Sebastian Shakespeare
Quantum Leaps
ONE MORNING THEORETICAL physicist John Ringer, sitting at his desk in his university, receives a cryptic text message. ‘Cd me: H’. Who is H? His ex-lover Helen? Or is it a wrong number? So begins this highly inventive and oddly compelling novel, which encompasses parallel universes and parallel narrators. Andrew Crumey takes huge risks with his story by combining a multiplicity of genres – sci-fi, thriller, fantasy, farce; but somehow he carries it off. He teases us with scientific puzzles and paradoxes, entertains us with the elasticity of his plot, and before too long the reader begins to doubt his own grasp on reality.
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The novelist Angela Thirkell is due a revival, says Patricia T O'Conner (£).
https://literaryreview.co.uk/good-gad
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In this month's Bookends, @AdamCSDouglas looks at the curious life of Henry Labouchere: a friend of Bram Stoker, 'loose cannon', and architect of the law that outlawed homosexual activity in Britain.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/a-gross-indecency