From Saima Mir’s debut novel to My Phantoms by Gwendoline Riley, an uplifting tale by Julietta Henderson and Jessie Greengrass’s latest, this week’s best new fiction
The Khan
Saima Mir Point Blank £14.99
Mir’s debut novel takes us deep into the heart of Yorkshire’s gangland. British Pakistani lawyer Jia Khan has left her family behind to forge a new life in London. But when her gangster father is murdered, she’s drawn back into the criminal underworld.
The Khan is strong on illuminating the networks of family and community, giving fresh life to its familiar plot – essentially a Bradford take on The Godfather.
John Williams
The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman
Julietta Henderson Bantam Press £12.99
An uplifting tale of love, loss and the redemptive power of humour. Aged 12, Norman Foreman was half of comedy’s next big double act, set to debut at the Edinburgh Fringe – until his partner, Jax, the dunny one, died.
When grief-stricken Norman starts asking questions about the dad he’s never met, his mum organises a roadtrip to Edinburgh to reckon with her past and get Norman on to the stage – solo.
Madeleine Feeny
My Phantoms
Gwendoline Riley Granta £12.99
Bridget, an academic, lives with her therapist partner and their rescue cat. It couldn’t be more different from her parents’ short-lived, explosive marriage. Her father is an economically sketched mediocrity who nonetheless exudes a manic, Dickensian menace, but it’s her mother’s needy reserve and withholding ways that continue to taunt Bridget.
Riley’s seventh novel is a slender, quietly savage riposte to the sentimentality that so often defines depictions of family bonds.
Hephzibah Anderson
The High House
Jessie Greengrass Swift Press £14.99
In a house by the sea live three survivors of a climate-change apocalypse. In turn, Caro, her half-brother Pauly and their friend Sal look back on the long litany of extreme weather events that have devastated the planet and left them isolated.
Fortunately, the house was carefully prepared for the catastrophe – but now supplies are dwindling. Greengrass’s lyrical evocation of the coastal landscape and her grim vision of the future prove a potent, deeply disturbing combination.
Anthony Gardner