The Vet's Daughter (1981)

First published in 1959 and subsequently reissued by Virago and NYRB Classics, Comyns’s novel deserves space beyond the usual lists of strange little books. Alice’s plainspoken account of a brutal household gradually admits the impossible without losing its peculiar directness. The NYRB edition provides an accessible route. Expect cruelty and abuse; the voice’s apparent innocence makes the experience more disturbing, rather than cosy.