Paperback: Runt, by Niall Griffiths

Narrated in a manic, stream-of-consciousness torrent, this slim novel is set in rural Wales, but also inside the head of a 16 year-old boy. This is the interior monologue of a spiritual savant, prone to terrifying seizures in which the boy channels ancient folk memories and can talk to dogs. Compelling and climactic, the novel begins with a cruel "NotDad", a kind "Drunkle" and a hanged "Auntie Scantie", and builds to a crescendo of brutality, and also hope.