Sarah Water's wonderful new novel: The Night Watch is a move away from Victorian times. The background is of London finding its soul again after the bombings of the Second World War. Told backwards from 1947 to 1941, this is the story of four Londoners and the roles that they played during the war. It follows (backwards) the resounding impact of decisions that lead the characters to become intertwined. Waters often cites her main influences as Charles Dickens and Angela Carter. These influences are identifiable in her story telling. The issues of class and secrecy are all there as is a love story with fable qualities. Similar to previous work, Sarah concentrates on guilt, desire and love. She gives these emotions as clear an identity as she does the physical backdrop. This combined with her minute detail -the buttering of bread, the dress fabric, the fig tree, the inaudible sigh- allow the reader to be swept along on a tangible journey. And, indeed how often poignant and telling the ordinary detail is. A compelling story. Read it now before the BBC series is made, as I'm sure it will be. Chris Gordon is from Readings Carlton
Booker Prize Shortlist 2006
Carry Me Down
$23.95 – Paperback book / Text Publishing
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2006
Carry Me Down is a spell-binding psychological thriller about a boy's obsessive and dangerous desire to see the truth. A singular tale of disturbed love, it announces M. J. Hylan... Buy or find out more →
In The Country Of Men
$32.95 – Paperback book / Viking
On a white-hot day in Tripoli, Libya, in the summer of 1979, nine-year-old Suleiman is shopping in the market square with his mother. His father is away on business - except that he is sure he has just seen his father, s... Buy or find out more →
Mother's Milk
$44.00 – Hardcover book / Picador
The novel's perspective ricochets among all members of the Melrose family – the family featured in St Aubyn's praised trilogy, Some Hope – starting with Robert, who provides an exceptionally droll and compelling account ... Buy or find out more →
The Night Watch
$24.95 – Paperback book / Virago
Sarah Water's wonderful new novel: The Night Watch is a move away from Victorian times. The background is of London finding its soul again after the bombings of the Second World War. Told backwards from 1947 to 1941, thi... Buy or find out more →
The Inheritance Of Loss
$24.95 – Paperback book / Penguin Books
Winner of the 2006 Man Booker Prize for Fiction.
At the foot of Mount Kanchenjunga in the Himalayas, lives an embittered old judge who wants nothing more than to retire in peace. But with the arrival of his orphaned gran... Buy or find out more →
