The Translation of the Bones, By Francesca Kay

This second fiction by a deeply talented writer unravels a "miracle" in a Catholic church in Battersea.

Kay's richly-characterised urban parish functions as a social microcosm. With its fine-grained pattern of voices, its relish for the surreal jostlings of inner-city life, its tender lyricism, the novel offers insight and uplift but no mystical schmaltz.

A raw tragedy will cast all faith into doubt. As a channeller of south-London spirituality, Kay belongs in the hallowed company of Spark and Greene.