Stray Dogs by Rawi Hage

The irresistible characters in Stray Dogs lead radically different lives, but all are restless travelers, moving between states—nation-states and states of mind—seeking connection, escaping the past and following delicate threads of truth, only to experience the sometimes shocking, sometimes amusing and often random ways our fragile modern identities are constructed, destroyed, and reborn.

Bystander by Mike Steeves

Unattached and in his mid-thirties, Peter Simons works in client services for a multi-national corporation and is regularly dispatched to far-flung exotic locations, staying in luxury hotels for lengthy periods. His latest assignment has kept him away from home for nine months, and, as Mike Steeves’ unsettling novel Bystander opens, Peter has returned to his shabby apartment with a mix of relief and bemusement.