The Apartment

This is a beautiful meditation on war and loss told in a sombre, sparse way. Not much happens, but as is the rule with literary fiction, it's how that not much happens that's important. So, one snowy European night, a man and a new friend he has made in the hotel they're both staying in, go searching for an apartment for him to move into.

While they travel, their life stories unravel and we glimpse pasts filled with regret and horror. The book is about that one journey, that one day and night but is subtle in its unravelling about the all-importance sense of how they got to where they are at that moment, and how what they're searching for represents closure on what has come before. It's hypnotic in its delicate sparing use of language, its slow magical sense of place and wonder. There are mediations on American foreign policy, the social climate of popular Western culture and friendship - these are all explored in Baxter's wonderful prose. A superb debut.