Drawing on her experiences growing up in a Christian fundamentalist sect in Wales, 31-year-old Grace McCleen's hotly tipped The Land of Decoration (Chatto, published 1 March, £12.99) is narrated by a deeply religious young girl, Judith, who lives with her father. In homage to the land promised to the Israelites in the Old Testament, she crafts a miniature world in her bedroom from scraps of junkwhich then seems to give her power to influence events in the outside world.

The novel was included in this year's Waterstones list of promising authors and bears a cover quote from Emma Donoghue, author of Room. McCleen has already finished its follow-up and is now working on her third book, but when that's done she intends to give up writing entirely. "I feel it's sort of like a knife in me, that I have to get out," she says. Her next plan is to focus on music – she sings and plays guitar.