The Gropes by Tom Sharpe (Hutchinson £18.99; Buy this book) The Gropes have had their land since the Norman Conquest, but this is no ordinary upper-class family. There’s a fine Grope tradition of rule by the most fearsome females — their history abounds with stories of helpless men, kidnapped by these harpies to ensure the female line. At the start of the present century, a hapless teenager named Esmond is abducted and finds himself at Grope Hall — right in the middle of a vicious social satire, heavily seasoned with outrageous farce and ebullient comedy. Yes, it’s always a pleasure to welcome a new novel by one of the world’s funniest writers. As the kids would say, lol.
The Bradshaw Variations by Rachel Cusk (Faber and Faber £15.99; Buy this book) Thomas Bradshaw and his wife, Tonie, have swapped roles. Tonie is back at work as a university lecturer, and Thomas is at home with their child — using music to give form to a formless existence. When Adam delved and Eve span things were so much simpler. Over one year we follow Thomas’s family and the families of his two brothers, successful Howard and anxious Leo, and it all adds up to a symphony of middle-class angst. Nothing much happens externally, but Cusk enters the minds of her people with astonishing insight and dismantles their relationships with forensic accuracy. Her writing is simply beautiful; she is the Virginia Woolf of the Habitat classes.
Chalcot Crescent by Fay Weldon (Corvus, £16.99; Buy this book) Two years after Fay Weldon was born, her mother had a miscarriage. This novel is narrated by Frances, the sister who might have been. It’s 2013, society is in meltdown and Frances is hiding from the bailiffs. Once she was a famous writer. Now, unpublished and forgotten, she is still writing — though it’s hard to know how much of her life story is true. Is her daughter targeted by assassins? Are her grandchildren hatching a terrorist plot? Capitalism is dead, but what has replaced it? This potent brew of social comment, dystopian satire, vicious comedy and vintage Weldon wisdom is a marvellous ride.