate between the couple’s perspectives the cumulative effect of their journeys becomes quietly affecting.
NIGHT OF THE LIVING REZ by Morgan Talty (And Other Stories £14.99, 100pp)
That’s ‘rez’ as in Native American reservation, which is the setting for Talty’s award-winning loosely linked stories (he is himself a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation).
The macabre and farcical opener, Burn, gives a good flavour – on the way to score some pot, drifter Dee finds his friend Fellis caught in a snowdrift, trapped by his frozen hair.
‘I never thought I’d scalp a fellow tribal member,’ he dryly observes, having concluded there’s no option but to sever Fellis’s braid.
Other stories take us back to Dee’s childhood where he tries to parse the adults around him: his mother; his methadone-addicted pregnant sister; his demented grandmother seeking to avenge a past wrong.
Death is never far away, and trauma a standard inheritance, but the action is infused with an antic spirit and Talty is an electrifying, visceral storyteller.
