Cold Snap, by Thom Jones (Faber & Faber £6.99 in UK)

Global aid meets west coast America in these off the wall stories peopled by strung out, dope crazed, hairy chested men who have either just come back from a stint in a refugee camp in Africa or are just about to go there. Everything is meaningful and everyone is mean. An armed robber insists on buying a pew fridge for his suicidal ex girlfriend, a doctor's pet baboon freaks out on too much whiskey and equatorial heat, a marine curses his way through thirty days of mess duty. Jones effortlessly sustains a whirlwind of wards with a devastatingly self deprecating undertow, if you're looking for a kinder, gentler America don't look for it here.