Assembly by Natasha Brown (4*)

My roll of short great novels continues.

Race and class in Modern Britain circa 2013 . Social climbing today for old money and new. Privilege and expectation versus work hard, work harder mantra or the migrant and the masses. Although some passages feel like creative writing exercises re-used, this woman can write. She makes the essence of her protagonist explode from the concise 100 pages of tight text into full bloom in your mind.

Deservedly on the Granta 2023 Best of Young British Novelists list

On the Calculation of Volume I by Solvej Balle, Translated from the Danish by Barbara J. Haveland (4*)

This book takes the concept found in Groundhog Day, and in The Time Traveller's Wife etc and runs with it in 1st person narrative of antiquarian book seller Tara. As she tells her husband about the repetition , each day's recantation getting longer and longer, we see her try to maintain then be a voyeur and then remove herself from his 18th, from his life, their house, their life. It was an addictive listen. Ive ordered Book 2 of the series from the library to see how she develops this and where she takes it.