Despite constant rumours about the imminent death of the novel, there is no shortage of writers who are happy to keep the form new and alive, taking risks with narrative, prose and subject. From verse (The Emperor’s Babe) to fantasy (The Paper Eater), from mythology (In the Shape of a Boar) to a novel told in a reinvented English (Translated Accounts: a Novel), these titles show that the game’s not yet up for the novel. (Two short story collections are also included by virtue of their adventurous approaches to form and style.)

Blincoe, Nicholas & Thorne, Matt (eds) All Hail the New Puritans

Fourth Estate, 2000, £10.00, ISBN 1-84115-345-1, pbk

Influenced by the Danish Dogme school of film-making, All Hail the New Puritans begins with a ten-point manifesto outlining the rules and regulations under which every story in the collection was written. All stories reject flashbacks and poetic licence in favour of 'plain and authentic' writing. An innovative collection by an eclectic mix of writers.

Crace, Jim The Devil's Larder

Viking, 2001, £12.99, ISBN 0-670-88145-7, hbk

The Devil's Larder is a literary feast catering for the reader's cultural, culinary and sexual appetites. In a discursive, episodic narrative made up of sixty parts the novel makes a sensual and pleasurable journey into a community with food at its heart.

D'Aguiar, Fred Bloodlines

Chatto & Windus, 2000, £12.99, ISBN 0-7011-6958-3, hbk
Vintage, 2001, £6.99, ISBN 0-09-928442-1, pbk

Written in a complex rhyming verse form, Bloodlines deals with interracial relationships and the harrowing legacy of slavery. From the time of the American Civil War to the present day, the characters roam freely through their inner world dreaming of an idyllic Africa.

Evaristo, Bernardine The Emperor's Babe

Hamish Hamilton, 2001, £10.99, ISBN 0-241-14114-1, hbk
Penguin Books, 2002, £6.99, ISBN 0-14-029781-2, pbk

A funky and sexy Londinium in AD211 is imaginatively evoked in the story of Zuleika, the feisty daughter of Sudanese immigrants. This novel in verse is a lyrical and witty imagining of a Black history of Britain. 'Evaristo's skill lies in taking standard metaphorical models and twisting them in the most unusual, original, inventive ways.' The Independent on Sunday

Jensen, Liz The Paper Eater

Bloomsbury, 2000, £9.99, ISBN 0-7475-4747-5, pbk
Bloomsbury, 2001, £6.99, ISBN 0-7475-5306-8, pbk

Set in a futuristic customer-focused utopia called Atlantica, this novel is a damning satire on consumerism and monolithic corporations. 'A novel that attacks modern life with wit and, perversely, a real joie de vivre.' The Times

Kelman, James Translated Accounts: a Novel

Translated Accounts: a Novel

Secker & Warburg, 2001, £15.99, ISBN 0-436-27464-7, hbk

Set in an unnamed country that appears to be under military rule, Translated Accounts is written in a reinvented English and is the first of Kelman's books not to be directly concerned with the life of the working class in Scotland. Kelman has frequently examined the power of language as a political tool and here this is taken a stage further as he looks at the power of enforced silence.

Mills, Magnus Three to See the King

Flamingo, 2001, £9.99, ISBN 0-00-711046-4, hbk
Flamingo, 2002, £6.99, ISBN 0-00-711047-2, pbk

Novella-like in form, this is a complex read where the familiar is oddly unfamiliar. Three to See the King is a fable of an unnamed man living in isolation who has to choose between a solitary existence or moving on with his neighbours. Idiosyncratic and disturbing.

Mitchell, David Number9dream

Sceptre, 2001, £10.00, ISBN 0-340-73976-2, pbk
Sceptre, 2002, £6.99, ISBN 0-340-74797-8, pbk

Moving between exotica and cyber-unreality, David Mitchell's Booker-shortlisted novel is concerned with a boy's coming of age, ethical responsibilities and the great questions of love and duty. Written in an episodic format, the novel's style is adventurous and dreamlike, as it weaves its way through an unnavigable Japanese city.

Norfolk, Lawrence In the Shape of a Boar

Weidenfeld, 2000, £16.99, ISBN 0-297-64618-4, hbk
Orion Trade, 2001, £6.99, ISBN 0-7538-1257-6, pbk

Lawrence Norfolk's third novel begins with a boar hunt in Ancient Greece, then moves to Paris in the 1970s, where the life of the poet Sol Memel echoes the mythological prototypes. An original and engaging novel.

O'Farrell, Maggie After You'd Gone

Review, 2000, £12.99, ISBN 0-7472-7110-0, hbk
Review, 2001, £6.99, ISBN 0-7472-6816-9, pbk

Alice Raikes lies in a hospital bed, deep in a coma. Her story gradually unfolds from a series of vignettes told in multiple voices that merge to paint a touching portrait of her past tragedies. The Observer said, 'What makes this book remarkable is a luminous use of language and imagery which turn Alice's world into one of elements and of sensation.'

Rhodes, Dan Anthropology: and a Hundred Other Stories

Fourth Estate, 2000, £10.00, ISBN 1-84115-193-9, hbk
Fourth Estate, 2001, £5.99, ISBN 1-84115-197-7, pbk

A distinctive collection of 101 stories, each around 120 words in length and all focusing on the surreal element of relationships. The pieces are precisely and elegantly written, moving from farcical comedy to poignant revelations of love and loss.

Self, Will How the Dead Live

Bloomsbury, 2000, £15.99, ISBN 0-7475-4895-1, hbk
Penguin Books, 2001, £6.99, ISBN 0-14-026865-0, pbk

For Lily Bloom, who has just died, there is life after death. Guided by an Aborigine, Lily is taken by a Greek Cypriot minicab driver to a north London 'dead neighbourhood', where she attends the twelve-step Personally Dead meetings and watches over her living daughters. How the Dead Live is a dissection of modern Jewish life in London and an examination of spirituality and mysticism.

Smith, Ali Hotel World

Hamish Hamilton, 2001, £10.99, ISBN 0-241-14109-5, pbk
Penguin Books, 2002, £6.99, ISBN 0-14-029679-4, pbk

Shortlisted for the Booker Prize, this is a disturbing novel told by a number of different characters in a haunting and deceptively incoherent style. Its interconnected series of narratives revolve around the death of a former employee of a hotel and its effect on those left behind.

Tulloch, Jonathan The Bonny Lad

Jonathan Cape, 2001, £10.00, ISBN 0-224-06041-4, pbk
Vintage, 2002, £6.99, ISBN 0-09-928456-1, pbk

Using Geordie dialect to great effect, this is the story of an abandoned child who is taken in by his grim and taciturn grandfather. It is a moving and tender story as the two come to terms with each other and build their relationship.

Waters, Sarah Affinity

Virago Press, 2000, £6.99, ISBN 1-86049-692-X, pbk

A combination of a gift for storytelling and a stylistically bold narrative has produced a dark and atmospheric novel set in a London prison in 1874. Affinity is a compelling ghost story and a love story with an unexpected twist. 'A work of intense and atmospheric imagination ... Sarah Waters is ... a kind of feminist Dickens.' The Telegraph

Winterson, Jeanette The Powerbook

Jonathan Cape, 2000, £14.00, ISBN 0-224-06103-8, hbk
Vintage, 2001, £6.99, ISBN 0-09-928543-6, pbk

Linguistically inventive, The Powerbook is a love story set in cyberspace, Paris, Capri and London. Rich with allusion and allegory the novel centres on Ali also known as Alix who, while making others' dreams come true via the internet, discovers the possibilities of love for herself.