When the Lights Go Out

Carys Bray

Hutchinson, £14.99, pp336

Bray’s third novel examines the disintegration of a marriage against a backdrop of the climate crisis. When Emma finds her husband, Chris, wearing a sandwich board in the street, trying to raise environmental awareness, her reaction is a mixture of embarrassment, resignation and pity. Chris’s endeavours to avert climate disaster test Emma’s patience and the strength of their relationship in a timely and ruminative novel.

The Stubborn Light of Things: A Nature Diary

Melissa Harrison

Faber, £14.99, pp224

For more than 20 years, Harrison lived in London, endeavouring to connect with the city’s seasonal offerings of nature, from its reserves to its birdlife. But eventually she moved to Suffolk, continuing her nature diary for the Times, on which the book is based, and launching a podcast of the same name. She reflects on the changing habitat around her with passionate understanding and gentle encouragement that we follow suit.

Olive, Again

Elizabeth Strout

Penguin, £8.99, pp304 (paperback)

In her sequel to the Pulitzer prize-winning Olive Kitteridge, Strout returns to her irascible and forthright heroine for another deftly crafted and beautifully observed novel. Like its predecessor, Olive, Again takes the form of a collection of interconnected stories: there’s Olive’s new husband, Jack Kennison; her semi-estranged son, Chris; the complicated – and often troubled – lives of her friends and neighbours. And yet, through all the characters’ emotional pain, Strout offers wry humour and quiet, almost transcendental hope.

• To order When the Lights Go Out, The Stubborn Light of Things or Olive, Again go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply