DAPHNE
Will Boast (Granta, £9.99)
Daphne was born with a rare condition which literally paralyses her when she experiences intense emotions. Even mild bursts of anger or embarrassment can bring it on, making her reliant on coping strategies and alcohol. Now in her late twenties and running a medical research lab in San Francisco, she lives an isolated existence beset with social anxiety, involving just enough distraction to prevent her feeling anything. So when she meets sweet, sensitive construction worker Ollie, Daphne has to choose between maintaining her orderly life and embracing the risks of greater intimacy. A new take on Ovid’s tale of Daphne and Apollo by an English author now based in the US, it’s a charming romance that readers can’t help but empathise with. As Daphne is buffeted by tidal waves of emotion she can no longer hold at bay, what she suffers is really only an exaggerated version of the vulnerability we all invite by allowing someone else into our life.
ESTOCADA
Graham Hurley (Head of Zeus, £8.99)
La estocada is the killing stroke of the matador, being the kind of deadly grace pilot Dieter Merz brought to his missions in the Luftwaffe’s new design of Messerschmitt during the Spanish Civil War (a rehearsal, in many ways, for World War II). By 1938, having established himself as a flying ace, Merz is a celebrity back in Germany, but he himself is no fan of the Nazi regime. With war on the horizon, Scottish ex-marine Tam Moncrieff is secretly despatched to Germany to see what he can find out about a possible invasion of Czechoslovakia. The two men’s paths seem fated to cross, and they have common ground, Merz being involved with a Japanese woman and Moncrieff with a Czech. But in such hostile surroundings, from which direction will their own estocada come? This is the third in Hurley’s Wars Within series, its solid plotting enhanced by a strong focus on character, elevating it above the standard wartime thriller.
CLAUDINE AT SCHOOL
Colette (Vintage, £9.99)
After reading recently how Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness was banned in the UK in 1928, it’s interesting to note how a book as frank about same-sex relationships as Claudine at School was so freely available across the Channel in the early 1900s. Republished along with its three sequels to tie in with the new Colette biopic, this semi-autobiographical novel simmers with sensuality and suppressed desire as 15-year-old Claudine relates the events that take place in her provincial school when the young female teacher she’s been building up a tactile and affectionate relationship with is stolen away by the headmistress. Rather than crushing Claudine, though, it’s fuel for her rebellious nature. The school at Montigny would be a national scandal today, a hotbed of passion and jealousy where pupils and teachers are played off against each other, and Claudine herself is a fabulous creation, a spirited and self-possessed teenage anti-heroine you wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of.
ALASTAIR MABBOTT
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