LITERARY FICTION  | Daily Mail Online

ENTER THE AARDVARK 

by Jessica Anthony (Doubleday £12.99, 192 pp)

Like the titular mammal, this is a curiosity: part 21st-century political satire, part unexpectedly affecting 19th-century love story. In the present-day sections, which unfold persuasively in the second person, the narcissistic and Reagan-obsessed Republican congressman Alexander Wilson is seeking re-election.

He’s also after a wife to boost his ratings, being in deep denial about his gay love affair with a high-profile, recently deceased philanthropist.

Meanwhile, in Victorian Leamington Spa, dour taxidermist Titus Downing is faced with the challenge of stuffing his zoologist lover’s final prize: an African aardvark. An aardvark that will come to haunt the American politician . . .

It’s every bit as strange as it sounds, and yet somehow it works: there’s a pleasing symmetry to the parallel plots, and Anthony’s writing is evocative enough to snare the imagination — the camphor-smelling, sun-struck taxidermy shop is a knowingly Dickensian delight — and pacy enough to brook no objections to her tall tale’s oddness.

THE PORTRAIT 

by Ilaria Bernardini (Allen & Unwin, £14.99, 432 pp)

Not to be confused with the languorous recent hit film, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, this tale of two women locked in mutual fascination is as brisk as an easterly breeze.

Renowned writer Valeria’s relationship with her billionaire lover, Martin, has endured for 25 years and when a stroke leaves him comatose, Valeria is desperate to be near him. Commissioning Martin’s artist wife to paint her portrait, she insinuates her way into the couple’s grand Holland Park home, even becoming a confidante of their troubled daughter. But what starts as a polite pas-de-deux between the two older women turns slowly more cat-and-mouse.

A thread of deliciously dark humour is woven into this involving web of performances and fictions; Bernardini is good on the magical thinking of grief, too. Not all will swallow the final twist, but it’s nonetheless a salutary reminder that we are players in others’ stories, even as we are consumed by our own.

SHARKS IN THE TIME OF SAVIOURS 

by Kawai Strong Washburn (Canongate £16.99, 384 pp)

When seven-year-old Nainoa falls from a boat, his parents expect the worst: this is Hawaii, and sharks skulk below the surface. Yet what happens next is a miracle: the predators return the boy unharmed to the craft.

Nainoa, it seems, has extraordinary powers; his talents rescue his family from crippling debt, too. But as the years go by, Nainoa’s gift turns into a crushing burden — one shared by his basketball-phenomenon brother and driven-but-troubled sister. Then the unthinkable happens, and Nainoa disappears.

Hawaii is much more than a mere backdrop here: despoiled as it is by modernity, its ancient history and lush natural beauty pulses through the book.

Washburn is an assured and agile stylist, creating a unique and urgent voice for each member of the family, whose sufferings never quite tear them apart.

An electrifying, heart-wrenching exploration of how life, hope and goodness persist in the aftermath of loss.