Lake of Urine by Guillermo Stitch

So far, so Jane Austen? Only if you were to splice regency romance with Cold Comfort Farm and The Silence of the Lambs, then transpose the whole caboodle to a claustrophobic, snow-smothered rural landscape and indeterminate present day. The other is named Noranbole and both are of marriageable age. Urine, you should know, is the favourite daughter of Ms Emma Wakeling. Gattino’s disappearance stirs up anxieties about other relationships, too, and the complexities of coping with her difficult late father and of taking two young inner-city siblings under her wing soon become part of an arresting meditation on the nature of love. As winter bites, she leaves trails of food and falls prey to magical thinking, even psychics. It’s loosely strung around her search for Gattino, a kitten she reluctantly rescues in Italy and brings home to the US, where he promptly vanishes. Award-winning novelist Mary Gaitskill pivots towards memoir in this book-length essay, bringing rigour and candour to bear on her instincts and emotions.