Cloud Atlas, By David Mitchell

The re-issue of Mitchell's fantastically imaginative third novel offers a last chance to read about six colliding lives (and histories) before the Hollywood film of the book imagines it all for you, early next year.

The film features such cinema royalty as Tom Hanks and Susan Sarandon (and, closer to home, Jim Broadbent and Hugh Grant). Graciously, a new introduction by Mitchell relays the joys of seeing his Man Booker shortlisted story come to celluloid life – and his cameo appearance in it.