  | London Pub Review – Paul Ewen Some of the most interesting writing seems to nudge at the boundaries between fact and fiction, and Paul Ewen has found his own peculiar way to mess with those boundaries. It would be possible to buy this book imagining it was what it purports to be: a guidebook to London pubs. Each story begins like a pub review, with the pub’s name and a description of its interior, but once the reviewer purchases a drink, bizarre and possibly dangerous events unfold which often lead to his being forcibly ejected from the pub. Ewen, a New Zealander, claims that his lack of social skills forced him to write about London’s pubs rather than serve in them, like so many of his fellow countrymen. As this book proves, he has plenty of skill with words. (Shoes with Rockets, www.londonpubreviews.co.uk, £7.99) |
  | There Are Little Kingdoms – Kevin Barry This debut collection augures well for Kevin Barry. Although it is set mostly in small-town Ireland, this is an Ireland that has lately updated itself and is now, perhaps, not entirely at ease with the result. The tone is blackly comic in ‘Animal Needs’ as the owners of Meadowsweet Farm try in vain to get a coveted organic license, and are instead rewarded with sordid, inconvenient affairs and, in the case of the farmer, a dislocated shoulder courtesy of a cuckolded husband. Favourite line: ‘There was a definite sensation of slurry.’ (longlisted for Frank O’Connor story award. Stinging Fly Press, c. €12) |
| Missing Kissinger – Etgar Keret Etgar Keret is one of the fastest, funniest and most prolific short story writers around. This book contains nearly fifty stories in a couple of hundred pages. Stories about love and sex, family and friends, war and peace, with humour as a common denominator. Some might be set anywhere, while others such as ‘Cocked and Locked’ or ‘The Summer of 1976’ explore themes specific to Keret’s native Israel. It is partly the sheer pace and speed that will leave the reader dizzy, partly this clash of the everyday with the uncomfortable. An original. (Longlisted for the Frank O’Connor story award. Chatto & Windus, £12.) Read a short story by Keret. Or his Top 10. |  |
| The Triple Point of Water – Fiona Dunscombe In this confidently written first novel, London in the 1980s is conjured up with clarity through the viewpoint of Arabella, who leaves school and rural Nottingham as soon as she can for the city. Arabella tries her hand at various low-paid jobs, but what she does best is dancing. Her audition and subsequent career as a strippagram singer make sense in the context of a proper job as a dental nurse that barely pays the rent. Over the course of the book, she struggles to come to terms with her distant relationship with her adoptive father, a steam locomotive enthusiast and a big fan of Margaret Thatcher. Winner of the Dundee International Prize 2007. (£9.99, www.birlinn.co.uk) |  |