Crowe's Requiem, by Mike McCormack (Vintage, £5.99 in UK)

This well-imagined first novel had the difficult task of following McCormack's brilliant, uniquely original first collection of short stories, Getting It In The Head (1995). While those often violent stories dazzle in a highly cerebral and surreal nightmare world of tricks and shifts, Crowe's Requiem - through its marvellous portait of the hero's grandfather, and scenes of student life, including romance - is rooted firmly in the heart. Again demonstrating his flair for humour blacker than black, it contains many moments of longing, pathos and pain; love found and lost.