The Tax Inspector by Peter Carey (Faber, £6.99 in UK)

With a title guaranteed to send wrongdoers running for cover, this hilarious and horrifying performance from one of the most inventive of contemporary writers offers everything except a tribunal. Maria Takis, pregnant, depressed and newly alone following the collapse of her relationship, arrives in her official capacity at the Catchprice garage, intent on checking the books. It is a family business, run by a bizarre clan which includes Granny about to be despatched to a mental home by her daughter, who's a frustrated Country and Western singer who spends her days walking around the garage forecourt dressed in a cowgirl suit. Her husband is a layabout, her brother is a deserted husband, and then there is Benny - too weird for words and determined to become an angel. Set in present-day Australia over a four-day period, it was first published in 1991 and is about a transformation which also takes on dark taboos. Ambiguous, violent, romantic, brashly elegant and dominated by his inimitable surrealistic imagery, this is Carey's finest, blackest tale to date.