So Much Life Left Over

Louis de Bernières

Harvill Secker €19.60

De Bernières is a singular, cherishable voice in modern fiction, but his new novel finds him wrestling with a multiplicity of themes, a large cast of characters and too many perspectives. Set in the aftermath of WWI and encompassing the decline of the British Empire and the rise of Nazi Germany, it tells an ambitious but uneven tale of a loveless marriage and fractured lives. With such a broad canvas, attempts at narrative economy frequently lapse into cliché. Despite some moving episodes, this is very much the proverbial curate’s egg.