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LITERARY TALE
The Imposter (Atlantic) 000
Damon Galgut is in possession of an astute grasp of human nature and a poetically brusque prose that affords him bleak leanings. coaxing the reader on. almost against their will. There is an underlying malice and tangible tension that hangs over this stOry of a middle-aged man who rues the loss of his job and city home and sets out for the country on an ill-defined and regrettable chapter of his life. believing he can rekindle the poetic promise of his childhood.
Earlier in his career, Galgut had been accused of failing to engage with the political climate in his native South Africa. a criticism riposted squarely in his Man Booker-shortlisted The
DAMON GALGUT
THE
IMPOSTOR
Good Doctor and this subsequentnovel Indeed. an acceptance of the ways of the world. the culture of corruption in his country‘s new regime and the hollow. opportunistic nature of its perceived progress are themes that weigh heavy on his wannabe poet's journey.
(Mark Edmundson)
COMIC TRAVELOGUE PAUL BIBEAU Sundays with Vlad (Constable & Robinson) 0..
Paul Bibeau is a man on a mission. He wants to tell the world the story of Dracula. the real Vlad the Impaler facing off against Bela Lugosi‘s Hollywood- ised version, and explaining why never the twain can meet. His itinerary for this travelogue includes a honeymoon to a grim Romanian village. trawling eBay for memorabilia. copious email interviews with academics hot on Bram Stoker and research trips to fetish clubs and role-playing groups. At one point, Bibeau dresses up as a garlic bulb for a Dracula Parade.
His is a rapid-fire. conversational narrative with blow by blow accounts of the minutiae of his search made engaging by the
force of his personality and his ability to spin a tale out of leather and fake fangs. You may be unclear that a destination has been reached. but with the interesting digresSions and exhaustive research. you'll be glad yOu hitched a ride. (Peggy Hughes)
COP NOIR CHARLIE
NEWTON
Calumet City (Bantam) 0...
Charlie Newton makes no effort to dodge cop noir‘s inherent cliches in his debut. but rather uses them to lure the
CHAPI IF NEWTON
Distance
reader into something grimmer than they could have anticipated. There‘s naturally a hard- as-nails Chicago detective at the book's centre. trying to unravel a complex web of violent intrigue stretching from street level gang-bangers all the way up to the mayor's office. While Patti Black is tough on the exterior. though, inside she's torn to bits by a childhood of ritual sexual abuse: the very thing that proves to be quickly catching up with her and everyone else around.
The action is relentless and the tension high throughout. keeping the pages flicking at some rate. It all gets a bit blurred and exhausting after a while. but there‘s enough of a tweak on a well-flogged genre here — and enough authority and dark humour in Newton‘s voice — to likely bring the movie execs prowling. (Malcolm Jack)
EXPERIMENTAL DRAMA RIVKA GALCHEN Atmospheric Disturbances
(Fourth Estate) 0...
Very few books are either complex enough to keep a reader interested until the end or simple enough to describe in a few
(Jonathan Cape) 0000
RELATIONSHIP DRAMA EWAN MORRISON
by Rivka Galchen proves it is possible to be both. The story is easy: man loses wife, replica wife appears. man goes on worldwide search for real wife. The man is Leo Liebenstein, a psychiatrist who immediately notices his replacement is very slightly different to his usualone.
His profession is a masterstroke. as this device allows Galchen to experiment with a whole series of wild theories as to what has really happened here. taking in communication with the dead. parallel universes and. bizarrely, weather changing syndicates. while remaining, at heart. a love story. This book is thoroughly ridiculous. but that‘s a high compliment. Rivka Galchen is a writer who is already making an impression in America. and soon will be here. (Rodge Glass)
Anyone who has ever embarked on a long distance affair knows they can be pretty tumultuous, and when Ewan Morrison (an author developing a reputation for his insightful portrayals of relationships) chooses to explore this type of pairing in his second work, it makes for incredibly compelling reading. Where Swung was a humorous, inspirational and sexually charged take on love in the 005, the Glasgow-based writer takes all the successful elements of his previous offering and gives them a dark and, at times, genuinely moving twist in Distance, further proving his worth as one to watch on the Scottish literary scene.
The novel tells the tale of Tom (from Edinburgh, likes a drink) and Meg (an intense, old flames-obsessed New Yorker), two occasionally kinky and extremely messed-up and complex middle- agers trying to rid themselves of past demons and finding solace in each other during Tom’s business trip to the Big Apple. They meet by chance, both bored and socially awkward at a pretentious film company party, and what follows is an often overpowering, whirlwind romance peppered with hilarious, snappily rendered critiques of their hometowns, bittersweet anecdotes and, perhaps most interestingly, some searing attacks on and celebrations of modern Scotland.
However, even when all seems to be unravelling for his protagonists, Morrison keeps the reader’s spirits up and gripped to every chapter with an abundance of witty lines, bittersweet anecdotes and an underlying sense of hope, which keeps Distance from becoming too sinister. (Camilla Pia)
ALSO PUBLISHED
5 GRIMI THRILLIRS
Terence Strong President Down Former intelligence officer Phil Mason is called on to hunt down al-Qaeda cells in the UK. Simon 8 Schuster.
Daniel Silva Moscow Rules Gabriel Alton returns to Russia to find the country awash with oil wealth, while an ex— KGB colonel is supplying weapons to the wrong people. Penguin.
Laura Llppman Another Thing to Fall The Baltimore private eye Tess Monaghan takes a job as bodyguard to a rising TV star who is the victim of a twisted stalker. Orion. Theresa Schwegel Person of Interest A cop's wife starts to question what she really knows about her hubbie when their teenage daughter is made the centre of a murder investigation. Quercus.
8am Hayes Unspoken The follow- up to Blood Ties. this features a secret about to destroy a family as a granny’s past comes back to haunt her. Headline.
19 Jun—3 Jul 2008 THE LIST 37