The Sunday Business Post article on Book of the Year included a short piece I wrote on my favourite book of 2008, THE NORTHERN CLEMENCY by Philip Hensher.
I wrote: It’s an extraordinary novel that charts the lives of two families in Sheffield, spread over 30 years from the 1980s until today. It manages to be frequently funny and often quite moving, while never losing its sense of intrigue or mystery. Dissecting the lives of four parents and five children who live on opposite sides of a street, Hensher uncovers a world of surface tedium underscored by affairs that go wrong, obsessions that linger across the decades, criminality, illness and bullying. Our expectations are frequently challenged as characters who initially appear to be the most loathsome turn out to be capable of acts of uncommon generosity, while those who appear sympathetic in the opening sections become duplicitous and malevolent. It’s to Hensher’s credit that such a long novel – almost 800 pages – can leave the reader breathless for more.
It definitely stood out as my favourite of 2008 but I’ll list 9 other books – to round out the top 10 – over the next day or two.
