Europe In Autumn

Europe is crumbling, nation states are falling apart, in their place are emerging a myriad of tiny independent statelets, some as small as a city block, some as long and narrow as a trans-European railway line. As a result, Europe is now criss-crossed with a maze of new borders, and wherever there are borders there are people who want to cross them in secret with money, objects or people. The secret organisation that will help you get across these borders is the Coureurs. Rudi is a top chef in Poland when he is recruited by the Coureurs, and finds himself entering a shadowy world that's a mixture of people smuggling and espionage. But when a series of missions go wrong, he finds himself having to cross borders even he did not know about. Why it's on the list: With elements of near-future science fiction combined with John Le Carre's tradecraft, this is a brilliant exercise in storytelling, relentless, engaging and vivid. And in a year when there were independence votes in Scotland, Spain and the Ukraine, it feels like a story that has literally been ripped from tomorrow's headlines.