The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani translated by Sam Taylor (Faber €17.47)

A young French wife travels to Morocco to reunite with her soldier husband after the Second World War but soon finds herself living in cramped bug-ridden quarters with his extended family. Moving to an isolated farmhouse set in a harsh landscape, Mathilde must settle for less than the life she’d imagined would be hers. French-Moroccan Slimani is best known for her creepy 2016 novel, Lullaby, which won her the Prix Goncourt and a government position. This book, the first in a trilogy, delves into her own family history with its roots in wartime Morocco.

Still Life by Sarah Winman (4th Estate, €14.99)

In Still Life by Sarah Winman an unexpected love story unfolds one night in Tuscany in 1944 when art historian Evelyn, who is in Italy to rescue paintings from destruction, finds herself sipping fine wines in the cellar of an abandoned villa with English soldier Ulysses Temper. A bond is struck that will have far reaching consequences for both down the years in this richly wrought story that dips in and out of Florence.

Outline by Rachel Cusk (Faber, €10.48)

In Rachel Cusk’s Outline, a woman en route to Athens to teach a writing course is befriended by an older Greek man with an elaborate past. Later he invites her out on his boat and the two make an unsettling journey together. His is the most dominant presence among a series of characters – including an Irish writer – brought vividly to life by Cusk in a dream-like book in which extreme heat plays a part. The first of a superb trilogy that critics have praised as a re-invention of the novel.