Putney

By Sofka Zinovieff Bloomsbury Circus, 384pp, £12.99

Despite the title, much of the action and characters in Sofka Zinovieff ’s latest novel are linked to Greece, a place she writes about beautifully. The book looks back at the past from three different perspectives: through the eyes of Daphne, her friend Jane and family friend Ralph. It revolves around Ralph’s relationship with Daphne, which started when she was nine and became sexual when she was 13. Daphne felt like she was in love, but is reconsidering whether the relationship was actually abusive, now that she is older and has a daughter herself. It tries to be an edgy, Lolita-style story, but ends up romanticising the “love” between Daphne and Ralph. While it’s accepted that Ralph is a paedophile, we hear so much of his perspective it’s as though we’re being asked to not wholly blame him. It begs the question: do we really need a book that puts paedophilia in a grey area? It feels like Zinovieff is trying to be provocative for provocation’s sake.