Independence Day, by Richard Ford (Panther, £6.99 in UK)

This novel, a sequel to Ford's The Sportswriter, is a postwar American masterpiece. Haunting, heartbreaking, sly, and slyly funny, Independence Day tells of a Fourth of July outing that Frank Bascombe, New Jersey sportswriter turned real estate agent, makes with his emotionally damaged teenaged son. Nothing much happens on the trip, but somehow Ford manages to paint an extraordinarily solid and convincing portrait of a man caught helplessly in midlife and, beyond him, of a country in crisis. Cannot be recommended highly enough. Panther (a new paperback imprint of the very fine independent house, Harvill) will also bring out The Sportswriter, and a volume of Ford's superb stories, Rock. Springs (both £6.99 in UK).