The books I have enjoyed reading most this year all seem to deal with the American dream (as most American novels do in one way or another) and the way it leads the individual into tragedy and self-knowledge. Firstly, The Son by Philipp Meyer (Simon & Schuster), an epic tale of the coming of age of Texas. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain (Canongate) is probably my favourite book of the year, a smart, funny, sad tale of soldiers on a "publicity" tour around the US.

I also admired Butcher's Crossing by John Williams (New York Review of Books Classics), who has been "rediscovered" this year. Rather galling once you're dead, I imagine. His Stoner is the book that has garnered the attention, but I prefer this earlier take on the Western genre. Like The Son, it has some gory, visceral passages that are not for the faint-hearted.

And lastly a shout-out for a young-adult novel coming out next year, Sally Green's Half Bad (Penguin), the first of a trilogy about witches. The new Hunger Games?

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