Hell And Good Company

Richard Rhodes (Simon & Schuster, £9.99)

The Pulitzer Prize-winning Rhodes has a somewhat individual take on the history of the Spanish Civil War here. Although he makes no attempt to hide his anti-fascist sympathies, it’s a carefully apolitical book. “I was drawn, rather, to the human stories,” he writes. Although chronological, it has a slightly chaotic structure, a tapestry composed of the impressions the war made on the people who experienced it, like Orwell, Picasso, Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, some of whom were inspired by the conflict to produce their greatest work. But as well as studying its effects on artists and writers, Rhodes examines how the conflict prefigured the shape of the Second World War, showing a particular interest in medical advancements, destructive technology and propaganda, which reached new heights of audacity. One star who emerges is English nurse Patience Darton, a heroine overlooked by historians for too long. It’s idiosyncratic, but in a good way, with medical staff getting more of Rhodes’s attention than the fighters.

Dragon Games

Jan-Philipp Sendker (Polygon, £8.99)

Paul, a German-American in his early 50s living in Hong Kong, is in a promising relationship with Chinese-born Christine, though there are stumbling blocks, such as her faith in astrologers, one of whom advises her to avoid Paul for the remainder of the year, for his own safety. Soon, however, she hears from her long-lost brother, who pleads with her to come back to China to help him. The obvious travelling companion would be Paul, but is it worth the risk, especially as he’s received predictions of his own? Sendker draws on his extensive knowledge of China to depict the interplay between ancient traditions and the Cultural Revolution. And his careful set-up reaps rewards, giving us time to get to know the characters in depth before he ramps up the tension as the couple encounter a mysterious illness in the village Christine hasn’t seen since she was a child. It all adds up to a thriller that’s more substantial than most.

The Mothers

Brit Bennett (Riverhead, £11.99)

Focusing, like Margo Jefferson’s recent Negroland, on the often ignored black middle class, The Mothers is a mature, intelligent debut from this Californian author. Set in a church-centred black community, it follows Nadia Turner from the age of 17 up to her mid-20s. Already rocked by her mother’s suicide, Nadia embarks on a relationship with the pastor’s son, Luke, leading to an aborted pregnancy. Over the years, her friendships with Luke, and Aubrey, Nadia’s well-behaved best friend from church, endure, but they can’t escape their shared past. Bennett’s narration sticks close to Nadia, pulling back to speak in the collective voice of the older women of the church, who know from experience what the girl is going through. For all their omniscience, however, their judgement isn’t always sound. It’s not just naïve teenagers whose decisions come back to haunt them. Bennett handles the themes of motherhood, secrets and consequences in an assured way which marks her out as a writer to watch.