I found a hardback edition of this Italian
best-seller in the foreign-language section of Waterstones for 1£ - a few more
finds like these and my National Book Tokens will last me a lifetime...
This novel is beautifully banal. Obviously
everyone has a different way of dealing with the death of a lover. Obviously
children are extremely resourceful. Obviously all families, even the ones that
look picture-perfect from the outside, are messed up in one way or another
(well, except for mine!). Obviously corporate greed is evil. Obviously people
have their secrets.
And yet, for all its banality (and the dullness
of many of its cultural reference-points), this book is extremely well-written
and remarkably enjoyable.
That said, I would have preferred if the main
character hadn’t started thinking that his dead lover was sending him
post-mortem messages through Thom Yorke’s voice...
