I’m going to talk about two novels which, now I’ve had time to reflect on them, seem to me to stand at opposite ends of the spectrum so far as contemporary fiction goes. I’m aware that there’s a large element of chance, or serendipity, in my choice: I was sent two books for review by the Sydney Morning Herald; they could easily have been two others. But their differences have got me thinking. One is published by an independent Australian publisher, Freemantle Press; one by Little, Brown, and ear-marked, well before its release date, as a bestseller. Both are written in the present tense.

I felt a growing sense of recognition, and a growing delight, as I progressed through Iris Lavell’s debut novel, Elsewhere in Success. Good on you, Iris, and good on you Freemantle, I thought. Here was a narrative that did not sound self-satisfied; ambiguity and a sense of life’s mysteries were embedded in the prose.