The Book of M

RELEASED 28 JUNE 496 pages | Hardback/ebook Author Peng shepherd Publisher HarperVoyager

If you’ve ever tried explaining the strange pleasures of the postapocalyptic to the uninitiated, you’ll know that you’re as likely to get concerned queries about your state of mind as you are requests for recommendations. “But it’s so gloriously grim!” you declare, eyes shining, as your audience backs away.

Or maybe that’s just this reviewer. Either way, connoisseurs of the subgenre will find plenty to enjoy in Peng Shepherd’s debut. Humankind beset with inexplicable affliction? Check: all over the world, people are losing their shadows and, piece by piece, their memories. Violent anarchy in its wake? You bet: power’s off, government’s gone, exterminators kill shadowless for cash, and shadowless kill because they don’t remember not to. Small band(s) of survivors hitting the road in pursuit of hope? But of course: Orlando Zhang is searching for his shadowless wife, and Naz Ahmadi wants to keep her sister safe, but all roads lead to New Orleans and the possibly mythical One Who Gathers.

Shepherd writes well, with an economical but evocative sense of place and a deft hand when it comes to sketching her protagonists’ emotions. There are a few too many redshirts and contrivances, and Shepherd gets a bit carried away with cliffhanger transitions between viewpoints, but the splendidly ambivalent pay-off is well worth the ride. Nic Clarke