I’ve admired Rupert Thomson’s work for some time. His novels are never predictable, always exploring unexpected terrain from the advertising world, satirized in Soft!, to the Medici court in Secrecy‘s seventeenth century Florence. The last one’s my particular favourite. Famously, Davie Bowie’s is The Insult which appeared as one of his 100 Must-Read Books of All Time. I’m sure Bowie didn’t come up with that tag which sounds straight out of Soft! to me. The ones I’ve read all have an element of suspense but they’re very much more than thrillers. What kept me on edge in this new novel was the fate of the eponymous Katherine who seems to put herself in ever increasing danger.
Nineteen-year-old Katherine was what used to be called by the tabloids a test tube baby. Conceived using IVF, her embryo was implanted into her mother eight years after its conception. Her mother died when Katherine was sixteen from a cancer Katherine has convinced herself was the result of her own implantation. Her father is a journalist at CNN. Rarely at home in Rome where they settled when Katherine’s mother was still alive, he’s more often to be found in the Middle East reporting on the latest conflict. Katherine has won a scholarship to Oxford but in the September before she’s due to go she decides to disappear. Overhearing a conversation in a cinema about a man in Berlin she convinces herself it’s a message to her and takes herself off there. So begins a series of adventures in which Katherine will meet several older men while travelling from Rome to Archangel then on up into the Arctic Circle where she finds a kind of peace, far away from anyone she knows and anyone who knows her. Throughout her odyssey she fantasizes that her father is looking for her, alerted to her disappearance by the rendezvous she’s set up for them in Berlin – which she knows that she will not make – hoping to snare the attention she craves from him and dangerously courts with other men.
Thomson’s writing is often very striking. The Prologue in which Katherine recounts her own in vitro conception is extraordinarily vivid. Later, ‘His eyes are damp too. When he looks at me they seem to leave a deposit, as snails do’ describes a masculine leer perfectly while the image of the September sun in Rome ‘richer, more tender, the colour of old wedding rings’ was a gorgeous thing to read on a dank November day. Thomson is equally vivid in his exploration of the effects of Katherine’s origins. She often feels watched, as if the other embryos implanted with her accompany her on her journey. At times she feels emotionally absent ‘Sometimes I suspect I haven’t quite thawed out yet.’ Her meetings with increasingly shady men seem part of the process of making herself feel alive. Her guilt about her own survival and her mother’s death are made all the more poignant by her vibrant memories of her mother while her elaborate fantasies of her father’s pursuit convey an aching need for his attention. Wittingly or unwittingly, Katherine has left a trail of clues for anyone determined enough to find her. It’s a clever piece of work, and a fascinating theme to explore – one which is not so very far from home for Thomson as this interview reveals.
He’s such an original writer – I’m looking forward to reading this one!
Yes, I like writers who are prepared to wander around exploring different themes. This is so different from Secrecy, his last novel.
This sounds fantastic. Like you I love his work. Very much looking forward to reading this. Excellent review, Susan.
Thanks, Naomi. Such an interesting theme to explore.
Unlike you I’ve never read Rupert Thomson, but I’ve always wanted to. I wonder if this would be a good place to start or should I start with one of his earlier books. You’ve certainly made this book sound fascinating and one which I’d enjoy!
Thanks, Eric! Hard to know where to start, I know, his novels are so different. I found this one intriguing but if pressed I’d still plump for Secrecy as my favourite. I hope you get around to reading him. I’m sure you’d like his writing.
Oh no another author who has been on my ‘I really must try list’ and this does sound quite unusual!
Yes, it is unusual – I don’t think I’ve ever read anything that explored the idea of IVF in this way before.
I much prefer the UK cover to the N American one. This novel is one that I liked but did not love (I found Kat’s voice not quite believable) but I think that the stunning imagery of the north and the thrilling end will stick with me for a very long time. Very nice review.
Thank you! I see what you mean – the N. American edition almost looks likea travel book. Presumably it was that dramatic imagery they were trying to capture. I found the initial chapters where Katherine sees messages everywhere a little hard to credit but once she began her travels it really took off for me.
I saw Eleanor F’s review of this and was intrigued by it. I’m in the never-read-Rupert-T camp, and have tended to shy away from him though for no solid logical reason. Perhaps this is the novel to begin with!
It’s very good, Victoria, but not my favourite which is still Secrecy. Unusual for me as I’m not a fan of historical novels but it’s gripping.
I’m a big Rupert Thomson fan too, I love how his novels are so diverse. Have you read The Book of Revelation? I have it in the 746.
I have, Cathy. Years ago I wrote reading guides for Bloomsbury and was commissioned to write one for The Book of Revelation, the first of Thomson’s novels I’d read. It’s quite an eye-opener – I’ll be interested to see what you think of it when you get around to it.