Paperback reviews: The Stranger in the Mirror | Treasure Islands | Give Me Your Heart

William Leith casts his eye over the latest paperbacks

The Stranger in the Mirror

by Jane Shilling

(Vintage, £8.99)

Rating: ***

Jane Shilling’s memoir of middle age makes you feel that the classic male mid-life crisis, with its red sports cars and embarrassing flings, is much less serious. As Shilling says, modern women “face a bleak choice” – either try to look young, by whatever means, or enter “a state of invisibility”. Where are the older female role models? Shilling makes you see that our culture overwhelmingly values fertility and power, so it’s easier for men, harder for women. This is detailed, personal and memorable.

Treasure Islands

by Nicholas Shaxson

(Vintage, £8.99)

Rating: ***

Shaxson, a good journalist, writes in detail about tax havens. He discovers that there are lots of them, they’ve been around for ages, and they play a big role in the global economy. What’s the answer? Regulation? Possibly, but rich people get around regulations in a trice, which can make things risky for everyone. Shaxson delves into capitalism’s secret nooks and tells us about how a culture of secrecy can perpetuate itself.

Give Me Your Heart

by Joyce Carol Oates

(Corvus, £8.99)

Rating: ****

Another terrific book by Joyce Carol Oates, who has written more than 70 of them. This story collection is wonderfully sinister. In one, a man discovers a stack of photographs taken of his wife on holiday with her first husband; he sees that her account of the relationship has been, effectively, a lie. He becomes morbidly obsessed. In another, a woman arrives home, having visited her ailing husband, and sees something out of the corner of her eye, which might, or might not, be her killer.