Compunction

In a relatively short amount of time, James Singer has lost his wife, his job, his home and his subsequent place in the world. Now, with appearance of a shadowy phantasm who has taken to terrorizing him every night, he's beginning to fear that he, like his schizophrenic aunt, is also on the verge of losing his ability to discern what is real and what is not.

As James's condition continues to grow worse, he begins to mysteriously and uncontrollably phase in and out of several different worlds-all of which seem to be inhabited by quirky, non-conventional and often down-right absurd characters. James doesn't know if he's dreaming, overmedicated, in the throes of a nervous breakdown or if he's already dead but one thing he does know is that, one way or another, it all ends on Monday.

Compunction takes the psychological melancholy of writers like Iain Reid (I'm Thinking of Ending Things) and Matt Haig (How to Stop Time) and blends it together with a healthy dose of mind-bending absurdism. The result is a suspenseful, character-driven, upmarket fiction that's all about redemption and second chances.