LATEST TITLES
HISTORY OF VIOLENCE by Edouard Louis, Harvill Secker, £14.99 (ebook £14.99)
★★★★★
THE young French writer made a striking debut with The End Of Eddy, an autobiographical tale of homophobia, rage and a hellish rural childhood. He follows this with an equally demanding novel about male rape as suffered by Edouard, a young man from the country.
The narrator meets Reda in Paris one Christmas Eve. Sex between strangers takes place in his flat, a willing intimacy that ends in rape and violence after Edouard accuses the Algerian man of theft.
A shifting narrative sees Edouard offer his version while standing unseen in the shadows and overhearing the story as retold by his sister to her taciturn husband. It’s tough and unflinching, but is ultimately a rewarding read.
Although grainy grim accounts of police procedure are interrupted by a strikingly pretentious ‘interlude’ in which the author expresses his love for Sanctuary by William Faulkner.
AN OCEAN OF MINUTES
by Thea Lim, Quercus Books, £14.99 (ebook £7.49). Available June 28
★★★★★
TIME travel is hardly a new theme for a novel, but Thea Lim’s imaginative and timely writing feels wholly original. An Ocean Of Minutes – her debut – tells the story of Polly and Frank, a couple forced apart when a deadly flu pandemic breaks out.
The only way for Frank to be saved is for Polly to travel to the future – and there’s no going back.
Switching between decades presents us with a truly heartbreaking narrative, with the chapters set in the past being the most engaging. It’s particularly touching reading about the development of Polly and Frank’s relationship, which is written about with honesty and deep emotion.
The present day chapters can leave you a little impatient, the story lacks pace at times, and it’s difficult to immerse yourself in the dystopian world Lim envisions, though perhaps that was her aim. It all leads to a beautifully poignant ending nonetheless.