The Sandglass, by Ro mesh Gunesekera (Granta, £6.99 in UK)

Possibly the best novel published in Europe last year, and certainly the one which should have won the Booker Prize, for which it was not even shortlisted, Gunesekera's gentle and inspired performance confronts major themes with grace and dignity. Family members from three generations of two rival clans pursue their respective notions of paradise with expectedly unhappy results. Pearl, the central character, as a young Ceylonese married confident of securing her dreams of romance. Reality proves otherwise, when her husband is ruined by his ambitions. In old age and now living in England, Pearl is a mentor of sorts for Chip, the young and sympathetic narrator who sets out to unravel her sad story. As well as being a study of individual lives, the book also examines a culture at the mercy of colonialism and, most disturbingly, its own inner rot.