FREEDOM BY JONATHAN FRANZEN, FOURTH ESTATE, $32.99.

The hype and the weight of expectation might well have sunk a lesser book, but Franzen delivers with a better, wiser, more dazzling novel even than the one which made his name, The Corrections.

He takes one picture-perfect, liberal, Mid-western family – college sweethearts Patty and Walter Berglund and their two teenage kids – and unravels their lives in wildly unexpected ways, touching lightly as he goes on a swag of issues ranging from the impossibility of parenting to the wages of suburban sprawl and the liabilities of freedom. Yet Franzen never bangs you over the head with his bigger picture, keeping the focus so close and personal that you get to love these wayward Berglunds and finish the book, for all its length, not wanting to let them go. You also realise that what you’ve actually been racing through, turning pages as fast as you can, is a shrewd analysis of both the comedy and tragedy of modern America. A masterclass in the novelist’s art.

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THE SMALL HAND: A GHOST STORY BY SUSAN HILL, ALLEN & UNWIN, $24.99.

From the mistress of the modern ghost story comes this small and perfectly formed tale that, even weeks after reading, I cannot get out of my head. It haunts me, as a good ghost story should.

Our questionable hero is antiquarian bookseller Adam Snow, who gets lost while driving along remote country lanes and, as dusk falls, comes upon a dilapidated and apparently abandoned house. Wandering through the decaying garden, he feels “a small hand creep into my right one … its fingers curled themselves trustingly into my palm” – but there is no child standing beside him. So starts a thrillingly creepy tale, which is impossible to put down until finished, reminding us in the most subtle way that the taint of sin blights all that it touches. A classic ghost story message, superbly updated.

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THE WEEKEND BY BERNHARD SCHLINK, WEIDENFELD & NICOLSON, $29.99.

Bernhard Schlink writes so elegantly, with such calm simplicity – remember The Reader? – that he can pull you into the darkest and most difficult subjects before you realise where he’s taking you.

In this case, it’s the weekend reunion of a group of one-time members and supporters of the Baader-Meinhof gang, who have gathered to celebrate the release of Jörg – convicted murderer and terrorist – after 24 years in prison. These lovers and friends have left their violent pasts behind and now want to help Jörg, too, adapt to freedom. Yet, as the days pass, tension builds. Their memories conflict, they challenge each other’s commitment and motives, and old jealousies and betrayals bubble to the surface. It’s a subtle and strangely tender novel about people who have put themselves outside the law struggling to find their way back in – uncertain they ever can or will.

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MARY ANN IN AUTUMN BY ARMISTEAD MAUPIN, RANDOM HOUSE, $32.95.

San Francisco was captured in fading sunset by novelist Armistead Maupin three decades ago, when, pitching an idea for a daily serial to the San Francisco Chronicle featuring the tales of secretary Mary Ann Singleton and her best friend, gay gardener Michael “Mouse” Tolliver, he defined the city forever in the days of drugs, discos and never-ending rainbows.

His six Tales Of The City novels were best-sellers and colourfully adapted into a high-rating TV mini-series. Mary Ann In Autumn reunites the surviving original cast of characters, 20 years after Mary Ann left San Fran to pursue a TV career in New York. HIV has wreaked havoc, but none of the original humour and courage is lost. Legendary Barbary Lane landlady Mrs Madrigal is in her 80s and as her former ingénue, Mary Ann, now 57, returns for comfort from calamity, she is embraced by a neighbourhood of friends who never forgot her. Achingly nostalgic, but still wickedly irreverent.

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DEAD MAN’S CHEST BY KERRY GREENWOOD, ALLEN & UNWIN, $22.99.

Hot-blooded private detective Phryne Fisher and her bathing dress – “no back and hardly any front” – head to Queenscliff for a holiday.

Along for the ride are her adopted daughters, bookish Jane and culinary Ruth, devoted maid Dot and hound Molly, who all take off in the roaring ’20s Hispano-Suiza for this 18th murder mystery in the hit series. Queenscliff “used to be very select … but since the railway went through, we have lots of trippers … pork pie hats and eating ice-cream in the streets”, warns “suicidally blonde” neighbour Mrs Mason, the first of Greenwood’s delightful cast of characters. Missing housekeepers and secretive Satie-swaying, patchouli-soaked surrealists are all part of the scene, plus, of course, a whiff of delicious murder.

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IF YOU CAN’T STAND THE HEAT BY JUDY HORACEK, SCRIBE, $29.95.

It’s impossible not to giggle at Judy Horacek’s smart yet dreamily inventive cartoons and illustrations, seen here in their technicolour glory in this seventh collection of Judy’s published sketches.

The Australian artist’s observations on the absurdities of modern life and witty takes on environmental and global issues bring welcome levity to even the darkest scenarios. Read them and weep – with laughter!

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KEHUA! BY FAY WELDON, ALLEN & UNWIN, $29.99.

There’s a chaotic and, at times, decidedly dotty feel to British author Fay Weldon’s latest opus, which envelops you with all the friendliness of a warm coat as its plot unfolds, then pokes you in the ribs with sharp characterisation.

Hovering in the air, above doorways and around corners, are the kehua – Maori spirits unfinished with their charges – as they hang in limbo between life and death and summon up dark terrors from the past. In the here and now, this is a tale of women – grandmothers, mothers, daughters and great-granddaughters – all battling against the usual path, trying to “have it all” and often losing their way in the process. Not least among these is the author herself, who appears like a clacking puppet mistress, banging on her keyboard in her gloomy spider-ridden basement, shaping what becomes a genuinely warm and fanciful journey.

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MINDING FRANKIE BY MAEVE BINCHY, ORION, $35.

Poor little Frankie! Her plucky mum, Stella, is unlikely to survive childbirth and wants to leave her in the care of her dad, Noel, a recovering alcoholic.

It’s not ideal, but when you are a resident of St Jarlath’s Crescent, Dublin, there’s no need to fret – you’ll always be surrounded by love and support. Cheerful Father Flynn leads a long list of friendly locals who are always there to help, young doctor Declan Carroll is kind and sensitive, and cousin Emily from America is an organisational whirlwind with a solution for every problem. The only threat to this community is the charmless Moira, a social worker who seems hell-bent on separating Frankie from her father. Minding Frankie is the perfect accompaniment to tea, toast and a doona. It’s warm, satisfying and comforting.

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SHALL WE DANCE? BY MAGGIE ALDERSON, MICHAEL JOSEPH, $32.95.

Vintage fashion queen Loulou Landers has one very distressing concern, her daughter Theo. She’s 21 going on 14, selfish and arrogant.

Luckily, Loulou has her ageing rock star mate, Ritchie Meredith, to lean on and her gay best friend, Keith, is throwing her a 50th birthday party. The universe seems to want to contribute by throwing 20-something Marc Thorsson her way. He’s smart, charming and keen on Loulou. Will she risk her daughter’s displeasure and expose herself to society’s sniggers? Meanwhile, Theo has her own admirer, an older man with eyes like a shark and a fetish for high heels. How far will rebellion take her? The temptations of Loulou and Theo are never predictable. This skips along with spirit and heart.

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HAND ME DOWN WORLD BY LLOYD JONES, TEXT PUBLISHING, $32.95.

This is the story of a woman who is on an extraordinarily difficult, lonely journey. At first, her tale is told by the people she meets.

There’s the randy truck driver, the kind group of hunters who smuggle her across the border and the woman whose name she steals. It isn’t until the end that we hear her voice and her own version of the truth, including the events that lead to a sudden death. If you disregarded the beauty of the writing and shook up all the pieces of the narrative until they fell in the usual places, Hand Me Down World could be a murder mystery. Yet its beauty and complexity make it a masterpiece, a novel written by an artist with a devious mind. It is an original; a story gracefully told from the inside out and back to front, one that will challenge and surprise.

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