The Others is based in a ‘small coastal city’ (modelled on Rostock) in the north of East Germany, and begins early in 1989, prior to the seismic geopolitical changes that took place over the course of that year. It focuses on a love triangle between three very different characters: at the heart of it is Lolita, a medical student from India; with Armando (a factory worker on a labour exchange from Mozambique) and Theo (an East German mechanic and aspiring writer) vying for her attention. At the start of the novel, Armando and Lolita are on an early date, accompanied by Armando’s daughter Clara (with ex-lover Petra, an East German journalist), when they come across the body of a drowned man, who apparently lost his life while attempting an escape to Denmark. Their involvement in his discovery attracts the attention of the Stasi, leading to increased tensions over their already precarious position as ‘others’ in the tightly controlled regime.

Ripeness is told from the perspective of the 70-year-old Edith, brought up in England’s Midlands but here living a comfortable life in rural Ireland, somewhere around the present day. It consists of two strands: one focuses on her pleasant but mundane life in the here and now, her casual relationship (post-divorce) with Gunter, and her friendship with Maebh, who receives a message from a man in America claiming to be her half-brother. The second intertwining strand takes the form of a missive from Edith to her nephew, to be open upon her death, which describes the circumstances leading up to his birth in 1960s Italy to her young ballet-dancer sister Lydia. There are subtle plot details which slowly reveal themselves over the course of both parts of the narrative, which while not earth-shatteringly shocking are still integral to the reading experience, so I’ll keep my summary brief here.

Creation Lake is told from the perspective of a spy for hire (and former federal agent) known for the purposes of her current assignment as "Sadie Smith". She is in the process of infiltrating an agrarian commune of eco-leftists in France, known as the Moulinards. In order to do so, she has entered into a serious ‘relationship’ with a filmmaker called Lucien, who is close to the Moulinards' day-to-day leader, Pascal.

Black Butterflies focuses on the early part of the Bosnian War (1992-1995), a conflict between national factions that was a significant phase in the demise of the Former Yugoslavia following the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. It is centred on Zora, a Bosnian Serb landscape painter and lecturer who lives with her husband Franjo in Sarajevo at the beginning of the war, and remains behind as the devastating Siege of Sarajevo commences, while Franjo takes her mother to the English countryside, where Zora’s daughter lives with her English husband and their child.

The Road Home focuses on Lev, a middle-aged widower from an unspecified Eastern European country (possibly Poland), as he travels to London with the goal of making money to support his young daughter who stays back home with his mother. The novel begins as one of survival, as Lev acclimatises to the harsh realities of living in London with no money and no job. He initially sleeps rough and makes small change delivering leaflets for a kebab shop, before landing a job as a dish-washer (or “nurse”) in the high pressure kitchen of GK Ashe, a fine-dining, Gordon Ramsey style establishment. He eventually finds himself a (child size) room with recent Irish divorcee Christy, with whom he forms an endearing friendship.