This spring sees the publication of three accomplished debut novels about trauma and violence.

Alex Hyde’s Violets (Granta, £12.99; Tablet price £11.69) is set during the dying days of the Second World War. The story rotates between two women called Violet, one of whom miscarries and loses hope of conceiving any future children, while the other finds herself pregnant and serving with the British army in Italy. The narratives are intertwined in a spare, poetic, almost mathematical way.