DEBUTS  | Daily Mail Online

ELLY

by Maike Wetzel (Scribe £12.99, 144 pp)

When 11-year-old Elly disappears, last seen riding her bike to the sports field, she is presumed dead. Her parents and sister are rocked by a grief that knows no end. The police can find no clue as to where she is.

Then, four years later, she’s found, ‘transformed. She is much older, her eyes are dark.’ The family embrace her, but is she really who they want her to be? And if not, who is she?

This short, haunting novel that can be read in one sitting is a devastating study of grief and loss, examining the reactions of each member of the family, from each of their points of view.

The writing is crisp and spare, using short staccato sentences that convey an overwhelming sense of disjuncture and unease. Menace hangs over every page.

THE SILENT TREATMENT

by Abbie Greaves (Century £12.99, 336 pp)

Maggie, Frank’s wife of 40 years, is in an induced medical coma after an apparent suicide attempt. Ignorant of the fact that Frank hasn’t spoken to her for six months, one of the nurses encourages him to talk in an attempt to bring her round.

In his bedside confession, then in Maggie’s written account, the reasons behind their estrangement become clear. This is an extraordinarily tense yet tender portrait of a marriage that began in love and optimism but, after a heart-wrenching journey through parenthood and a growing dependence on misunderstandings and lies, unravels to an impasse.

It’s written with assurance and agonising insight, and the characters of Maggie and Frank will stay with me for a long time.

THE AUTHENTICITY PROJECT

by Clare Pooley (Doubleday £12.99, 416 pp)

Inspired by the author’s own experience of addiction and her subsequent decision to write about it in a blog, then in her book The Secret Diaries, she has now chosen fiction to tell a story about the value of honesty and community.

Artist and widower Julian Jessop is lonely. He writes the truth about his life in a notebook that he leaves in a local café. Whoever finds and reads it is encouraged to repeat the exercise.

So the book brings together a disparate group: the café owner who longs for a baby; an addict trying to get clean; an Instagram influencer whose life behind the camera is quite different from the image she projects; an Australian tourist living a lie.

The difference made by opening up to others is beneficial to all of them. Pooley handles her cast with brio as new relationships are formed and lives are changed in this poignant and uplifting read.