Books & Poetry

‘The Night Watch’
Sarah Waters
Triumphantly subtle account of ordinary London lives during the Blitz.

‘The Book of Dave’
Will Self
A cabbie’s buried ramblings become holy gospel in the year’s funniest novel.

‘Against the Day’
Thomas Pynchon
You can’t accuse him of insufficient research. Feature continues

‘Winter in Madrid’
CJ Sansom
Historical-thriller high jinks in Civil War-era Spain.

‘The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox’
Maggie O’Farrell
A young woman discovers a great-aunt she never knew existed – because she has been in an asylum for 60 years.

‘The Road’
Cormac McCarthy
The future’s dark in this sparse, horribly compelling post-apocalyptic parable.

‘The Lay of the Land’
Richard Ford
The further adventures of Frank Bascombe: unbearably sad, unfeasibly funny.