Upside Down Inside Out, By Monica McInerney

It's not often a watermelon opens a novel. But Monica McInerney has one rolling across the footpath of her protagonist in the very first sentence. Don't be fooled by such a seemingly innocent plot device, for this fruit is highly symbolic – it's a "runaway fruit", which has been trying to make a getaway all day, explains Brenda at the fruit-and-veg stall nearby.

Eva, too, would very much like to make an escape. She would like to roll away from the rut she is in, having worked for seven years at her uncle's delicatessen in Dublin. Her friend Lainey in Australia boasts of the great weather. To make things worse, Eva's boyfriend turns out to be a "two-faced deceitful bastard" who humiliates her at a wine bar (the plot is full of whining, too). Surely there would be no melons intruding on life's glorious path in Melbourne, where Eva will be able to recover her failed artistic ambitions.

This globe-trotting plot gets upside down, inside out itself, as it tries to show how easy it is to flee, but how much harder to escape from your own self.