Then, By Julie Myerson

Set in a post-apocalyptic London where even breathing feels like a "rough and complicated act", Myerson's new novel is related by a female narrator who can't remember anything, not even her own name.

The reader isn't let into the cause of the catastrophe which finds this middle-aged woman sheltering in an office block with Graham, a City lawyer, two teenagers, Ted and Sophie, and a 13-year-boy: "the kid". At first this genre-bending novel feels like a departure for Myerson, but familiar themes kick in - injured children, broken homes, psychological torment. It's a chilling and original portrait of breakdown.