A Green Equinox by Elizabeth Mavor review – a transgressive classic rediscovered

This newly republished 1973 novel about a bookshop owner’s love life is funny, surprising and unpredictable

This extraordinary novel – shortlisted for the Booker prize in 1973 alongside books by Beryl Bainbridge, JG Farrell and Iris Murdoch – has been reissued on both sides of the Atlantic after being out of print for 50 years.

The story covers six months – “equinox to equinox” – in the affairs of narrator Hero Kinnoull, a bookshop owner in the English village of Beaudesert and the lover of Hugh Shafto. Hero’s devotion to Hugh seems unfathomable to the reader – he’s an outrageous snob, obsessed with the past, and devoted to the rococo largely because it “stands for everything the mob detests” – but that’s love for you.

A Green Equinox by Elizabeth Mavor is published by Virago Modern Classics (£9.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply