This book has to be one of the best novels of 2010. It’s a long time since I was so taken up with the characters and themes of a work of contemporary fiction. I carried the characters with me in my head in between reading sessions and felt such admiration for Jones’ ability to write convincingly in so many different voices. His chapter nine - “A Pastor of the Ibo Order” - is a superb rumination on the ludicrousness of nationhood and heavily policed citizenship in a twenty-first century world. The novel’s central character is complex and convincing, even as she is emotionally distant. Her construction is a work of art.

Tags: Lloyd Jones