A hard lesson for the teacher

CONTEMPORARY WENDY HOLDEN

PROFESSOR CHANDRA FOLLOWS HIS BLISS by Rajeev Balasubramanyam (Cape €15.65)

THIS terrific debut is intensely millennial. Each character is deeply self-absorbed and the action pits their different types of selfishness against each other.

The eponymous academic, a Cambridge economics professor, has a withering attitude towards the rest of humanity.

His ex-wife is a cold fish, his son is obsessed with money and his eldest daughter has embraced Marxism, identity politics and existential rage.

These positions have driven the family apart and when the Prof (extremely reluctantly) is made to visit a Californian spiritual retreat, he realises the others’ behaviour is the result of his own.

The retreat is actually the idea of his ex’s new partner, the phenomenally vain and self-satisfied Steve, one of my favourite characters.

This brilliant and eloquent novel, which puts into words so many unutterable annoyances, is a sort of Zen satire in which tolerance and understanding mingle with hilarious criticism of contemporary mores. It’s a wonderful read.

A RIVER IN THE TREES by Jacqueline O’Mahony (Riverrun €15.65)

A TALE that blends a family’s past and present also explores the violent history of Ireland.

Rich, married, Londondwelling Ellen is in despair because she can’t have a baby. A century earlier her poor Irish farmgirl great-granny Hannah was in despair for the opposite reason — a charismatic Irish republican leader, O’Riada, was responsible.

What choices did Hannah then have to make and what happened to the baby? Ellen unearths the shocking facts when she goes home to view the old family farm, which is for sale. Her once-adoring husband leaves her, fed up with her depression and weight gain. Can the traumahaunted farm mend her broken heart? A thrilling, thoughtful, passionate novel full of rich atmosphere.

THE TRUTHS AND TRIUMPHS OF GRACE ATHERTON by Anstey Harris (S&S €15.65)

THE iffy title, clearly intended for the Eleanor Oliphant market, undersells this lovely, interesting book.

It’s one of those where you learn a new skill; in this case, how to make a cello. Grace, a music prodigy, has confidence issues and so hand-makes instruments instead. She is about to enter a cello in a prestigious international competition when it emerges that her slimy-but-handsome married lover is a lying cheat.

Grace is heartbroken, reacts violently and destroys every instrument in her shop.

Her two unlikely but devoted friends, octagenarian gay Maurice and angry young Asian Nadia, come to her rescue. But can Grace mend the cello in time for the competition, and by metaphorical extension rebuild her life?

An indulgently emotional and beautifully written story about new starts. Perfect reading for a January.