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MRS EVERYTHING

by Jennifer Weiner (Piatkus £8.99, 480 pp)

In 1950 the Kaufman family — Ken, Sarah and daughters Jo and Bethie — have just moved into their new house in a pleasant Detroit suburb. ‘The American Dream,’ says Ken, proudly.

But the dream turns into a nightmare when Ken dies suddenly, leaving the family impoverished.

Like their Little Women namesakes, Jo and Bethie are very different people: Jo, tall, athletic and gay, longs to be a writer. Bethie, pretty, gentle and musical, is her mother’s favourite.

Weiner’s latest bestseller follows their lives over seven decades: experiences of love and loss are set against the great social and political dramas of their times, as they juggle marriage, children and work, and struggle with eating disorders, sexual assault, abortion and divorce.

This is an inspiring tale of the changing lives of modern women.

THE MUSEUM OF BROKEN PROMISES

by Elizabeth Buchan (Corvus £8.99, 416 pp)

On a frosty winter’s day, Laure Carlyle walks near the Canal Saint-Martin in her adopted city of Paris. She’s newly divorced and haunted by a sense of failure, but when she sees a beautiful, run-down house, she has an idea.

Elegantly restored, the house becomes the Museum of Broken Promises. Its cabinets display an extraordinary range of objects, some funny, some tragic or disturbing. Among them is her train ticket from Prague to Vienna, which inspired the collection.

In 1986, when Laure bought the ticket, she was a young au pair in Communist Prague, in love with Tomas, the lead singer of a dissident rock group. But their relationship was overshadowed by the secrets and lies of political tyranny.

Passion, betrayal and a mysterious marionette show combine to enthralling effect in this darkly compelling love story.

THE IRREPLACEABLE

by Julian Hoffman (Penguin £9.99, 416 pp)

‘What kind of world are we going to leave to our children and grandchildren?’ wonders Gill, an environmental campaigner working to protect the Hoo Peninsula in Kent, which was once the proposed site for Europe’s largest airport.

Hoffman’s elegiac book is both a celebration and a warning of the fragility of small pockets of wild nature in a world dominated by human activity.

Elsewhere in Kent, a housing development threatened the UK’s largest population of nightingales, while a six-lane motorway was planned to carve through prehistoric wetland of the Gwent Levels.

Hoffman argues that preserving irreplaceable landscapes such as these is vital for our wellbeing. Yet, he suggests, there is hope amid the losses: ‘Change can begin with single voices — yours, mine, hers or his.’