Back, by Henry Green (Harvill, £8.99 in UK)

Henry Green is rather an acquired taste, or more accurately perhaps, a writer who appeals strongly to a minority but not to the general public. In that, of course, he has forerunners in English literature - Peacock, Firbank, Ivy Compton-Burnett are all cases in point, enjoyed intensely by their admirers and neglected by the majority. Back, first published in 1945, is the third of his nine novels and has/had a topical, postwar setting. A young man back from a POW camp in France seeks his girlfriend's grave, and her memory becomes an obsession which comes between him and the Real World. Nothing much happens, as is usual with Green, and even the outwardly happy ending is deliberately inconclusive. B.F.Reviewers: Brian Fallon, Arminta Wallace, Vincent Banville