MY WORLD OF TRUTH

Sunday 25 March 2018

TOP TEN ROAST LAMP RECIPES

Create the roast with the most with Good Food's very best lamb recipes. These stunning centrepieces are perfect for Sunday dinner or a special ocassion.

Braised lamb with peas and carrots in roasting tray

King of the dinner table, roast lamb reigns supreme for the family Sunday roast. Treat everyone to a succulent shank or spectacular shoulder with all the trimmings. Whether it's lightly spiced or stuffed with seasonal ingredients we can't resist lamb roasted to perfection like our braised lamb with spring veg.

Need even more roast inspiration? Peruse our roast lamb recipe collection for traditional dishes and exotic twists. Watch our video on how to prepare a leg of lamb ready for roasting.

1. Slow cooked lamb with onions and thyme

Keep it classic with our 5-star slow-cooked lamb. It takes just five ingredients, one pot and almost no effort to create this meltingly tender dish. It virtually cooks itself, so you can spend more time relaxing with family and friends. Look no further for your easiest ever roast lamb recipe.

Try pairing it with our spring greens with fennel & apples for a crisp, fresh side dish.

2. Greek roast lamb

Roast lamb on board with olive and tomato sauce

Embrace the flavours of spring with our lazy Greek roast lamb recipe. Don't spend your afternoon in front of a hot oven, simple prep our herby lamb, nestle it safely amongst new potatoes and relax. This dish is perfect for feeding a crowd – expect clean plates all round.

Serve with a simple Greek salad or modern spiralized courgetti salad.

3. Garlic & herb roast lamb on boulangère potatoes

Combine the best parts of the roast into one super dish with our garlic & herb roast lamb on boulangère potatoes. Cook your succulent lamb with your potatoes so they absorb the juices and all the herby flavour. This impressive looking centrepiece is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

Dish up a scoop at a time with our honey-glazed roast carrots and peas & beans with pancetta & mint.

4. Lamb kleftiko

Seal in the flavour of this leg of lamb and roast it low and slow for perfectly tender meat. Our lamb kleftiko wraps the leg of lamb in a parcel of deliciousness with garlic, lemon, herbs and potatoes. Serve with a cooling dollop of mint yogurt and a simple, fresh salad.

Want even more ideas for your leg of lamb? Try this fruity lamb, apricot & shallot tagine with an aromatic marinade. Looking for a super simple barbecue dish? Try our Indian spiced butterflied lamb. The thin crust of char is totally irresistible.

5. Slow-roast Persian lamb

Our showstopping slow-roast Persian lamb has a mellow sweetness, paired with a zingy pomegranate salad and moreish flatbreads. This hassle-free supper might be the pinacle of simple yet impressive dishes. Make sure to account for extra portions as seconds will be snapped up in seconds.

Try serving with our jewelled couscous for a light, flavourful side.

6. Herby baked lamb in tomato sauce

Baked lamb shoulder in tomato sauce in dish

This herby baked lamb becomes so tender, you can 'carve' it at the table with a just a spoon. Cook in its own sauce for a rich dish with beautifully tender meat. This recipe uses shoulder of lamb but if you'd rather use leg of lamb, simply rotate every hour so it stays moist. Shred the leftovers in the sauce to make a simple ragu you can serve with pasta.

7. Slow-roast lamb with cinnamon, fennel & citrus

Roast leg of lamb on board with dish of potatoes

For this recipe we're making good use of the spice rack. Honey, cinnamon and zesty citrus fruits make up the base marinade for this magnificent slow-roast lamb with fennel. Serve up this fantastic fuss-free main course for a dinner party with friends. Pair it with a meze packed with Middle-Eastern flavours for a dinner with a difference.

Whip up our quick hummus, sesame flatbreads and courgette & tahini dip for a sharing platter to please all palates.

8. Pulled lamb shoulder

Lamb on carving board with salads and cutlery

Cooking lamb together with fruit juices means it doubles up as a sweet syrup and our pulled lamb with sticky pomegranate glaze served with sticky onions and a minty yogurt is ideal for lazy summer days. Try it with our golden couscous and minty carrot, pistachio & feta salad.

Or, give this dish an Indian twist with our curried pulled lamb with a punchy spice paste to bring the heat.

9. Hay-baked stuffed leg of lamb

Hay-baked leg of lamb in dish with hay on table with vegetable sides

Take some inspiration from the farm and try our hay-baked leg of lamb. This spectacular centrepiece has a sweet, smoky flavour from the herby hay and the stuffing adds a much-needed dose of spring greens. These can change seasonally, so try using wild garlic, spinach or chard instead of kale.

Pair it with cumin carrots, our hearty roast cauliflower and a tear-and-share flatbread starter for a unique Easter lunch menu.

10. Korean crusted roast lamb

Carved leg of lamb on board with vegetables and sauce

You've heard of bulgogi beef, well get ready to love a new Korean twist on a classic – Korean crusted roast lamb. This traditional marinade is the perfect balance of sweet and savoury. Serve the lamb with traditional trimmings or with lettuce leaves, shredded veggies and chilli sauce for guests to make a DIY dinner wrap. Make a deliciously flavourful gravy from the juices in the roasting tin.

posted by Davidblogger50 at 22:20 0 comments

Monday 19 March 2018

IS BACON BAD FOR YOU ?

Is it safe to eat bacon? Does eating processed meats increase the risk of cancer? Dietitian Emer Delaney looks into the research behind the recent headlines.

Recently, news headlines have focused on the health implications of eating red and processed meat. But should we really be worried about tucking into the occasional bacon sarnie? Is there any evidence that we should switch to buying nitrate-free products? We asked dietitian Emer Delaney to explain the research behind the headlines and separate fact from fiction.

What is the latest research into processed meats and cancer?

In 2015 the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an independent agency of the World Health Organisation (WHO), reported that processed meat was carcinogenic to humans. This was based on an expert review article which was summarised in the prestigious scientific journal – Lancet Oncology. The WHO defines processed meats as products that have undergone salting, curing, fermentation or smoking to enhance flavour or improve preservation. This includes products such as bacon, salami, hot dogs, ham and corned beef. WHO found that eating 50g of processed meats a day would increase the risk of developing bowel cancer by 18% over a lifetime – a statistic that increases with the amount of processed meat eaten.

As a result, the NHS recommends limiting intake of red and processed meats to 70g per day.

What are nitrates and what do they do?

Nitrates are food additives that are used to improve the look and quality of bacon and some other processed meats. They are sometimes included for food safety to protect against microbes such as botulism. However, they have been reported to be sources of carcinogens as they form something called nitrosocompounds (NOS). A carcinogen is any chemical substance or form of radiation that either damages DNA or disrupts the metabolism of an organism.

Read more about the WHO's classification of red and processed meat as carcinogens.

Are nitrates bad for you?

Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as saying that nitrates are bad for you and cause cancer. There are a multitude of factors that affect the formation of NOS. These include the quality of the meat, how it’s cooked, the fat content, the processing and maturation of the meat.

Adding vitamin C and E to processed meats has been reported to reduce the formation of these harmful NOS. One recent study looked at the impact of vitamin C on the effects of NOC exposure and colorectal cancer in women. They concluded that overall nitrate intake was not associated with the risk of developing colorectal cancer. However, women who had a lower than recommended vitamin C intake and hence a higher exposure to NOCs, had a higher risk of developing colorectal cancer.

Is it better to buy nitrate-free bacon and other processed meats?

The evidence is pretty strong and consistent that a higher consumption of processed meat is associated with increased cancer risk. We know bacon and other processed meats contain nitrates, however according to some experts, including additional vitamins negates these potential negative properties. The truth is, we cannot confidently say what happens to nitrates in the body for numerous reasons such as the presence of gut bacteria, oxygen in the blood, dietary antioxidants, fat and alcohol. We cannot, therefore, definitively say that the presence of nitrates in processed meats is the sole reason for increased cancer risk.

What we do know is that, based on the evidence available, processed meats should be reduced to a minimum and only eaten occasionally. We should aim to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables whether fresh, frozen or tinned and eat wholegrain foods as often as possible. This is the best dietary advice to follow – coupled with eating fish twice a week (once of which should be oily), limiting red meat to once a week, including pulses as often as possible and keeping alcohol intake to a minimum.

Discover how to eat a balanced diet.

How much bacon is safe to eat?

Keeping your bacon intake to a minimum is recommended and only eating it every couple of weeks is best. The current advice from the NHSrecommends that if you currently eat more than 90g (cooked weight) of red and processed meat a day, that you cut down to 70g a day. This is equivalent to two or three rashers of bacon, or a little over two slices of roast lamb, beef or pork, with each about the size of half a slice of bread. In light of the more recent evidence, it's best to reduce your intake of all processed meats to once every couple of weeks.

What are your top tips to cut down on bacon?

Swap bacon for lentils, chickpeas, kidney beans, peas, butter beans, baked beans or haricot beans.
Try bacon alternatives such as turkey, tofu or tempeh rashers.
Add small salmon fillets to your meal instead.
Buy meat less frequently but make it the best quality you can afford.
Cut thin slices of avocado and add it to your sandwich.
Portobello and porcini mushrooms have a very rich, meaty feel and flavour, so adding these to dishes can work.
Paprika and chipotle peppers both have a smoky flavour and can add depth to dishes.

posted by Davidblogger50 at 06:08 0 comments

Thursday 8 March 2018

SPOTLIGHT ON DIABETIC DIETS

A healthy, balanced diet is key to keeping your blood sugar levels in check and your diabetes under control...

What is diabetes?

Diabetes is a lifelong condition caused by a failure of the blood sugar regulation mechanism in the body. This is controlled by a hormone called insulin. Diabetes results when the pancreas does not secrete enough insulin or cells of the body become resistant to insulin so blood sugar levels are not controlled as they should be. Without the proper function of insulin, sugar cannot enter muscle or fat cells, causing serious secondary complications such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, neuropathy and other complications.

How many types of diabetes are there?

Recent research has suggested that diabetes could be seen as five separate diseases, with the potential for treatment to be tailored to each of the different forms. The study was published in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology and looked at 14,775 Scandinavian patients. However, while experts saw the results as promising, they cautioned that further research would be necessary before changes could be made to treatment.

The NHS still classifies diabetes in two types.

Type 1 diabetes

Insulin dependent, less common and usually develops before the age of 30.

Type 1 diabetes occurs when the pancreas stops producing insulin. The exact cause is unknown but some believe that it is an autoimmune response in which the body attacks its own pancreatic cells. People with Type 1 diabetes must take insulin for life.

Type 2 diabetes

Non-insulin dependent, used to be most common in later life but is becoming increasingly more prevalent in younger generation largely due to an increase in obesity.

In Type 2 diabetes, the pancreas still produces insulin, but either it is not producing enough or the body does not respond to it properly. The most common cause of type 2 diabetes is obesity. In many cases, Type 2 diabetes can be avoided through eating a healthy, balanced diet and taking regular exercise and often can be controlled in the same way if diagnosed. However, some cases will require medication and your doctor should be the one to determine whether this is necessary.

Recent research has reported interesting evidence to support the reversal of type 2 diabetes. Research funded by Diabetes UK and performed by a team at Newcastle University reported that type 2 diabetes can be reversed by an extremely low-calorie diet(600 kcals per day).

This diet is extreme and Diabetes UK strongly recommends that such a drastic diet is only undertaken under professional medical supervision. People with diabetes who want to lose weight should consult their GP before undertaking any new eating plan.

...a note on gestational diabetes

Gestational diabetes is a type of diabetes that affects women during pregnancy, when some women have slightly higher than normal levels of glucose in their blood and their body cannot produce enough insulin to transport it all into the cells.

Read more from the NHS on gestational diabetes.

Symptoms

Symptoms of diabetes can include tiredness, thirst, frequent urination and skin infections. A full list of symptoms can be found at diabetes.co.uk . Diabetes must always be controlled under the management of a doctor. For further advice and information see: diabetes.org.uk

Health implications

People with diabetes of either Type 1 or 2 have a higher chance of developing a range of health conditions including heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, circulation problems, nerve damage and damage to the kidneys and eyes. If you are overweight then losing this excess weight healthily and steadily can have a very positive effect on blood sugar levels and can reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. It's also particularly important to build up a good exercise routine as this will help the body maintain good blood sugar levels.

Food choices for diabetics

Dietary modification is fundamental to the successful management of both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes, though making sensible choices will mean you can continue to enjoy a wide range of foods. It's imperative that weight is kept within the normal range. The dietary guidelines are very similar to those recommended for a healthy lifestyle: eat less sugar and fat, include more fibre-rich starchy foods and more fruit and vegetables with moderate amounts of meat, fish, milk and dairy. Choosing the right foods can make a big difference and eating regularly helps to ensure blood sugar levels do not fluctuate too much.

A magnifying glass and a calculator next to food nutrition labels

Foods to eat

- Starchy carbohydrates provide energy and help maintain and control blood glucose levels so should factor in every meal, though portion sizes and carb intake should be discussed with a dietitian to ensure you are eating to your individual needs. Look for wholemeal or wholegrain breads, high fibre breakfast cereals, wholemeal pasta and brown rice.

- Fibre can slow the rate at which the starch and sugar in foods enter the bloodstream. It can also help manage cholesterol levels as part of a balanced diet. This kind of soluble fibre is found in oats, pulses, fruit and vegetables.

- Whether you are taking insulin or not, stick to low GI foods (see below for suggestions).

- Magnesium, chromium, zinc and vitamin B3 all help to stabilise blood sugar. Eat plenty of green vegetables, whole grains, dairy foods, brewer's yeast, seafood and pulses to ensure adequate amounts of these micronutrients.

- Maintain your hydration levels with water, herbal teas etc. but avoid squash and sugary drinks.

Foods to avoid

- Diabetes is linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease so the same heart friendly healthy eating principles apply. See our Spotlight on heart disease article.

- If you decide to drink alcohol, avoid drinking more than the recommended amount, and never drink alcohol on an empty stomach. Men and women are advised not to reguarly drink more than 14 units a week. Depending on the amount you drink, alcohol can cause either high or low blood glucose levels (hyperglycaemia or hypoglycaemia). Drinking alcohol may also affect your ability to carry out insulin treatment or blood glucose monitoring, so always be careful not to drink too much.

- Minimise refined carbohydrates and enjoy low GI foods instead.

Moderate your intake of the following:

Over-ripe bananas
Fruit yogurts and desserts high in sugar
Fruit juices
Dried figs & dates
White bread, baguettes and bagels
Cream crackers & white rice cakes
Iced cakes & pastries
Scones, crumpets and waffles
Sweet pies
Fruit canned in syrup
Breakfast cereals containing sugar
Baked & mashed potatoes and chips
White rice
Corn & rice pasta
Pizza
Popcorn
High sugar jams & jellies
Crisps and other potato & corn snacks
Fruit drinks containing added sugar
Fizzy drinks containing sugar
Sweets & chocolate bars
Thickened soups
Table sugar
Ice cream containing glucose syrup or high levels of other sugars

Three cans of fizzy drinks next to lots of sugar cubes

Swap these higher GI foods...	For these lower GI foods
Refined sugary cereal	Oatmeal porridge, All bran or muesli
White bread sandwiches	Whole grain/granary bread sandwiches
White rice	Basmati rice, wholegrain rice
Biscuits/cookies	Small handful of nuts
Sugary fizzy drinks	Water
Sweets/sugar candy	Raw vegetable sticks with cheese or low-GI fruit
Milk chocolate bar	Plain dark chocolate (70% or more cocoa solids)
Jam or marmalade on toast	Avocado or nut butter on toast
Curry with rice	Curry with chickpeas or lentils
Rice cakes	Oatcakes
Pretzels	Walnuts

Recipe suggestions

Simple salads to keep those blood sugar levels in check:

Mexican bean salad
Chickpea & roasted pepper salad
Salmon & soya bean salad

Use beans and pulses in chillis and stews and serve with brown rice:

Spicy meatballs with chilli black beans
Lighter cassoulet

Managing your weight can help control Type 2 diabetes. Check out some of our favourite low-fat recipes which don't compromise on taste:

posted by Davidblogger50 at 04:12 0 comments

Wednesday 7 March 2018

SURVIVAL TIPS FOR THE SOCIAL MEDIA GENERATION

Never mind ‘digital natives’ – today’s under-20s are social media natives. They have barely known a life before Facebook.

How are they dealing with the unique challenges of a life online?

I’ve spent the last month working on #LikeMinded, a special series about social media and its impact on our mental health. It’s forced me to question whether I (now at 23 years old) really was psychologically robust enough to confront the onslaught of picture sharing and constant messaging that arrived in my early teens. For some children, it’s arriving even earlier; it’s thought that at least 7.5 million users in the US are under the age of 13, despite having to be aged 13 or over to hold an account.

For this group, social media has shaped their entire lives. But that’s also why they’re the ones who perhaps have the most realistic concerns over whether it’s a positive force in their lives.

Teens are quick to voice concerns over platforms when asked, as shown in a 2017 survey where almost 1,500 teens said Instagram was the worst platform for their mental health. So who is making sure a life online is a happy and healthy one?

Help from schools and governments

Young people might seem more connected to their peers, with thousands of Facebook friends or Twitter followers, but social media hasn’t come without its downsides.

Katy Mackenzie is a 19-year-old blogger and student from Derby who writes about beauty, lifestyle and mental health, for whom social media “was key to getting my posts shared and out there to the world.”

Like most young people, there weren’t any school lessons in how to use social media – just some safety basics that she was already aware of. “I think companies need to realise when people call out for help.”

When you think about it, there are two issues there: a feeling that social media companies aren’t necessarily doing enough, and that schools might not be satisfactorily aware of the modern digital landscape. That’s not serving Gen Z well, whose lives are so interwoven with social media at such an early age.

The Royal Society of Public Health’s #StatusofMind report in the UK detailed several concerns over young people’s mental health and how social media use is linked to increased rates of anxiety, depression and poor sleep.

An NHS Trust in Scotland created an onlineresource to help healthcare professionals better understand the new risks facing young people and the list is considerable: it details everything from the distorted view of reality young people might have from their feeds to sexting, revenge porn, cyberbullying, privacy issues, gambling and access to inappropriate content. Many of those problems are specific to social media.

Social media companies themselves are steadily waking up to negative press about mental health and the many cases of underage users being on their platforms. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is a federal law in the US stipulating that users need to be at least 13 years old to have a social media account.

If we know there are millions of under-13s on the platform, then our mental health concerns need to incorporate them as well as teenagers.

Helpful apps

Intriguingly, apps are now surfacing to engage with young people on the very device that’s bringing them closer to these problems in the first place – their smartphones. But this ends up being pretty complicated.

The app TalkLife, for example – “share the ups and downs of life!” – calls itself ‘the peer support network for youth mental health.’ You can post anonymously, or give yourself a username. One poster writes, “I don’t want to be alive. I don’t feel worthy of even posting this. I shouldn’t. I should be alone with it. What am I doing? I’m so lost.” Two people reply: “you’ll get through this, babe. :(” and “If in your heart believed [sic] in your words you wouldn’t have said this. Think about it. And you know deep down you want to live.”

Posts that may offend, such as those with violent imagery, are coloured red and come with a warning: “This post may be triggering”.

As a platform, it feels like catnip for over-sharers, especially those who want both attention and anonymity which is impossible on mainstream social networking sites. However, there is no actual psychiatric help or health advice on the app itself, and there are obvious problems that can arise from this. The viral Saudi app Sarahah that allows users to communicate anonymously, for instance, has now been dropped from Google and Apple app stores after accusations that the anonymity actually facilitated bullying. So, as a supposed solution, what do apps like these actually solve?

What Sarahah and TalkLife have proved, however, is that there is a clear appetite here for Generation Z to do what they most love: connecting with peers online to share tips, share worries, share stories. That could be mined more usefully with better supervision.

Using social media for good

One website that has been praised by leading psychologists is Big White Wall, which is available in the US and the UK. Inspired by the early days of social networking, it’s a peer support community and now has partnerships with the NHS in keeping with best practice and the latest evidence.

It’s a versatile platform, too. You remain anonymous and can design artistic expressions of your thoughts on ‘Bricks’ to explain your thoughts and feelings. There are guided support courses to learn how to manage everything from depression to stopping smoking. They also personalise suggestions to you of how to help you feel better based on your interests. The Big White Wall gave me the testimony of one case study, who said: “I found it almost impossible to discuss with my parents and I was a bit frightened of disclosing it to my friends. Being able to talk online to other people about that was really, really useful. Otherwise, I would have kept it all bottled up.”

Any person or organisation can create an app or an online service, but the responsibility for someone’s mental health can be a matter of life and death - Jessica Smith

Marketing manager Jessica Smith says that “rather than looking at the number of online solutions available for young people, we focus much more on the quality and safety of these.

“Any person or organisation can create an app or an online service, but the responsibility for someone’s mental health can be a matter of life and death. We believe clinical oversight, rigorous evaluation and quality assurance should form the foundations of online support services.”

Perhaps the real solutions to the new difficulties that Generation Z online should be like Big White Wall – answers that lie outside the corporate interests of mainstream social media companies, and which allow under-20s to connect with each other in the way they’ve grown accustomed to on these very online platforms.

How realistic is it that companies like Facebook and Twitter would try to make themselves less addictive for the sake of young people’s sanity? Marketing professor Adam Alter from New York University thinks “the incentives aren’t aligned appropriately to encourage them to consider consumer wellbeing.

“If you’re competing for attention there’s an arms race – and companies aren’t going to introduce stopping cues, for example, if none of their competitors are doing the same thing. If they can’t keep you glued to their products, they’re unlikely to attract ad and referral revenue.”

Tweaks to current social media platforms

This didn’t stop London-based design agency Studio Output from having a go, though. The team devised a number of simple changes that a platform like Instagram could make, if there was incentive enough to do so, in order reduce certain risks for its users.

One feature is ‘a mindful algorithm’ that serves you happy news if it spots that your posts include words that flag poor mental wellbeing, giving you good news if you needed it. Other ideas are smart notifications that are geo-fenced to know when you need some downtime. Activity trackers that, like step-counters or other physical trackers we use, actually measure your social media habits and encourage users to set goals. They also suggest colour-coded profiles, depending on how realistic profiles are; those accounts that regularly post unrealistic, Photoshopped or heavily filtered body images will be flagged red.

It makes good business sense to look after your users, and looking after your users means creating a healthy, happy and sustainable environment - David McDougall

When I asked their strategy director, David McDougall, if he ever thought social networking sites would ever implement changes like this, he said “my answer is undoubtedly yes. It makes good business sense to look after your users, and looking after your users means creating a healthy, happy and sustainable environment.”

Whether it’s the social behemoths like Facebook or the upcoming social safe spaces like Big White Wall who finally instigate change for young people, for many the change may already come too late.

But with a generation that’s hungrier than ever to connect across continents and share their ideas for a healthier social media landscape, Generation Z might actually be the age group that’s most in-tune with their feelings after all. Parents worried that their kids are spending too much time staring at a screen might relax a little in the knowledge that they may well be getting the help they deserve.

posted by Davidblogger50 at 21:46 0 comments

Thursday 1 March 2018

TEN BOOKS TO READ IN MARCH

Michael David Lukas, The Last Watchman of Old Cairo

Lukas’s lyrical, compassionate and illuminating new novel bridges centuries and cultures as he traces generations of the Muslim family who guarded Old Cairo’s Ibn Ezra Synagogue for nearly 1,000 years. Lukas unspools three narratives seamlessly. He begins with Ali, the orphan who becomes the first watchman. He follows twin British widows Agnes and Margaret, who travel to Cairo in 1897 in hopes of bringing back to Cambridge the Ezra scroll, “which contained a magic so powerful it could not be spoken”. At the heart of the book is a modern-day quest: Yusef al-Raqb, a Berkeley graduate student, son of a Jewish mother, travels to Cairo after the death of his Muslim father. He searches for the Ezra Scroll hidden in the attic of the synagogue, and discovers his calling. (Credit: Spiegel & Grau)

Domenico Starnone, Trick

In his playful new novel, translated from the Italian by Jhumpa Lahiri, Strega prize winner Starnone pits Daniele, a cranky 75-year-old artist, against his obstinate four-year-old grandson in a three-day battle of wills. Daniele, still convalescing from surgery, is babysitter while his daughter and her husband are at a conference. Daniele finds himself back in his hated boyhood apartment in Naples, where they live. He is used to solitude and deadlines (he’s working on illustrations for Henry James’s ghost story The Jolly Corner). Mario pesters him mercilessly, with increasingly perilous pranks. Starnone echoes Henry James throughout, with ghoulish hallucinations, and piercing insights into identity and the shifting perceptions of ageing. The appendix, Daniele’s sketchbook and journal, is both a prelude to the action and a stark meditation on art, ambition and failure. (Credit: Europa Editions)

Uzodinma Iweala, Speak No Evil

The second novel from Nigerian-born Iweala, whose Beasts of No Nation won four major awards for debut fiction, is the heart-rending tale of two sensitive, lovable teens discovering themselves. Niru, a track star who’s been accepted to Harvard, realises he’s gay with a “mixture of relief, embarrassment and fear”. His best friend Meredith, a classmate at Cathedral high school in Washington, DC, is accepting of his choice. His conservative Nigerian parents are aghast; his father beats him and forces him into a series of religious interventions to “cast out the demon.” As Niru struggles to maintain his equilibrium and be true to his emerging self, Meredith has her own family and romantic dilemmas. Iweala laces his powerful tale with equal parts tenderness and violence. (Credit: Harper Collins)

Elaine Weiss, The Woman’s Hour

Weiss chronicles the “furious campaign” to convince the Tennessee legislature – the 36th of 35 states required to ratify – to vote in favour of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, which gave women the right to vote. The weeks-long showdown in Nashville in August 1920 was, Weiss writes, “the explosive climax of American women’s seven-decade struggle for equal citizenship”. And it was a cliffhanger. Weiss evokes the opposing forces: suffragists; “Antis” (those who feared women being able to vote would bring moral collapse); politicians and industry lobbyists. She details dirty tricks, bribery and betrayals. And she shows how suffragists like Carrie Catt and the more radical Sue White developed nonviolent protests, civil disobedience, grass-roots organising, lobbying and public relations techniques that influenced later social justice movements. (Credit: Viking)

Christine Schutt, Pure Hollywood

A National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Schutt is known for her taut, haunting and original take on contemporary themes. Mimi, the newly widowed starlet in the title novella in this collection, discovers that her husband Arnie has willed his priceless Piro house in Malibu and all the furnishings and art to his adult children. Homeless, she drives into the desert in the Mustang he left her, unwittingly headed into a flare of sun-drenched violence. Another story, the ingeniously structured The Hedges, describes the fatal carelessness of a young mother on vacation at a Caribbean resort. And yet another tale describes young newlyweds working as caretakers for an estate who should have recognised the “ominous signs” when they were befriended by an older man, a painter. Think Gatsby with a twist of Didion. (Credit: Grove Press)

Julián Herbert, Tomb Song

In this blend of fiction and autobiography, translated from the Spanish by Christina MacSweeney, Herbert traces the relationship between Guadalupe, a former prostitute, and her son Julián, as he sits by her bedside in a cancer ward in Saltillo in Northern Mexico. His flow of memory, triggered by her ongoing treatment for leukemia, is dramatic, eloquent (“We travelled so much that… the earth was a wickerwork polygon limited in every direction by railway lines”), and sometimes false. He follows her from her birth in San Luis Potosi through brothels in Acapulco, Monterrey, Ciudad Frontera, and Oaxaca, and the birth of each of her five children, against a counterpoint of his own childhood, adolescence, marriage, travels and writing career. “My mother was music,” he writes. During her waning days, he prepares for the birth of his son. (Credit: Graywolf)

Tatyana Tolstaya, Aetherial Worlds

These superb 18 stories, translated from the Russian by Anya Migdal, from Tolstaya, the great grand-niece of Leo Tolstoy, is her first collection in English in two decades, and it is cause for celebration. She opens with the story 20/20, in which weeks of darkness after eye surgery leave the narrator able to visualise an internal world in detail, leading to her writing her first short story. The narrator of the title story moves from Russia to Princeton, New Jersey, in 1992 and commutes four hours to a creative writing teaching job where she is at the mercy of end-of-semester student evaluations. See the Reverse, set in Ravenna, Italy, where Dante is buried, creates a dialogue between the narrator and her late father, who visited the place 40 years before and sent her excited postcards. Tolstaya’s inimitable voice rings clearly throughout. (Credit: Knopf)

Jesse Ball, Census

Ball’s 15th book was inspired by his late brother Abram, who had Down syndrome and died in 1989 aged 24. (His “magnificent and beautiful nature never flagged”, Ball writes in a prelude that lends resonance to his tale.) The narrator of Census, a widowed physician given a fatal diagnosis, struggles with the question of who will care of his son, who has Down syndrome. He signs up as a census taker and takes his son with him on the road. Beginning with the first census stop, Ball takes us on a dark journey into a troubled world, where the census taker leaves a tattoo on each individual’s rib (“barbaric” some say). He ends with a heart-breaking farewell: the future, the father sees, is “his, and not mine”. (Credit: Ecco)

Alberto Luis Urrea, The House of Broken Angels

Big Angel, the patriarch of the De La Cruz family, is dying of cancer. His passionate and complicated family gathers in San Diego to share his last birthday. But first comes his mother’s funeral. During these last days, Big Angel muses on his beloved wife Perla, his siblings, his children – Lalo, who has a Purple Heart but no citizenship, and Minnie, born on the US side of the border – and their children. He conjures up fond memories of his birthplace in La Paz and not-so-fond memories of the abusive uncle who triggered his journey north. Bestselling novelist Urrea celebrates family as he digs deep into the small moments and big questions of life. “Love is the answer,” he writes. “Nothing stops it. Not borders. Not death.” (Credit: Little, Brown)

Wendell Steavenson, Paris Metro

Global reporter Steavenson’s first novel benefits from her on-the-ground understanding of the complex issues of the 21st Century. Kit, her narrator, is a journalist who “follows the War on Terror bandwagon from Afghanistan to Baghdad, [with] detours to Syria”. She interviews insurgents, diplomats, refugees, monks – and meets Ahmed, an Iraqi, in Amman, Jordan, introduced by friends who have just covered the 2003 fall of Baghdad. They marry, move to Beirut in 2005, then to Paris. She adopts his son Little Ahmed and raises him after they divorce. Kit begins to unravel after a close friend is murdered in the January 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks. She finds herself a helpless witness to the Bataclan atrocity, and then her own future is at risk. A moving, suspenseful and revelatory novel. (Credit: WW Norton)

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