Paperback: The Afterlife, by Donald Antrim

An account of family tragedy lifted by stark beauty and dark humour. It begins with the death of Antrim's mother in an "oddly decorated, dark and claustrophobic house". After a "lifelong self obliteration through alcoholism and... rage", she had become "drastically paranoid". He recognises that her trajectory took physical form in the garments she created as art-works: "The power of my mother's robe was the power to force away people she loved."