Shockingly good literary fiction: MONA'S EYES by Thomas Schlesser, LOVE DIVINE by Ysenda Maxtone Graham, VAIM by Jon Fosse

Pitched as Sophie’s World but for art, this French international bestseller provides lessons not in philosophy but impressionism and expressionism, romanticism and abstraction.

It’s all hung upon a slender mystery: that of ten-year-old Mona’s eyesight, which one day briefly fails, plunging her into temporary ­blindness. Her grandfather, fearing Mona’s sight loss may become permanent, determines to introduce her to as many masterpieces as ­possible, which takes the pair to Paris’s great galleries.

Meanwhile, a hypnotist resolves to uncover the roots of Mona’s affliction, a journey that leads back to the ­figurative darkness of her family’s past.

Schlesser, a professor of art history, is passionate about educating his readers, but most will struggle to get past the undigested commentaries that punctuate this sentimental tale.

Leafy Lamley Green, a vibrant village boasting an ancient church and an ‘outstanding’ school, is the rich-in-intrigue ­setting for this novella.

Spanning a year during which the quest for a new rector takes centre stage, it’s the dramas around the edges that simmer.

Newly widowed Lucy, a doctor’s receptionist, is plagued by suspicions about her late husband. Latin master Hugh is facing retirement and the prospect of a reunion with a lost love; B&B owner Vicki is threatened by ruinous reviews, and someone seems to have a vendetta against Hyacinth Bucket-like churchwarden Elizabeth.

Played out in emails, texts and scripted dialogues, there are some wonderful set pieces, not least a ­wicked skewering of literary festival celebs. But as Christmas draws near and the new rector arrives, it’s love and mercy that, fittingly, triumph.

Norwegian writer Fosse was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2023 for work that ‘expresses the most ­powerful human emotions of anxiety and powerlessness in the ­simplest everyday terms’. There’s plenty of both in this, his first novel since the award.

Jatgeir, a middle-aged bachelor recluse, is as close to his boat as a wife. Indeed, it’s named after a long-lost love, Eline. But then one night, Eline herself suddenly pitches up and ­proposes that they live together.

As a stunned Jatgeir realises, it’s not an arrangement about which he has a choice. Subsequent sections are ­narrated by Jatgeir’s only friend, and Eline’s husband, who has been ­similarly bamboozled. All of this unfolds as a ­single sentence – less daunting than it might sound, and reinforcing the ­hypnotic sense of a story on the boundary of reality and dreams.