Mother’s Boy

Patrick Gale                                                                                          Tinder Press £20

The Cornish poet Charles Causley was a private man, much cherished but now half-forgotten.

In this wonderful novel, Patrick Gale recreates the early life of this singular man and his relationship with his mother, and provides a fascinating insight into the blossoming of his poetic sensibility.

Recounting his impoverished childhood in Launceston, the early death of his father and his service in the navy in the Second World War, this is a touching, utterly convincing portrait of the nascent artist.

Simon Humphreys

The Old Woman With The Knife

Gu Byeong-Mo                                                                                 Canongate £14.99

Combining kick-ass fight scenes with trenchant social commentary on the economic fate of South Korea’s elderly, Gu Byeong-Mo’s novel paints a surprisingly tender portrait of the violent life of Hornclaw, a 65-year-old assassin and self-styled ‘disease-control specialist’.

Lonely and increasingly fragile, she’s looking forward to a leisurely retirement. But then along come new desires, an unexpected connection and a younger colleague’s bitter animosity to threaten her hard-won equilibrium.

Eithne Farry