Three 'break-through' fictions: D'Ancona's Going East is a masterly debut whose heroine Mia misadventures far from her privileged London society to the darker reaches of the East End. It's a great London novel. Mill's amagansett is a literary thriller set in post-war Long Island. MacDonald's international sensation The Way the Crow Flies sees the Cold War impact upon a family on a Canadian Air Force base.