As If By Chance
David Lan

Faber, £20, pp320pp

The acclaimed former artistic director of the Young Vic begins these lyrical reminiscences in South Africa, chronicling his sexual awakening and emerging interest in the stage. But he is never bound by chronology, instead dealing with his work thematically and impressionistically. Heartfelt, inspirational and evocative.

Swimming in the Dark
Tomasz Jedrowski

Bloomsbury, £14.99, pp256

Tomasz Jedrowski’s debut novel is an affecting and unusual romance, with a political undercurrent. In 1980 Poland, a love affair begins between Ludwik, a closeted and anxious young graduate, and the more worldly Janusz. The two have very different views of the Polish United Workers’ Party, and these distinct visions of the state threaten to destroy everything. Jedrowski writes elegantly and evokes the emotional honesty that the lovers first thrive in, and then the grimly repressive machinery of the PUWP.

Plume
Will Wiles

HarperCollins, £8.99, pp384 (paperback)

Will Wiles’s hugely entertaining third novel resembles nothing so much as a Nathan Barley for the Brexit generation, and is as dark and uproarious as that sounds. His protagonist, Jack Bick, is a hard-drinking east London journalist who has to interview a series of frauds, from a literary novelist he suspects of having faked his own mugging to an estate agent with a morally dubious scheme to shake up the London lettings market. Wiles takes aim at our self-absorbed, social-media-obsessed generation with real wit, even as an ominous plume of black smoke acts as an ever-present memento mori for his deeply flawed characters.

• To order As If By Chance, Swimming in the Dark or Plume go to guardianbookshop.com. Free UK p&p over £15