Paperbacks reviewed by William Leith

The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer (Vintage, £8.99)

Perhaps, I kept thinking, this is Meg Wolitzer’s best novel yet. It’s a grand, sweeping story about a group of kids who meet at a summer camp in New England in the 1970s and what happens in their lives. There’s Ethan, talented but unattractive; Goodman, an unstable hunk, Jonah, who is gorgeous but damaged, the beautiful Ash, the hot Cathy. And then there’s Jules, our brilliant, perceptive narrator, a suburban girl who wants to be an actress but ends up as a therapist. Wolitzer hooks you into these people and their lives with smooth expertise, and moves them through several decades of American history.

Lying Under the Apple Tree by Alice Munro (Vintage, £8.99)

Alice Munro, who won last year’s Nobel Prize for literature, writes exquisite short stories. This is a collection from the past couple of decades. They’re set in Canada, often in isolated places, with sad shops and bitter, small-time people. There’s the unlovely woman buying a dress, the girl who wants to climb over a wall and lie under somebody’s apple tree. With sharp observation and close detail, we get into their heads; Munro’s insight is oddly uplifting. One story, The Children Stay, is one of the best things on marital infidelity I’ve ever read — the cruelty and self-delusion beautifully described.

Deserter by Charles Glass (William Collins, £10.99)

In combat, most soldiers will fight when they are told to — even when they are walking towards their probable deaths or through the bodies of their friends. But some don’t — some try to escape. This book is about those men — deserters, as we call them. Set in the Second World War, it’s mostly the story of three men, two Americans and a Brit. The Brit, John Bain, went on to become the poet known as Vernon Scannell. Charles Glass gives us something rare — he describes war, its foulness and demonic chaos, not from the heroes’ point of view but from a human point of view. War, in this book, looks more disturbing than we’re used to. A valuable work.