Paperbacks: In Search of the Missing Eyelash, by Karen McLeod

"I woke up in a foreign arm-pit". So opens Karen McLeod's distinctive debut – a novel that isn't afraid of mixing tragi-comedy with upfront reflections on unruly body hair and feminine hygiene.

Lizzie, the book's narrator, is a twenty-something south Londoner with several problems on her plate, including unresolved issues with an ex-girlfriend and a missing brother who likes to be called Amanda. This may sound like the basis for an irritatingly madcap scenario, but in McLeod's capable hands it becomes a memorable and subversive portrait of the youthful female state.