Cover image for book

The phrase I keep wanting to use to describe this one is “magical realism”, even though it’s perhaps not strictly accurate. It does capture the vibe of “is this really happening or is this a metaphor?” that pervades the book, from the dramatic opening with a baby separated from his shadow, to the combination of social media with flying sorcerers. In the end it turns out that everything should be taken as literally happening, and the conclusion is as satisfyingly unsatisfying (or vice versa) as any I have seen. The protagonist slowly attenuates over the last part of the book, and the language implies a focus moving away from him, so that when he steps out of the frame in favour of a new protagonist, there is no surprise, nor a feeling of wanting to know how his story continues: it is obviously complete.

I am very curious now about whether this is a one-off or whether Vajra Chandrasekera can do this again. Is he a Susanna Clarke or a Nick Harkaway? In both cases after reading their respective debut novels, my question was only about how they could possibly follow that. It turned out that Susanna Clarke could not (albeit with a medical excuse, and with the perfect little jewel that is Piranesi to her name), while Nick Harkaway went from strength to strength.

🖼️  Cover image from publisher’s website