That subtitle is a quote from the press release for Luke Brown’s smart, funny new novel and it’s what made me want to read it. I tend to find the A4 sheets that accompany review copies a wee bit over the top but I loved that phrase which turned out to fit Theft very well. Of course, if I’d known that its main protagonist was a bookseller and reviewer, I’d have needed no such persuasion.
Paul lives in the dilapidated Dalston flat he’s shared for years with various friends and acquaintances. He’s worked part-time in a Bloomsbury bookshop for a decade, trawling clubs at night for fetching haircut shots to post on the magazine page whose hits far outstrip his book reviews. He’s on the edge of London’s literary milieu, managing to land himself an interview with a reclusive novelist with whom he sparks a connection. Emily invites Paul to lunch at the Holland Park house she shares with her partner Andrew, a well-known historian several decades older. There he meets Sophie, Andrew’s daughter, busy cultivating her rebelliousness via her Guardian pieces on sexual politics. Holland Park is a world away from the small Northern seaside town where Paul was raised with his sister Amy. Their mother has recently died in a car crash, leaving them the family home. Amy’s keen to sell, planning to plough the proceeds into a flat currently just out of her financial reach and thinks Paul should do the same but he’s reluctant to let go of the life he’s led since he left university, despite having reached his mid-thirties. Over a year which sees the EU referendum, Paul continues to flirt with Emily’s world until he takes an irrevocable step and is cast out.
What I did to them was terrible, but you have to understand the context.
With its snappy opening sentence Brown sets his readers up for mischief in this novel which explores the intergenerational divide, London’s literary life and the state of our divided nation. Paul is an engaging narrator – a bookish party boy, falling in love here and there, caught up in his obsession with Emily, seemingly unable to fully acknowledge his mother’s death and how angry it’s made him. Brown’s characters are astutely drawn – Sophie’s constant public yanking of her father’s chain in her Guardian pieces and her cynical virtue signalling are particularly well done – and it’s very funny at times, underpinned, as all good social comedy should be, with some acute observations. Paul’s London life is in stark contrast to the lives of his old schoolmates in the seaside town where the fishing industry has long since dwindled, replaced with nothing. A hugely entertaining novel with a pleasingly acerbic edge, I loved it.
And Other Stories: London 2020 9781911508588 320 pages Paperback
I really like the sound of this! I’ve been on the look out for a contemporary comedy of manners, after thinking that all the books I read of that type were written about 100 years ago and there must be a modern equivalent. Thank you for finding one for me 🙂
You’re welcome! This one hit the spot for me as you can no doubt tell.
Oo! This sounds like a novel for me, and from an Indie press too. Wonderful.
I’m sure you’ll love it, Annabel. Funny, sharp and on the button!
This has been on my radar since you mentioned it in one of your monthly round-ups. Now I’m desperate to read it: I’m on a bit of a roll reading Brexit novels at the moment; I LOVE novels about class, and I’m guessing that northern town could be Grimsby (or a variation of) and I work there occasionally so added bonus. I’ll pick it up next time I’m in town.
Excellent! I loved it, Naomi, and while it could be termed a Brexit novel there’s enough humour there to soothe the current soreness.
I love the way you write. Will check out the book this weekend.
Thank you so much. I hope you love Theft as much as I did.
Well, yes, bookseller and reviewer: perfect match indeed! Hah!
Couldn’t possibly resist!
This sounds like fun!
It certainly is! I hope can get your hands on a copy.
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