This week's paperbacks

Too Much Happiness

Alice Munro

Vintage, £7.99

Any new work by Alice Munro, winner of the 2009 Man Booker International Prize, is an exciting prospect, and this latest collection of short stories justifies all expectations. From the opening tale of a chambermaid with a terrible secret to that of an adult marred by an unusual birthmark or a Russian emigre struggling with "too much happiness", each story is marked by deceptively simple prose concealing layers of complexity that build to often unexpected conclusions. As a mother discovers in Deep Holes, not everything is as it seems. Munro takes her readers on similar journeys, through life and death, hope and despair, that go straight to the heart of the contradictions that make human beings what we are. A short-story writer, one character asserts, is "somebody who is hanging on to the gates of literature rather than safely settled inside". This collection reminds us why Munro was welcomed in long ago. Freya McClements

Whatever You Love

Louise Doughty

Faber, £7.99

This Costa-nominated book is Doughty's sixth novel, and she plays to her strengths in it, examining the dark undercurrents of life in an apparently seamless suburbia. It is the story of a life suspended, that of Laura Needham, whose nine-year-old daughter has been killed in a hit-and-run. A novel could easily collapse under the weight of such tragedy, but Doughty makes it an absorbing rather than exhausting read, through her vivid, flawed characters and insightful prose. Alongside this she works a second, more menacing plot thread. Although Laura may have abandoned the world, it seems the world is not through with her. A spate of threatening letters suggests menace throughout, a menace that remains in the background until the final 50 pages, when it springs to prominence slightly jarringly. In this brisk shift into thriller territory some of Doughty's impressive composure is sacrificed, but this nonetheless adds up to lucid and compelling domestic gothic. Claire Anderson-Wheeler

A Secret Kept

Tatiana de Rosnay

Pan, £7.99

As a surprise birthday present Antoine whisks his sister Mélanie away from Paris to Noirmoutier Island, where they spent happy summers as children. Their weekend is peppered with reminiscences, especially of their mother, who died tragically young, but Mélanie's frequent preoccupation worries Antoine. On the drive back to Paris Mélanie finally seems ready to share her fears with her brother, but, overcome with emotion, she loses control of the car. While Antoine waits at her hospital bedside he assesses how deeply unsatisfying his own life has become, how his marriage failed and how his children have become estranged. But it is in the healing process that new possibilities emerge. Antoine finds that, although life can be full of pleasant surprises, his determination to find out the truth about his mother holds some hazards. De Rosnay tells this engrossing story with flair, showing the complexity of a family whose concern with appearance has often made them forget how strong love can be. Claire Looby

Czechoslovakia: The State That Failed

Mary Heimann

Yale University Press, £12.99

In its 74-year history Czechoslovakia "went through every kind of political regime, from military dictatorship to parliamentary democracy, and from Nazi colony to Soviet satellite". Although Nazi Germany and communist Russia are partly to blame for what Heimann sees as the country's failure, she argues strongly that its Czech and Slovak political elites must also bear a great part of the responsibility because of their treatment of other ethnic groups. She does not spare national icons, from Tomás Masaryk to Alexander Dubcek. But to what extent is this controversial revisionism making the case for the prosecution only? No doubt Heimann makes many valid points: Czechoslovakia was an opportunistic, artificial creation; ethnic groups, especially Germans, were treated badly; and some of the country's communists were pretty ghastly. On the other hand, many Czechoslovaks displayed courage, endurance and other admirable characteristics during the country's difficult history. It is important that these be acknowledged, too, and more strongly than they are in this book. Brian Maye

Daoine A Itheann Daoine Mícheál Ó Ruairc

Cló Iar-Chonnacht, €12

Any book of short stories entitled Daoine A Itheann Daoine (People Who Eat People) is going to draw one's attention – and rightly so in the case of Mícheál Ó Ruairc, who has produced a collection that entertains and engages. The title story is satirical in the tradition of Swift and, one imagines, would make a lovely short horror film on TG4 for those not too squeamish. The collection is an imaginative one, ranging from the everyday events that challenge people to the traumatic and right on into the surreal. Briatharchath (Verb Battle) is a clever, thoughtful and hilarious look at language and its absurdities, while An tInneall Brionglóid (The Dream Machine) is a clever look at the way in which modern technology cuts people off from their social being. Ó Ruairc succeeds in blurring reality and fantasy convincingly. Notable too is the quiet authority in his prose; he has a distinctive voice and a nice pitch that attracts the reader. Pól Ó Muirí