Amid a promising array of unconventional debuts, two stood out for me: Nothing on Earth by poet Conor O'Callaghan (Doubleday Ireland), a very contemporary slice of gothic exploring the atomisation of modern life, set on an Irish ghost estate, and Infinite Ground by Martin MacInnes (Atlantic), a metaphysical mystery about a man's disappearance with shades of Conrad and Borges.
It delicately explored human connections with the natural world, whether passionate or atrophied, while weaving a plot from the atomisation of city living (in one wryly comic scene, a middle-class little girl wonders where all those flat discs on the pavement come from, when nobody she knows ever chews gum).
However, the atomisation of the participants in the scene is but a single theme among several.
The underlying problem, he says, is the atomisation of society: tribal elders have lost control of their young men.
But with Labour's opposition and scepticism about the atomisation of the railway, there were few bidders.
Does he think the atomisation of pop culture since the 80s allows for another star of his stature?
For him the changes in conscription patterns carry other dangers: they contribute to the atomisation of Israeli society and leave him short of good soldiers.
"Old school as it is, I'm with Dennis Potter: TV should provoke a national conversation, regardless of falling audiences and the atomisation of the broadcasting spectrum.
The atomisation of its central family unit is deeply unsettling; not for nothing does Sam fear that his parents' possible divorce will "spread destruction like that Japanese reactor".
Nora, writing in 2010, concluded despondently that France had become the land of "shrinking horizons, the atomisation of the life of the mind, and national provincialism".
