DEBUT FICTION
IN THE LIGHT OF WHAT WE KNOW
by Zia Haider Rahman
(Picador, £16.99, £14.99)
% A ClUe to a central preoccupation of this sprawling, expansive meditation on, among other things, class and caste, American geo- political reach, global finance and personal accountability, lies in the title.
In 2008, a 40-something investment banker of Pakistani background opens the front door to discover Zafar — a brilliant mathematician, lawyer, and escapee from Bangladeshi poverty who disappeared years ago, possibly to Asia. How have these erstwhile friends made sense of the world in the interim?
digressive and unashamedly intellectual, the novel is also sharp and angry: British aid workers still play the game of ‘ empire and ego’; and international aid experts are unsparing in their love of humanity but have no interest in people. We can ask questions and endlessly philosophise, concludes the nameless narrator, but all we can count on is that we will never know the answers — only our ignorance.
Fascinating and truly impressive. BEFORE THE FALL
by Juliet West
(Mantle, £16.99, £14.99)
% IT IS self- evident that terrible things happen on battlefields. less talked about is what happens to civilians on the home front.
In 1916, Hannah is left behind in london’s east end when her husband enlists. life is tough, and food and money are short. Obtaining work in a cafe, she meets bookish, intriguing daniel, and her world changes.
The great social upheavals lie still in the future, and the lovers run up against convention and bitter family opposition. The outcome is tragic and, given the needless slaughter on the battlefield, horribly ironic, but the parallels drawn between the wastage in the trenches and that of the home front are precisely the point.
london’s noises and smells seep through a poignant and confidently handled text, which is based on a true story. The final sections needed a little more time, but there is an arresting sting in the tail. APOCALYPSE NEXT TUESDAY
by David Safier
(Nova, £8.99, £8.49)
% IN deAd-eNdSVIlle Malente, Germany, Marie has just jilted her fiancé at the altar. Meanwhile, her father has taken up with a 25year- old, her sister has a brain tumour and Satan (who resembles George Clooney) is on the prowl. Furthermore, Armageddon has been predicted to break out.
Into this maelstrom of upheavals arrives Joshua, a carpenter. Gentle and wise, he appears to walk on water — or, at least, Marie thinks so.
A bestseller in Germany and fluently translated, this is a Marmite novel. either you go with the conceit or it will bore you rigid. Those who take up the baton for the former will enjoy the joke and the imagery, the digs at modern celebrity and the tussle with the notion of free will. Those who don’t might well consider it a bit of a silly caper — the category into which I fall.