The latest batch of paperbacks are reviewed.
The Piano Teacher. Elfriede Jelinek, translated by Joachim Neugroschel, Serpent's Tail, £7.99
Groomed for musical greatness from an early age by her mismatched parents, Erika Kohut never quite made it to the concert platform. Instead she teaches piano at the Vienna Conservatory by day and has psychosexual fantasies by night. Mostly, though, she watches television with her insanely jealous mother before huddling up her almost middle-aged body to Mom in their shared bed. The Austrian feminist and 2004 Nobel Prize winner looks to the hell of gender battles for her material. Although there are some horrifically crazed laughs to be had at the antics of mother and daughter trapped in their domestic hell, this is a viciously savage book. Sex is portrayed as the ultimate humiliation for women. When a male student considers embarking on a brief affair with her before she becomes too old for anything, Erika makes sure disgust is the central dynamic. -Eileen Battersby
The Inferno of Dante Alighieri. Ciaran Carson, Granta, £7.99
This new translation of that daunting work, The Inferno, is not out of reach of readers of literary novels and biography, although the mention of Dante often conjures up visions of scholarly obfuscation - especially as regards translation, The notes, which themselves make such interesting reading, provide instant clarification on the significance of a personage and lucidly explain unknown or not instantly recognizable references within the poem. The language of the work is so eclectic that one bounces along with the mix of contemporary street argot, business-speak and Hiberno-English. The marvellous three-part Introduction lets the reader in on Carson's original impulse to embark on the project and sets in context a correlation between Belfast and 14th-century Florence. The history of the texts of the Cantos is almost as rugged and fascinating as the work itself. - Kate Bateman
The Grandmothers. Doris Lessing, Harper Perennial, £7.99
She begins by describing just another tableau of middle-class life - two women, their sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren, share an idyllic lunch by the seaside - and at first you wonder if the now-elderly Lessing has lost her edge. However, the immediate sharpness of her observation - for example the family as seen from their young waitress's point of view - keeps you reading, and sure enough, within a couple of pages an emotional bomb is detonated in this serene, sunlit scene, and you're devouring her account of the events that led to the debacle. The title novella is one of four in this collection. The others are equally shrewd and are also told in her deceptively simple style. Lessing retains her dispassionate eye and her ability to sketch places and people, with all their desires, delusions, and losses, and she is still a pleasure to read. - Cathy Dillon
Rose Macaulay. Sarah LeFanu, Virago, £12.99
Eccentric, innovative satirist Rose Macaulay (1881-1958) is the complex subject of Sarah LeFanu's well-planned biography. Clearly the product of an epic amount of research (the notes and index alone fill nearly 100 pages), it is a strong and thought-provoking portrait of this odd character, a secondary player in the context of her literary contemporaries - Virginia Woolf, E.M. Forster, and Elizabeth Bowen were among her friends and intellectual sparring partners. LeFanu highlights the humour and acuity of Macaulay's major novels (among them Abbots Verney and Non-Combatants and Others) while analysing the peculiar elements of her personality, including her astounding energy despite a refusal to eat in public, the strength she drew from an affair with a married man, and her uneasy relationship with Christianity. Perfect for anyone interested in unusual women writers. - Nora Mahony
Who Murdered Chaucer? A Medieval Mystery. Terry Jones, Robert Yeager, Terry Dolan, Alan Fletcher, Juliette Dor, Methuen
Was Geoffrey Chaucer murdered? If we accept the findings of Terry Jones and his co-authors (some of whom have Irish connections and are Chaucer scholars), then his death may have been politically convenient, for in 1400 his name simply disappears from the record. For Chaucer was not without influence - he was a diplomat and brother-in-law to the powerful John of Gaunt. So how did he die, when and where? Jones & co offer us a highly readable, if perhaps occasionally implausible, history and literary reappraisal of the writer's times and mysterious death. This historical whodunit is a refreshing, even lighthearted, canter through one of the most turbulent periods of English history and captures the life and spirit of the time. An added bonus is the inclusion of beautiful colour plates. - Owen Dawson
Sunday Miscellany. Edited by Marie Heaney, Town House 14.99
After being broadcast for three decades, Sunday Miscellany is still, for many, unmissable. Cliodhna Ní Anluain now has the demanding task of selecting the eclectic mix of writers, and choosing the vignettes and musical interludes that make our Sunday morning so relaxing. For the sake of readability, editor Marie Heaney has taken particular care to select scripts that work in the written form. Regular listeners know what to expect and will enjoy the transfer to the page. Familiar names abound but, in the best tradition of the programme, top-selling authors such as Patricia Scanlan and Deirdre Purcell share the space with unknowns, the only selection criteria being quality. If 9.10am on Sunday morning is too early for you, this anthology is the perfect introduction to a series you may decide you can't afford to miss. - Martin Noonan