Kent Haruf died at the end of last year and if you haven’t read his wonderful backlist before (set in a small town in Colorado), now is the time to discover it. Or you could jump in at the end, with this last novel, a moving, graceful story of an elderly man and woman who attempt to defy convention and find a new way of living their lives.

Widowed Addie Moore heads over to her neighbour Louis Waters with an unusual proposition: as their nights are so lonesome, why don’t they spend them together? They share a bed, talk about their pasts and let the slow sweep of their days take on a shared sweetness. But family disapproval intrudes on their idyll; a melancholy reminder that happiness can be a fragile affair.

Our Souls At Night by Kent Haruf (Picador, £12.99)