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Standout book:
Julian Maclaren-Ross, Selected Stories. Grubby tales of pub life, wartime London (1940s) and army life. Grubby, but with an underlying humanism. I was so struck by these that I then searched for everything that JMR had written, and slowly realised that this selection really was the best of his work.
Second choice would be Laila Lalami, The Moor's Account (published in 2015). Intensive and densely imagined picaresque novel concerning an Arab who was unwillingly drafted to accompany sixteenth-century Spanish traveller-colonists in southern America. With tales as strange as this, who needs science-fiction?
Runner-up:
Raynor Winn, The Salt Path (2018). A true story, but as odd as you can imagine. A couple: husband is struck by progressive illness and is due to die within months, and then due to financial fraud, the couple lose their house and business. What do they do? They choose to walk the coastal path round the south-west of England, living off the pittance they get from the state (and - apparently - mainly eating fudge). The unexpected exercise improves the husband's condition, and they finally find a place to stay.
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