The Point, by Charles D'Ambrosio (Flamingo, £5.99 in UK)

This is a very funny debut, despite the fact that its themes are death, despair, madness, loss and loneliness. Four of the seven stories in the collection are first-person narratives - invariably sons taking care of crazy parents - and this is the voice which best suits D'Ambrosio particular form of wackily thoughtful humour, while elsewhere the tone is softer, more melancholy. In the title story, a boy ponders his self-appointed roles of escorting his mother's drunken pals homewards. Another young narrator reports: "With a tool in his hand, my dad was no better than a caveman. He couldn't fix anything." The son remarks: "You're talking pretty good tonight," to which unstable old dad replies: "I guess I am. Imagine if you were God and had to listen to all this." An excellent collection from yet another new American near-master of the short story.