The Singularities

John Banville

Knopf £14.99 Nostalgia, redemption and quantum theory feature in Banville’s latest, a mischievous puzzle of a novel that ransacks his own backlist for characters. It opens as a man who turns out to be Freddie Montgomery from The Book Of Evidence leaves jail and is taken in by the new residents (fans will recognise them from The Infinities) of his childhood home in Ireland. There’s more plot to come, but this is a book to relish above all for its linguistic verve and allusive wit.