John The Revelator by Peter Murphy (Faber)

by Patrick O'Connor

TEENAGE angst has been explored in many settings and author Peter Murphy chooses small town Ireland for this novel.

The tale follows John Devine, brought up by his single mum, the chain-smoking, Bible-quoting Lily with occasional help from interfering neighbour Phyliss.

Missing Persons by Nicci Gerrard (Penguin)

by Patrick O'Connor

THE Hopkins are a typical middle class family who live in sleepy East Anglia.

They enjoy a normal life with three teenage children, two girls and a boy and their existence seems to be easy, respectable and normal.

What Will Survive by Mark Gartside (Macmillan)

by Patrick O'Connor

IT would be all too easy for this story about a man coping with becoming a single parent to become over-sentimental and predictable.

But in the hands of author Mark Gartside, What Will Survive, will warm even the coldest of hearts.

The Innocent by Ian McEwan (Vintage)

by Patrick O'Connor

THE main protagonist in this story certainly starts off as an innocent but that can't last in 1950s Berlin.

It is the beginning of the Cold War and a joint CIA/MI6 operation builds a tunnel from the American sector to the Russian sector (an event which really happened). Leonard Marnham, is a 25 year old Englishman seconded from the Post Office to help tap the phone lines of the Russians.

A Possible Life by Sebastian Faulks (Vintage)

by Patrick O'Connor

FIRST things first. This work, by one of Britain's leading writers Sebastian Faulks, is described on the book cover as a novel.

It isn't, it comprises five novellas – longer than a short story but shorter than a novel – and there is no obvious link between the five.

Some Kind Of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce (Orion)

by Patrick O'Connor.

DO you believe in fairies?

Well, you might do after reading this enchanting novel by Graham Joyce which teasingly doesn't quite fall into any genre.