Our pick of the latest releases
Lean on Pete
Willy Vlautin
Faber and Faber, £7.99
Lean on Pete tells the story of Charley Thompson, a 15-year-old boy forced to fend for himself as his troubled father comes and goes, often disappearing for days. Sometimes, when Charley wakes up in the morning a strange woman is there: "You're Ray's kid?" Charley spends most of his time alone, thinking about running, how many sit-ups he can do and what he'll have for dinner – which, on some occasions, means stealing a few tins from a local shop. When he finds work as a groom for a horse trainer, Charley is drawn into a fascinating but heartless industry. It is there that he develops a kinship with the horse, Lean on Pete, and later they embark on a journey together. Willy Vlautin, also the frontman with the band Richmond Fontaine, uses a clipped, simple style, brilliantly evoking the boy's lonely world. This is a powerful story of neglect and survival, heartbreaking but hopeful. Sorcha Hamilton
Double Fault
Lionel Shriver
Serpent’s Tail, £7.99
After the success of We Need to Talk About Kevin, a love story might seem like a strange change of gear for Lionel Shriver, but Double Fault was, in fact, first published in 1998, pre-Kevin. We meet Willy (Wilhelmina) trouncing an opponent in tennis, the sport that is the source of her lifelong solitary drive and ambition. By the second page we're not sure we like her much. Enter Eric, who sweeps Willy off her feet, then proposes. After a while we're not sure we like him either. Far from being a romantic tale about love and marrying, Double Fault is a sinuous account of the mechanics of a marriage breakdown. Shriver's signature style is to observe her characters acutely, exposing the lies they tell themselves and others. We can see it all going awry. Forgive the cliches: we want to shout "love" but ultimately croak "out!" Claire Looby
The Negotiator: My Life at the Heart of the Hostage Trade
Ben Lopez
Sphere, £6.99
The kidnap-and-ransom industry is a global phenomenon. Ben Lopez's work is to obtain the safe release of victims for the least money. Contrary to public perception, most kidnaps end up involving a ransom payment and few are resolved by force. Unprincipled maybe, but this is the reality exemplified by the piracy of ships in the Indian Ocean by Somalis. They come from a failed state but know the commercial dynamics that are in play when a valuable cargo vessel enters their area of operation. The book is written in slick prose – "I did a one-eighty," and so on – but Lopez understands the interplay between wealth and dispossession, resulting in the likelihood of kidnap and the almost inevitable financial dealing that follows. John McBratney
