M: Maxwell Knight, MI5’s Greatest Spymaster by Henry Hemming (Arrow, £9.99)
Charles Henry Maxwell Knight’s codename lives on in the James Bond series, but the original “M” is a far more interesting character than ever appeared on screen. Animal lover, jazz buff, minor dabbler in the occult, Knight had been conspicuously unsuccessful before discovering espionage. Beginning by infiltrating fascist groups (some of his later colleagues felt his politics owed more to the far-right than he liked to admit), he cracked the Woolwich Arsenal Spy Ring, ultimately becoming head of MI5 and, in Hemming’s words, “Britain’s greatest spymaster”. Although one could argue that his record doesn’t quite merit the superlative, Knight did set important precedents by actively nurturing staff loyalty and recruiting women, whom he thought made much better operatives than men. It’s such a gripping story that the TV rights have been bought by the producers of Poldark. But Hemming’s admission that he came to praise rather than bury Knight does leave a lingering suspicion that a tougher approach might have been more fitting.
The King Is Always Above The People by Daniel Alarcón (4th Estate, £8.99)
Born in Lima, raised in Alabama and now living in New York, Alarcón unveils his second collection of short stories, all set in an unnamed Latin American country in which dictatorship has only recently been abolished. These are stories about change, all of them involving young men facing new lifestyles and responsibilities, becoming displaced and dealing with isolation and identity. A 19-year-old guy moves to the city, but his girlfriend urges him to come back to the life he’s trying to escape. A poetry professor flees his old life and throws himself into a new one, ending up in a self-created prison. A blind beggar has to trust his son to be honest with him while they’re out begging. And one man who is called to settle his uncle’s estate must resolve deep family issues in the process. They’re brilliantly written, in the elegance of their prose, Alarcón’s experiments with perspectives and the way he crafts an ending.
Sweet Days Of Discipline by Fleur Jaeggy (And Other Stories, £8.99)
Set in a school in post-war Switzerland, this is the story of a 14-year-old girl, Eve, who has known nothing but boarding schools since her parents dispatched her to her first one at the age of eight. Exiled from her parents, who live abroad, she has spent years being moulded by this atmosphere of “senile childhood” and has grown to fetishise its insistence on discipline and order. Although Eve likes the free-spirited Micheline, she really wants to win the affection of new girl Frédérique, who to her represents the epitome of control and discipline. But all her efforts are met only with Frédérique’s cool indifference. From the moment this starkly-written short novel draws readers into its haunting embrace, we are anticipating the tension breaking in a tragic conclusion. But the pay-off matters less than the accomplished way Jaeggy evokes and explores the psychological chill surrounding Eve, in an eerie tone carefully and effectively conveyed by translator Tim Parks.
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