C - Thomas McCarthy

Tom McCarthy's C brings us through the strange life of Serge Carrefax, brought up in a home of the first electrical devices, coded signals and his father's obsession with sound and communication. Caught up in his own world of morse code and chemistry experiments, tragedy at an early age soon changes life for the young boy.

Time spent in the health spas of Eastern Europe leads Serge on to a life as an observer high above enemy trenches where, through a hail of bullets he first begins experimenting with drugs.

Tom McCarthy, for the most part, brings us brilliantly through this intense life to London in a haze of drug-fuelled madness. Although his writing at times brings the most life to even the most banal of subjects, McCarthy does, however, drag us through some unnecessary passages. Unsure of why some parts are even in this book and as much of a struggle as they are to read, the knowledge that you will soon find yourself completely drawn into a skillfully crafted story brings you through.

In all not the easiest of reads due to its uneven nature, this book does though still have the ability to make you stick with it and follow it through to the end.

Thomas.