The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera (Solaris, £9.99)
Published last year in the US, this debut novel by a Sri Lankan writer has been garlanded with awards. Set in a world where demons and antigods prowl the streets and the ruling powers regularly call for pogroms against various groups, this is the tale of Fetter, a young man without a shadow. He was raised by his mother to be her weapon against his father, a revered prophet known as The Perfect and Kind. Leaving home for the big city, Fetter tries on new identities among actors, immigrants, scholars and revolutionaries. He is fascinated by the mystery of the “bright doors” that appear whenever an ordinary door has been left closed for too long. When he learns that The Perfect and Kind is on his way to visit the city for the first time, he realises he will have the opportunity to assassinate him without being suspected. Neither the plot nor the various classic tropes of fantasy develop in ways the reader could expect: thrillingly new and different, this bears comparison to works by Kafka and Samuel R Delany. An outstanding, genre-shattering work.
Withered Hill by David Barnett (Canelo, £9.99)
A young woman stumbles naked out of the woods, into the village of Withered Hill. She knows her name is Sophie, but she doesn’t remember anything about her previous life. The locals are friendly but strange. Attempts to escape meet with failure, but her new friends promise that she will be able to leave when the time is right. The dual timeline moves between Sophie’s life in London in the month before her arrival, and what happens in Withered Hill, as she uneasily adjusts to its odd customs and seasonal celebrations. At times this folk horror, while engaging, may seem a bit predictable, but the narrative rug is pulled out from under the reader with a terrific unexpected twist.
