The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips Virago, £11.99; Buy this book; 274pp A young girl watches a woman toss a baby into the family well. It’s 1931, Alabama is in the grip of the Great Depression, and this is unquestionably a very depressing opening. Tess and her big sister, Virgie, begin a search for the mystery woman against a backdrop of society in the grip of social and racial upheaval. Tess’s father works at the mine, and her mother can’t afford to put meat on the table. So far, the family has managed to grow enough on their small plot of land to keep starvation at bay. Despite the bleakness of the story, however, the warmth and wisdom of the writing make this a highly rewarding read.

Angel Time by Anne Rice Chatto & Windus, £17.99; Buy this book; 271pp Vampires are so last year. Rice, who gave us the now-classic Interview with the Vampire, has embarked on a new series about angels. These are not sentimental Victorian angels, however. Toby O’Dare, who once studied for the Roman Catholic priesthood, is an assassin who takes orders from an unseen boss he calls “The Right Man”. The RM is basically a supernatural version of Charlie in Charlie’s Angels, and our anti-hero is about to get the strangest assignment of his career — a trip to England in the 13th century, where innocent Jews are being persecuted. Redemption is the goal, immortality the prize, but you don’t need belief to be totally gripped.

The Tin Drum by Günter Grass, translated by Breon Mitchell Harvill Secker, £20; Buy this book; 582pp Grass published his milestone of postwar literature 50 years ago, and the event is being celebrated with new translations. “Granted, I’m an inmate in a mental institution,” begins the narrator, Oskar. On his third birthday he receives a tin drum and decides not to grow any more. Banging his drum, and deploying his special scream that can shatter glass, this knowing little goblin observes the nightmare of the Nazi era and the miracle of Germany’s recovery, but is haunted by the horrors of his own past. Mitchell’s excellent translation reveals the novel as a timeless masterpiece.

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