CONTEMPORARY  | Daily Mail Online

JUST MY LUCK

by Adele Parks (HQ £12.99, 384 pp)

This is Adele Parks’ 20th novel in 20 years and I think it’s her best yet.

Protagonists Lexi and Jake struggle to make ends meet but work hard, love their kids and spend happy times with their oldest friends.

They have played a lottery syndicate with these friends for many years, and endlessly discuss how they would spend their winnings.

The potential downsides don’t feature in these conversations, because it’s all a dream, right? Wrong. When the couple win £17.8 million, Jake immediately starts buying cars, clothes and holidays and viewing soulless, high-tech mega-mansions.

All this makes Lexi uncomfortable, not least because he’s not discussing any of it with her.

Worse, however, is that their friends pulled out of the syndicate the week before their big win but are now making claims against the cash . . .

The kids are suffering at school, Jake and Lexi’s marriage is imploding and there are all sorts of unsavoury characters hanging around making threatening demands.

Friends and money are a toxic combination and the simmering resentments soon reach boiling point.

This is a salutary lesson in being careful what you wish for because, in this case, money really does not buy happiness. Fabulous.

SEPARATION ANXIETY

by Laura Zigman (Doubleday £12.99, 288 pp)

I adored this wise, funny, sad, quirky story about loneliness, invisibility, grief and what happens when you reach middle age and realise life is neither working out as planned nor making you happy.

Gary and Judy think they want a divorce but are still living in the family home with their 13-year-old son, Teddy. They’re on their fourth marriage counsellor, but not much has changed.

Gary’s debilitating clinical anxiety has radically curtailed their social lives and he now claims it can be managed only by smoking huge amounts of cannabis. After enjoying early success with her first book, Judy is struggling with serious writer’s block and can’t move on from the recent deaths of both her parents.

Now that her only friend is also dying, Judy finds she cannot leave the house unless she is wearing the family dog in a baby body sling.

Teddy has stopped talking, is having problems at school and never wants to be touched, cuddled or comforted.

The omnipresent dog fills that void for Judy, but at the same time creates yet more emotional and physical distance between her and the family.

It’s brilliant on the stories we tell ourselves and others in order to resist change, while beating ourselves up about not taking steps towards a happier future. Heartbreaking and life-affirming.