The best books that don't get lost in translation: Checking Out By Meryem El Mehdati, WAIST DEEP By Linea Maja Ernst, Cooking in the Wrong Century By Teresa Praauer

Meryem seems an easy enough name to pronounce. But no matter how hard her co-workers try they can’t get it right.

She’s bright, ambitious and funny but has wound up working in the administrative department of Supersaurio; the largest supermarket chain in the Canary Islands.

Meryem despises her job, her colleagues and the island she begrudgingly calls home.

With three degrees under her belt, she had hoped to have landed something more exciting by the age of 25.

The only outlet for her is crying in the storeroom and fantasising about disasters befalling her enemies. Until she notices Omar.

A thoroughly enjoyable read.

FIVE friends from university reunite for a week’s holiday in rural Denmark.

Middle age is approaching at breakneck speed and it feels like the last chance to relive the glory days of their youth.

The novel simmers with sexual dissatisfaction and the anguish of lives unlived.

The luscious descriptions of their lakeside idyll are so deliciously vivid you almost want to bury your nose in the pages and take a whiff.

A beautiful and sensuous book that stayed with me long after I read it.

THE one thing that can spoil a good dinner party are guests.

For the woman hosting (referred to throughout as the hostess), dinners are about good food pregnant with the memories of youth, exquisitely folded linen napkins and potted wildflowers ignited by the evening sun.

However, when her intellectual friends stumble into her flat they are drunk, late or set to burst with outrageous sexual energy.

As the book goes on you can see why the hostess seems to have a more meaningful and intimate relationship with the quiche Lorraine than any of

her friends. She comforts herself with gallons of perfectly chilled cremant as her perfect evening descends into uncontrollable debauchery.

It’s clever, amusing and delightfully compact. To be consumed in one sitting, it pairs wonderfully with a glass or four of fizz.