By John Boyne Doubleday, 368pp, £16.99

A Ladder To The Sky

“You’ve heard the old proverb about ambition, haven’t you?” He shook his head. “That it’s like setting a ladder to the sky.” Maurice Swift has ambition aplenty. It’s the ideas he’s lacking. But there are other people for that, and he finds that his charisma and good looks might just be enough to give him the success he craves. John Boyne’s psychological drama is told over the course of Swift’s career, his sole aim to achieve literary acclaim. Through three different narrative perspectives, we see how Swift expertly manipulates and betrays the people who love him; elderly novelist Erich Ackermann, American writer Dash Hardy, Swift’s talented wife Edith, even his son Daniel. Boyne’s story delivers a perfect balance of pace and detail to keep you gripped to end. ■

Rebecca Wilcock