Being Dead, Jim Crace

Read on the Kindle - downloaded for the princely sum of 66p!

I have enjoyed Jim Crace's books before: Quarantine, the Pesthouse, and my particular favourite, Arcadia.

This book interweaves the story of Jim and Celice's 30 year marriage, with the story of what happens to their bodies in the six days after they are murdered while revisiting a secluded beach from their past.

It sounds gruesome, and in places it is; not for the squeamish or faint hearted.  But this is such a poetic book, that the subject of death becomes bearable, and even beautiful.

Any Human Heart, William Boyd

Read in paperback - a Christmas present from my wish list.

I saw the TV mini series a couple of years back, and had always wanted to read the book.  William Boyd is always very readable.

This is the story of Logan Mountstuart, born in Uruguay at the start of the twentieth century, but in many ways the quintessential Englishman, and following his life, in diary format, through each decade, from his school years, through college, his war years as a spy, times of riches and poverty ("the dog food years"), through to his dotage.

The name dropping of artists and literary figures is a bit annoying at times, but at no point does Logan's extraordinary life seem unbelievable or far fetched.  That is the skill of the author.