Fathers figure — five beguiling new debut novels

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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Fictional fathers are having a moment, causing anguish to their offspring whether in the Swiss Alps, snowy Norway or elegant Paris. The most monstrous of the bunch looms large in My Favourite by Sarah Jollien-Fardel, tersely translated from French by Holly James (Indigo Press £12.99). Jeanne and her sister grew up with a brutal father whose vicious verbal outbursts were as terrifying as his regular beatings of their mother.

Everyone in their tight-knit village high in the Valais region was aware of what was going on but never intervened. The daughters break free in adulthood, which means leaving their mother Claire defenceless. Begged to get away from him, Claire, whose only outlet is reading romances, always refuses.

Moving to Lausanne, Jeanne finds comfort in swimming in the lake, but anger continues to poison her life. “Captivated by women,†specifically an angelic girlfriend, Marine, itâ€s not until she meets gentle Paul, a co-worker, that Jeanne can contemplate a relationship with a man. When the father weakens with age, he seeks Jeanneâ€s pity and absolution. My Favourite shows the corrosive nature of revenge, but also the extra burden placed on sufferers who are asked to forgive their abuser. 

Jeanneâ€s sister always claimed to be her fatherâ€s “favouriteâ€, a chilling term repeated in My Hummingbird Father, the first novel from award-winning poet Pascale Petit (Salt £10.99). This also features two sisters, whose father Manu walked out on them and their mother decades before. Now dying in Paris, he contacts favourite daughter Dominique out of the blue. Whether he will repent of his sexual creepiness towards his daughters is uncertain. 

Petitâ€s 2001 collection The Zoo Father, covered identical ground and imagery, with poems about an abusive father dying in Paris, and compared to various tropical animals and birds.

Now an artist, Dominique exorcises bad childhood memories with her brush, while trips to the Amazon bring mythic inspiration and a romance with an indigenous guide.

The portrait of Paris in the late 1990s is scintillating, with Notre-Dame the looming stone mountain that resembles the spirit-haunted cliff Dominique scales in Venezuela. As for Petitâ€s return to a familiar creative seam: “Critics will accuse her of repeating herself, but she doesnâ€t care . . . they donâ€t get it,†as Dominique puts it. 

In south London, a fatherâ€s desertion has led to his sonâ€s bewilderment around identity, sex and masculinity in Isaac by Curtis Garner (Verve Books £10.99). Isaac is in his last year at school and preparing for university. He scouts for male lovers on the internet, clumsily building up his sexual repertoire while suffering the indignities of ghosting and gaslighting. Isaac falls for handsome, confident Harrison, 11 years older and embedded in a sophisticated arty milieu.

However, he has a lot of growing up to do, and unquestioningly expects support from women: chiefly his unhappy mother, with relationship woes of her own, and best friend Cherish, though admittedly this is an amusing reversal of the “gay best friend†trope of chicklit. Isaac is whiny and hard to warm to and the emotional climax feels forced; but the gay dating scenes crackle with energy. 

A miniature depicting a young Victorian woman is the spur for a tale of male duplicity and female resourcefulness in The Portrait Girl by Nicole Swengley (Breakthrough Books £10.99). Jewellery designer Freya Wetherby discovers the locket in her late motherâ€s effects and is instantly captivated by the image. Her determination to uncover the sitterâ€s identity leads her to the opulent home of bewhiskered collector Ralph, who hosts bizarre salons where all the guests pretend to be eminent Victorians: Burne-Jones, Ruskin, May Morris et al. Assigned a role, Freya plays along but becomes hopelessly trapped as past and present collide. 

The authorâ€s insider knowledge of the London art world, its museums, archives and galleries, give the quest an enticingly authentic flavour, and the intricacies of jewellery design are fascinating. Freyaâ€s researches are augmented with flashes of insight verging on the supernatural in a thoroughly engaging mystery. 

Brightly Shining by Ingvild Rishoi (Grove Press £12.99) returns us to bad dad territory, although here heâ€s more pathetic than malevolent. Ten-year-old Ronja and sweary teenage sister Melissa despair of their alcoholic parent, whose attempts to stay sober invariably end in long sessions at the local bar.

He loses a seasonal job selling Christmas trees, whereupon Melissa takes over, and Ronja, not to be outdone, capitalises on her waif-like appearance by selling garlands. They are a brave and resourceful pair, but when Melissa counsels against reading Hans Christian Andersenâ€s tragic The Little Match Girl, it seems this is going to be an update.

Like all good Christmas stories, it stresses the importance of kindness and charity, and Ronjaâ€s ever-hopeful voice is tenderly rendered from Norwegian by Caroline Waight. 

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