With admirable narrative control, this debut novel depicts its narrator, Lucia, James Joyce’s daughter, losing control to “ungovernable emotions”. The immensely gripping story skilfully oscillates between Zurich, 1934, where Lucia is having excruciatingly tense sessions as a patient of Dr Carl Jung, and the devastating tale of how, in late 1920s Paris, her life unravelled.

Dancing, declares Lucia, is “the most important thing in my life” and she has a great gift for it, evoking the euphoria of performing before a rapturous audience. Dancing was her “lifebelt”, but when distracted from her vocation, manacled to her father as his muse and fatally attracted to his protege Samuel Beckett, she starts sinking.

Here is a powerful portrait of a young woman yearning to be an artist, whose passion for life – and rage at being unable to fulfil her talent – burns from the pages.

The Joyce Girl is published by Impress (£8.99). Click here to buy it for £6.99