Travelling Sprinkler by Nicholson Baker (Serpent’s Tail, £8.99)

The second Paul Chowder novel by Nicholson Baker is melancholic and sweet, and finally rather uplifting.

Chowder is a very quiet, pensive man of 55 who is mildly depressed because he’s lost his girlfriend, Roz. He sees he should have married her and had children when he had the chance. But he let her slip away, and now she’s going out with a doctor. Chowder is a poet — or rather, he’s a former poet.

Now he’s trying to write songs to lift himself out of the gloom. He also tries chewing tobacco, and smoking cigars. Baker captures the sadness of quiet people very well. He notices every tiny detail.