BOOK REVIEWS

I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes With Death

Maggie O’Farrell Maggie O’Farrell’s I Am, I Am, I Am is divided into 17 distinct moments from her life, scrambled out of chronological order, it explores the many terrifying junctures at which Maggie grappled with the fact she may not take another breath. There are instances many of us have experienced and others so brutal and horrifying (an encounter with a murderer; a knife-point mugging), you have to put the book down to rebalance. When you discover Maggie’s daughter suffers from an immunological disorder and is prone to anaphylactic attacks leading to alarmingly frequent hospital visits, the strength, urgency and reasoning that underpins I Am, I Am, I Am becomes palpable. It’s a beautiful, strangely reassuring read. 9/10

My Absolute Darling

Gabriel Tallent When a book’s blurb tells you Stephen King thinks it is a masterpiece, you prepare to be impressed. The horror doyen is, perhaps, a touch generous in his praise for the debut novel from Gabriel Tallent. A native of north-west California, which, through intenselydrawn imagery becomes a character, Tallent brings us the story of Turtle Alveston. Turtle – or ‘kibble’ to her charismatic but twisted survivalist father, Martin – is a 14-year-old who spends most of her time cleaning guns and preparing for the apocalypse she believes will soon come. One day, she escapes Martin’s control by embarking on a solo mission into the wilderness. There she meets Jacob, a lost boy of a similar age whose comfortable and cosseted life reveals to her an ordinary world she never knew existed. This new connection opens an irreparable rift in the love-hate relationship between Martin and his ‘absolute darling’. 9/10

Carnivore

Jonathan Lyon This debut offering from Jonathan Lyon, a British writer based in Berlin, focuses on main character Leander, a homeless man suffering with myalgia who relishes having pain inflicted, either on himself or others. As Leander’s search for drugs to ease his constant pain increases, so the author’s ability to create a heroin-fuelled view of the world seeps through the narrative, leaving the reader on a journey of aggression, sexual sadism and violence that is compelling, if more than a little disturbing. Leander’s eventual epiphany is hugely unconvincing but so is his purported love of violence and blood. Suspend all rational thought and enjoy the rather unsettling ride. 7/10