Even though it is unmistakably literary in intention, Krauss’s plot — a precocious child attempts to bring together her bereaved parent and a lover selected by that child — bears a striking resemblance to Sleepless in Seattle, a similarity reinforced by a tendency towards sentimentality.

Having said this, it is enjoyable reading, with some strongly realised characters. The best of these is the curmudgeonly Leo Gursky, a retired locksmith in his eighties, who lives in a run-down apartment in New York. Leo, we learn, escaped from Poland after the German invasion in 1939, arriving in America in search of his former sweetheart, who had been pregnant with his child — only to find she had married someone else. Years later, Leo learns of the death of the son that he never knew, who has grown up to be a famous writer. Also in search of love — albeit vicariously — is the 14-year-old Alma Singer, whose widowed mother Charlotte is translating an obscure Chilean novel, The History of Love, at the request of Jacob Marcus, a man she has never met. Deciding that he will be an appropriate suitor for her mother, Alma doctors Charlotte’s side of the correspondence to make it seem as if she wants to pursue a relationship.

The outcome is not at all what Alma expects, but it does unlock the mystery of the authorship of the eponymous novel, leaving the reader with a satisfying sense of loose ends having been tied up and justice having been done. by Susan Barker

SAYONARA BAR
Black Swan, £6.99
£6.64 (free p&p)

Barker’s accomplished debut is set in a “hostess bar” in Osaka, the seedy glamour of which is vividly caught — as are all the book’s urban settings. Mary is one of many foreign girls seeking refuge from an unhappy past in the Sayonara Bar, spending her nights in conversation with middle-aged businessmen and getting them to buy expensive drinks, so that she can earn the money for travel.

Presiding over the establishment is the hard-faced Mama-san, mother of Mary’s yakuza gangster boyfriend, Yuji, who works for the local crime boss. Other memorable characters include Watanabe, in reality the kitchen-boy at the Sayonara but in his fantasies a superhero with the power to save the world — and in particular the beautiful Mary — from disaster. Persuaded by his overbearing boss to visit the bar is the shy and lonely Mr Sato, whose late wife is still very much present in his life.

The stories are interwoven with considerable ingenuity. Each of the three main voices — Mary’s, Watanabe’s, Mr Sato’s — is entirely distinctive,and each conveys details that the others overlook. On it own, this tale of misfits trapped in a nightclub limbo would be enjoyable enough, but Barker has given it the pace and excitement of a thriller — or of the manga comics to which Watanabe is addicted. Funny, crisply written and engaging, Sayonora Bar offers sharp insights into some of the less palatable realities of life in 21st century Japan.

THE INNER CIRCLE
by T. C. Boyle
Bloomsbury, £7.99

Boyle focuses on the group of acolytes surrounding the famous — some might say infamous — Alfred C. Kinsey, whose bestselling studies transformed attitudes to sexuality in the 1950s. The narrator is John Milk, an undergraduate when we first meet him, and later one of Kinsey’s “inner circle” of researchers, whose interviews on sexual preferences with Americans from all walks of life were the foundation of Kinsey’s theories.

“Prok”, as he is known to intimates, was a charismatic figure, whose influence over those closest to him was, by this account at least, unhealthily intense. Thus Milk, is sexually initiated both by Prok and his wife, the no less rapacious “Mac”; later, they give their blessing to Milk’s marriage to Iris, another student, on the assumption that the newlyweds will continue to participate in Prok’s research. This means that Milk will continue to have sexual relations with others — including Prok — a situation that Iris finds increasingly hard to accept. As the marriage founders, Milk must choose between his mentor and his wife.

Hilarious and disturbing by turns, The Inner Circle charts the tensions that arise when conventional notions of love and marriage are overturned and when private affairs becomes material for public consumption. Kinsey emerges as more monster than liberator, but the importance of his contribution to redefining the way that we think about sex is never seriously in question.

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