Our look at the latest fiction from some of our favourite authors out this week.

l Tales Of Freedom by Ben Okri is published in paperback by Rider Books, priced £7.99.

Poet and author Ben Okri, whose previous works include Starbook, returns to the literary arena with this collection of short stories.

Okri, who won the Man Booker Prize in 1991 for The Famished Road, attempts to blend poetry and prose into a new hybrid in the Tales Of Freedom.

In his latest collection, the award-winning novelist uses symbolism to give a deeper understanding of what freedom means to different individuals. The Comic Destiny, reminiscent of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot, tells the story of people who are lost in a forest.

In The Clock, a man is driven to insanity after a sudden fixation with a time-telling device.

Although the stories may have some abstract appeal, they come across more as tangent ideas, rather than well-rounded narratives.

l So Much For That by Lionel Shriver is published in hardback by Harper Collins, priced £15.

After Lionel Shriver’s astonishing eighth novel, We Need To Talk About Kevin, it was impossible to predict where this writer would go next.

Shriver’s way of moving on from the acid darkness of ‘Kevin’ was an exploration of love in The Post-Birthday World, but her most recent novel is a move back to more controversial territory.

So Much For That rings a timely bell. A story about illness and the American healthcare system, it looks at how much we can expect society to look after us when our health fails.

Full of raw anger, Shriver tussles satisfyingly with some of the challenges which arise when illness enters your life.

l House Rules by Jodi Picoult is published in hardback by Hodder & Stoughton, priced £16.99.

Jacob Hunt is obsessed with forensics and creating crime scenes, a hobby that mum Emma patiently tolerates – until he is accused of murdering his tutor.

As a teenage boy with Asperger’s Syndrome, Jacob finds it difficult to follow social norms and to express himself in this latest novel from award-winning American author Jodi Picoult.

He possesses the trademark behaviours of Asperger’s, such as being unable to look someone in the eye and stimulatory tics and twitches, all of which look very suspicious to police.

What follows is an in-depth study into the disorder and the legal system, told from various points of view – Jacob, his younger brother Theo, his mum and the police.

As with Jodi’s other books, expect to be surprised and questioned at every point.