Fathers and sons are in vogue at the moment. You see them everywhere: in films, in fiction, on the stage, but rarely do you see parent and child together and never for very long. In Edward Docx’s powerful new novel, father and son are stuck with each other for 400 pages, on a road trip through France, Germany and Switzerland in a clapped-out VW campervan.

Lou alternately adores and deplores his father, a well-known academic. As a travelling companion, though, Dad is a pain.