The latest paperbacks reviewed.
A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz Vintage, £7.99
This memoir of life in Jerusalem is reported to be the best-selling literary work in Israeli history. Oz has wrought an excellent, all-encompassing narrative, his first-rate prose fluidly translated by Nicholas de Lange. Oz's family gives voice to the issues of the day: his mother considers Israel's nationhood inevitable in an era of nationalisms, the men in the community are consumed by fears past and present and a grandmother represents the misery of Europeans transplanted to the Levant, where she becomes comically obsessed with germs and the sensual assaults of her exotic new home. A superlative work. Nora Mahony
Budapest Chico Buarque Bloomsbury, £6.99
Weary of the childlike simplicity of Finnegans Wake? In need of burlesque confusion? Why not sample the multiple chaos of Brazilian singer/composer Buarque's lively third novel? This distorted mirror of an extended dream sequence shimmers with trickery run riot. The narrator is a slave to language and appears to earn his living by writing. Returning to Brazil following the Anonymous Writers' Congress in Istanbul, our hero, a crazed romantic with problems, not least thinning hair and a hyperactive imagination, is delayed by a bomb scare. His flight lands in Budapest, where he becomes fascinated with Hungarian and the female eccentric intent on teaching him. Buarque's central thesis may be the elusive nature of reality. Who knows? His jaunty, picaresque style, with its echoes of Bulgakov and Murakami, remains sufficiently amusing to almost counter the nonsense. Eileen Battersby
The Making of Henry Howard Jacobson Vintage Books, £6.99
Nearing 60, Henry's life takes an unexpected twist when he inherits a plush apartment in St John's Wood from his late father. While Henry moves from the North to London, his past is not prepared to be left behind: he has yet to come to terms with his relationship with his fire-eating magician of a father, his old best friend turned successful Hollywood producer, and his lifelong fascination with all things female. As if his struggle with his past and the ever-growing notion that his existence has been one of considerable mediocrity isn't enough to deal with, Henry's new life carries its own problems. His new neighbour provides, in spite of Henry's best efforts, the possibility of friendship, while, despite his increasing concern with death, his romance with Moira, the cafe waitress, suggests it is love he ought to be worrying about more. Jacobson's tale of a man reborn so late in the day is effortlessly told and charming in its poignancy and wry take on life and love. Tom Cooney
The Lambs of London Peter Ackroyd Vintage, £6.99
Charles Lamb, an aspiring writer, and his sister Mary, a reclusive and somewhat unstable woman, are the products of a dysfunctional family. Literature and debate with Charles keep Mary sane, and their shared love of Shakespeare ensures compassion, love and respect between siblings. Into their lives comes William Ireland, son of a bookseller, who unearths a trove of Shakespearean documents in the home of a mysterious widow. When questions arise as to the authenticity of Ireland's finds, Mary offers him unbridled support, but soon her world is turned upside down. Ackroyd brings the streets and characters of 18th-century London to life in this fast-paced, fact-based narrative. As Ireland says of Shakespeare, the pages of this book "turned with delight, not with duty". Séamus Conboy
Life Mask Emma Donoghue Virago, £7.99
Long before Hello! and OK! magazines, society in the late 18th century had developed a greatly superior form of people-watching, gossip and hypocrisy. It was called theatre and polite society, and Donoghue has a terrific time immersing herself in one of the bitchiest periods in western history. Her vivid reconstruction of the period fleshes out the triangle at the centre of her narrative. Wealthy and aristocratic Lord Derby is helplessly in love with icy comedic actress Eliza Farren, whose beauty and poise give her mother hope that she will achieve entrance into those lofty societal echelons. Widowed sculptress Anne Damer becomes Eliza's close friend, but their relationship goes through its ups and downs due to Anne's scandalous reputation as a Sapphist. Mixed with the nasty gossip and sex, Donoghue's characterisations of historical figures, such as Sheridan and Walpole, make for a novel that reads and has the appeal of a BBC historic costume drama: an often slow-moving but ornate and witty soap opera. Christine Madden
Hope Dies Last Studs Turkel Granta, £8.99
It's easy to be cynical regarding social and political activism today. Campaigning seems to have been co-opted by celebrities and wristbands. So it's refreshing to read this collection of interviews with a broad spectrum of American activists. Pulitzer Prize-winning social historian Studs Turkel, now in his 93rd year, admits in his introduction that starting the project he felt society was at its most passive in the face of injustice. Yet the opposite shines through from this book. It moves from tales of civil rights, McCarthyism, labour disputes and immigration along to more recent issues and personal struggles. JK Galbraith, Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie are featured but most here are unfamiliar names: ordinary people fighting the good fight. An inspiring and hopeful assemblage from a writer who wrests stories of inspiration and persistence from his subjects. Eoghan Morrissey