This series of posts is called 'books in brief' as they are just introductions to some of the recent arrivals here, but if you are looking for a brief book, something short but satisfying, Peirene Press - who publish our first book today - could be the place to try: "Two-hour books to be devoured in a single sitting: literary cinema for those fatigued by film".
Peirene's latest release is Next World Novella
by Matthias Politycki, translated by Anthea Bell, and here's the gist - "Hinrich takes his existence at face value. His wife [...] has always been more interested in the after-life. Or so it seemed. When she dies of a stroke, Hinrich goes through her papers only to discover a totally different perspective on their marriage. Thus commences a dazzling intellectual game of shifting realities."
If it's something more gritty you're after, then perhaps Elly Griffiths's The House at Sea's End
would do. A team of archaeologists investigating coastal erosion in Norfolk find six bodies buried at the foot of a cliff. The remains have been there for fifty or sixty years and could be connected with Home Guard activity during the Second World War. Then a body washes up on the beach, and it seems someone is prepared to kill to keep those wartime secrets hidden. "Enticingly atmospheric" said The Independent on Elly Griffiths's previous novel
featuring - as this one does - forensics expert Ruth Galloway.
