April global fiction: A reimagined Gatsby, and five other novels from around the world

Open, Heaven, Seán Hewitt

James – a sheltered, shy 16-year-old – is alone in his newly discovered sexuality, full of an unruly desire but entirely inexperienced. As he is beginning to understand himself and his longings, he also realises how his feelings threaten to separate him from his family and the rural community he has grown up in. He dreams of another life, fantasising about what lies beyond the village’s leaf-ribboned boundaries, beyond his reach: autonomy, tenderness, sex. Then, in the autumn of 2002, he meets Luke, a slightly older boy, handsome, unkempt, who comes with a reputation for danger.

Abandoned by his parents – his father imprisoned, and his mother having moved to France for another man – Luke has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle on their farm just outside the village. James is immediately drawn to him “like the pull a fire makes on the air, dragging things into it and blazing them into its hot, white centre,” drawn to this boy who is beautiful and impulsive, charismatic, troubled. But underneath Luke’s bravado is a deep wound – a longing for the love of his father and for the stability of family life.

Tilt, Emma Pattee

Annie is nine months...

Read more