Book reviews: Grandmother sends her regards, Butterflies in November, Undesired

Elsa is seven and different. Bullied at school, Elsa has learnt to fight back from her only friend, her eccentric, chaotic Granny. Each night, Granny takes Elsa through stories to the Land of Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas where "no-one says she has to learn to fit in". When Granny dies, she leaves a series of letters for Elsa to deliver to people she has hurt or offended. Elsa realises that Granny's fantasy land and her apartment block are merging, that she doesn't know "where the fantasy ended and reality began". Told from Elsa's perspective, the result is quirky, humorous and poignant.

Butterflies in November
By Audur Ava Olafsdottir. Pushkin Press. $19.99.

Equally quirky is Butterflies in November set in Iceland. The unnamed, 32-year-old female protagonist, on the day the novel begins, is dumped by her lover, asked for a divorce by her husband and wins the lottery, twice. The unexpected freedom allows her to build a kit home in the Eastern Fjords and drive there for Christmas. However, she has to take with her, because of an accident, her best friend's four-year-old deaf son. The ensuing road trip "moving towards an increasingly lower sun and shorter days" is hilarious in places and bizarre in others, including 40 pages of recipes connected to the story.

The Undesired
By Yrsa Sigurdardottir. Hodder and Stoughton. $29.99.

And now for something, also Icelandic, completely different. Odinn is investigating abuse at Krokur, a juvenile detention centre, in the 1970s after the mysterious death of Roberta the original investigator. Recently widowed, Odinn believes his dead wife is haunting his apartment. Sigurdardottir juxtaposes Odinn's story with that of Aldis, a servant at Krokur in 1974, where the arrival of a new, older boy creates tension among both staff and inmates. Things go bump in the dark, Icelandic night as suspected phantoms vent their anger and Odinn and Aldis fear for their lives. Creepy and scary, The Undesired is a real chiller thriller.