A TIME TO BE BORN by Dawn Powell (Pushkin £10.99, 336pp)

Ravishing yet ruthless Amanda escapes her dismal Ohio upbringing and reinvents herself in 1940s glamorous New York society by marrying newspaper magnate Julian, who promotes her (ghostwritten) novels. She despises him and amuses herself by luring back her former lover, struggling writer Ken.

When Vicky, an acquaintance from the past, arrives in the city needing help, Amanda ‘generously’ loans her an apartment – really a cover for where she and Ken can secretly meet.

But even her iron grip on events can’t control what unravels and this glittering, diamond-sharp satire of wealthy social climbers and the currency of love and sex could apply equally to today’s mega-rich.

THE SPRING HOUSE by Cynthia Asquith (British Library £10.99, 256pp)

It’s May 1915, and when war prevents Miranda from travelling back to her (unloved) husband in Canada, she stays with her mother in their English stately home, now requisitioned as a military hospital.

Beautiful, bored, young and privileged, she flirts with besotted men – until darkness falls when her adored younger brother is killed at the front.

Then she meets John and falls deeply in love for the first time – though the relationship is unconsummated because of Miranda’s conscience.

Two plot twists are bitter reminders of what could have been as the price of war is paid in love and grief – Asquith’s two brothers died in France adding poignancy to the pain.

GAINING GROUND by Joan Barfoot (Faber £9.99, 304pp)

This unsettling, provocative examination of how far a person will go to discover who they are without conventional constraints lingers long after the last page.

Abra has a loving husband and two young children but is suffocating in suburbia. She buys a remote woodland cabin, leaves a letter at home and disappears, immersing herself in the rhythms of nature and physical labour with no clocks, mirrors or socialising.

After nine years a girl appears – her daughter demanding answers. Initially hostile, Abra allows a limited relationship to develop until a crisis forces her to reassess. It’s beautifully written, honest and brave.