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TRAVELOGUE COMEDY A Tall Man In A Low
Land Harry Pearson (Little, Brown £9.99)
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IILOIANS
the bookstOp cafe“
drink the latte eat the muffin read the book
chew the cud never has retail been so good for the soul
4 teviot place. edinburgh 0131 - 225 5298
So yo. thought Be.g:ans were horwng7 Harry l’ea"sor‘ protes I'us‘. f‘()\.'. " g'h'. you can he, t". s hriiiiar‘tiy offbeat, or shou-d that he ot‘-the-heact traveogue cha“. ng the Journey of Pearson, "is grri‘uenc: and their ".i"(‘-"‘.()"i"-()i(i nany through the psyche of this much- nia- gned nation,
opening times 110 - 8 lllOlT‘ sat 12 a 8 Sun
Colin Baxter 8: Des Thompson ‘SCOTLAND Land of Mountains'
Chris 0"“ . 'St\cnt Spaces
.A Cole Weston t Home and Abroad.
Scotland’s finest selection of photographic books
beyond words bookshop, 42-44 cockburn street, edinburgh. 0|3| 226 6636 tues - sat IO - 8, sun - mon l2 - 5
120 THE LIST 2.2 0:1 ‘; '99P,
SHORT STORY ANTHOLOGY Rovers Return
Edited by Kevin Williamson (Rebel Inc £8.99) "
Rebel lnc didn't jump on the 'Scottish writers' bandwagon; it got out the hammer and nails and built the bloody thing in the first place. Children Of Albion Rovers marked the transition from magazine to book publisher, and now comes a ’sequel' with a more international eye. Here are six tales, all of which
fall into that commercially awkward
category between short story and noveHa.
Three Scots further their Rovers connection: Gordon Legge tears into the shallow fame of TV presenters, letting farce and satire roll together over the pages with a snowball effect; James Meek enters a surreal, self-logical world where
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neither past, present nor future can be determined without physical evidence; Laura Hird tells of a young gay man brought down by his own
self-absorbed hubris.
Joining the team are John King, whose run-on sentences describing an Englishman's incarceration in a Greek cell are like sudden bursts of painfully conscious thought; Emer Martin, thematically tight though narrativer diverse; and the wonderful Tony Bourdain, whose saga of honour among New York chefs reads like Gary Rhodes played by Joe Pesci.
Getting to the part of the brain other collections can’t reach, Rovers Return is entertaining, imaginative and incisively 'now'. (Alan Morrison)
W;th tongue entrenched in cheek and enough irony for a caravan (()l‘.‘.'(‘ltil()l‘., Pearson scoffs wth, rather than at, a populace for whom DlY ranks as a national sport and canaries are a passion Unearthing eccentric rites and surreal goings-on :n towns watn the surface exc ite'nent o‘ Carnoer‘naulci on a Sunday afternoon, our author stakes his claim that Belgians have camouflaged their country as dull ih o'der to have a guiet Erie Pearsc n olows their cover with a 'haste'y that ,Iust fails short of being too clever for :ts own good Though news that Peyo, creator of The Smurfs, is one of the country’s famous sons may Just stern the tour-st tide yet \EC‘i
CRIME FICTION Point Of Origin
Patricia Cornwell (Little, Brown £16.99)
When Patric :a Corrine} first introduced Chief Medical EXdltl'lW." Dr Kay Scarpetta to the terary c rirne scene, there was great T(‘l()l( ,ng Here at East was a highly nteliigent and original writer with creations displaying the same characteristics The ninth in the series o‘ Scar‘petta novels sees the return. of psycho cilier‘ Carrie Carethe" who first made an appearance i." From Potter's Fre/d
Hay ng escaped from psychiatric hospitai, she is out to destroy Scarpetta's life once again Another serial killer :s also on the loose, and the two stones inter‘tmne d."(l merge in a scene worthy of the Holywood sc hioc khuster Cornwell seems to have had in her sights when she penned this !ittle is left to the vll"(l(}.'l(li|()l‘., the plot has holes you cou.ci fly a heicopte" through, and the ("‘.(llll(} is nothing less than an. :‘s;.Tt Scar‘petta's scalpe. has sadly lost :ts edge ii<l<=
SMALLTOWN FICTION
It Could Happen To You
lsla Dewar (Review £16.99 hardback; £9.99 paperback)
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ls:a Dewar \wztes llOVOlS that tal-ce you unawares, irnp.ar‘ting characters into you." (()l‘.S('I()tiS".(‘SS until you care with a passon /t C‘ou/d Happen fo You :s no except'on.
The 000K tells of Roman Can‘pbeii, a young idealist from an. .cteritikrt towr‘ hear Perth \\t‘.() escapes to the giarnou." and glzt/ o‘ LOHthIt As her dreams are St‘(l‘.'.("'(‘(l and he! tr‘ayei paar‘ destroyed by an agent ; it-girl neighpour, she returns home amid gosszp and .ntr'zgue, .:‘.er‘ally ".()l(l.‘.".(}
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