Youthful quartet whose parts begin at the ending
The Immortalists
William Heinemann, £14.99 Reviewed Alan Montague
IT WAS one of the most intriguing murder cases in British legal history. Wang Yam, a Chinese dissident, was convicted of murdering an elderly British author and sentenced to 20 years in prison. But he continues to protest his innocence 12 years after his arrest. Nothing unusual there — plenty of convicts claim they did not commit the crime. But very few are tried in secret. Parts of Wang Yam’s trial at the Old Bailey were heard in camera, with the presiding judge, Mr Justice Ouseley, ordering that anyone reporting the proceedings would be guilty of contempt. Not only that but anyone even speculating on why the trial was being held behind closed doors would also be guilty of contempt. That order still stands, and Thomas Harding’s book is bound by it, as indeed is this review. Tinder Press, £14.99
Reviewed by Jennifer Lipman
IT’S A premise that in the wrong hands could come across as gimmicky, so it’s a testament to Chloe Benjamin’s skill as a writer that The Immortalists is such a captivating, moving read. The story of four Jewish siblings who while away a summer’s day with a visit to a Lower East Side psychic, the novel presents the implications of being told as a child the exact date on which you are going to die.
“The summer of 1969 — it seems something is happening to everything Thomas Harding: ‘I wanted to know who killed my neighbour’ but them,” writes Benjamin of the sweltering day the Gold children attempt to meddle in forces beyond their control. Around them, Woodstock and Stonewall are changing history; for the Golds, it is the last summer before adolescence necessitates that they cease being a unit.
After the first sibling’s story is told — that of Simon, only seven when the novel opens, a lost soul who finds a home in San Francisco’s flourishing gay community just as Aids begins to rear its ugly head — Benjamin makes clear that the Gold quartet will probably not be able to escape their fates.
Death will come; the question is how and why and, more pertinently, how it will shape their lives before then.
The book is neatly segmented; from Simon we go on to Klara, a troubled travelling magician who convinces herself she can outwit her fate; and then the more steadfast army doctor Daniel, and medical researcher Varya, both of whom find their Judaism to be a source of both solace and uncertainty.
The four stories are only loosely connected, yet each one is shaped by knowledge gained before the protagonists were old enough to handle it.
Each individual tale is beautifully and sensitively told, the characters and the worlds they inhabit as well crafted as they are distinct from Eighty-six-year-old Allan Chappelow — who in younger days wrote a wellreceived biography of George Bernard Shaw — was bludgeoned to death in 2006 in his dilapidated Regency house in Downshire Hill, Hampstead. The police contended that the killing was the result of a burglary that went wrong — which makes the contempt order even more mysterious.
Journalist Thomas Harding cites the judge’s ruling that there are exceptions to the requirement that trials should be held in open court where national security is at stake or a witness’s identity needs to be protected. Which is as far as Harding, or anyone, can go by way of explanation. “There is a necessary lacuna at the heart of this book,” he writes. H ard in g — author of Hanns and Rudolf — grew up in Downshire Hill and became fascinated by the case. “I wanted to know who killed my neighbour,” he says.
Wang Yam was arrested after trying to cash one of Chappelow’s cheques. He was charged with murder despite there being no forensic evidence placing him at the scene.
The dissident had been involved in the Tiananmen Square student protests in Beijing in 1989 and had sought asylum in the UK three years later. He claimed to be a relative of one of the heroes of the Chinese Communist revolution, but family members Harding interviewed accused Wang Yam of lying.
Having worked in nuclear research in China, he set up a series of unsuccessful businesses once he arrived in the West, and was eventually declared bankrupt. He had no history of violence, and insisted he had never met Chappelow.
Over two years, Harding interviewed the police, lawyers, witnesses and relatives of both Wang Yam and Chappelow. He concluded that Wang Yam, fantasist and thief though he might be, may very well be innocent of murder.
Harding says police failed to take into account a similar theft that took place near Chappelow’s home a few months after the murder, or a similar murder of an elderly man that took place in Highgate in 2005, which Wang Yam couldn’t possibly have committed. Then there are the unexplained drops of wax and cigarette butts found near Chappelow’s body.
Harding also criticises officers for overlooking the possibility that the killer could be a companion Chappelow met at a gay cruising spot on Hampstead Heath and invited home.
By the end of 300 pages, which culminate with Wang Yam’s final appeal being dismissed, there is no resolution. But there are enough questions raised by Harding’s meticulous research to suggest that reasonable doubt hangs over the conviction.
Meanwhile, Wang Yam remains in prison and, as Harding suggests, a murderer may still be at large on the streets of Hampstead. Allan Chappelow (top) and Wang Lam
Anyone reporting would be guilty of contempt
Alan Montague is the JC’s news editor each other. Spanning several decades, the period detail is illustrative but not suffocating, and the irrationality of the premise does little to dent your enjoyment.
Benjamin, whose first book, The Anatomy of Dreams was critically acclaimed when it came out in 2014, brings to life the particular Jewishness of the Golds’ upbringing; their tailor father’s immigrant mentality; their “hulking mass” of a mother’s complicated love for her offspring.
The book is perfectly paced such that each section races along; I found myself rushing to each character’s last moments only to regret that I had not savoured their earlier existences.
Jennifer Lipman is a freelance writer