Grace Heriegel

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4.5 ⭐️

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A Booker Prize longlist and so worthy of being noted as an incredible piece of modern literature. This is another beautiful novella about the atmosphere and mundane life of a man and his dwindling potential.

Wood writes so engagingly, and to say I couldn’t put this down is an understatement as I read it from beginning-to-end on one train journey! A devastating but hopeful story about how a fleeting interaction can perhaps change your life, or just give you the motivation to change and move on to what could become the best part of you – those little moments that bring us enough joy to deal with everything else the world throws at us.

One of my favourite parts of this novel is exploring the expectations that lie deep in father – son relationships. Even with the absentee of a father himself, Thomas is striving to make everyone around him proud and carry on a legacy that is slowly killing him. He yearns to create his own life with him and his guitar, but alas work calls and capitalism eats us all in the end…

Broody, magnetic, magnificent and (in promoting my job, of course!) the Blackwells Fiction BOTM and so worthy of all the prizes it has been listed for, and the much other love I hope it gets noticed for…