Cressida Connolly
Closing Time
Autumn is surely the first novel about Brexit, but don’t let that put you off. It’s also a wonderful celebration of friendship, art and everything that matters: loyalty, kindness, the beauty of nature and the lifelong solace of reading. It’s a book that could be claimed by any number of interested parties, from gerontophiles to feminist art historians to civil liberties groups to fans of daytime television’s Bargain Hunt. Jews, refugees, lesbians, the disenfranchised middle-aged, the lonely and the forgotten could all find cause to think the book is about them. I myself propose that the real subject of Autumn is the inestimable value of storytelling; but then I’m a novelist, so I would. This really can be all things to all men.
The story takes place between the months of June and November of this year, though we never learn precisely where. Everywhere are signs and rumbles of discontent. That there is something deeply wrong with Britain is represented, here, by pointless bureaucracy. The novel’s protagonist, Elisabeth, has her path
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'In 2007, German scientists analysed the soil of this lunar landscape and found that 17 per cent of its weight was made up of arsenic. The ground wasn’t poisoned – it was poison.'
http://ow.ly/Ck7j50Er3mu
'Rivalries are intense and dangerous, and someone has to die.'
@NJCooper_crime on new thrillers by @HenryCPorter, @k_faulkner, @annafbailey, @mserinkelly, @JoelDicker, @AlanJParks, @whartonswords and more.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/april-2021-crime-round-up
This spring, give the gift of reading.
Give a friend a gift subscription to Literary Review for only £33.50.
https://www.mymagazinesub.co.uk/literary-review/promo/spring21/