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Fabulous Fiction Firsts #372

by muffy

The New York Times review by Francine Prose called Deborah Levy's 2012 Man Booker Prize finalist Swimming Home a "spare, disturbing and frequently funny novel... that suggest an improbable hybrid of Virginia Woolf, Edward St. Aubyn, Absolutely Fabulous (a BBC sitcom), and Patricia Highsmith? ... (one that) should be read with care".

Two British couples are to share a vacation home in the South of France - idyllic, right? When Joe Jacobs arrives with his family at the villa, he sees a beautiful girl emerging from the swimming pool, naked. She is Kitty Finch and she walks right into the heart of their holiday.

"Levy winds her characters up and watches them go, and they do as most humans do, which is to mess up in the face of desire. Her novel is utterly beautiful and lyrical throughout, even at the most tragic turns"

South African–born Londoner Deborah Levy (author website) writes fiction, plays, and poetry. Her work has been staged by the Royal Shakespeare Company and broadcast on the BBC.

In the meantime, if you are way down on the waiting list, don't despair. Try Lawrence Osborne's The Forgiven * * (2012) about other not-so-innocents abroad, sets in the Moroccan desert. Here is another Fabulous Fiction Firsts that has been selected by The Economist and Library Journal as one of the 10 Best Books of 2012.

You might also like Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins "Gloriously inventive, constantly surprising... a story of flawed yet fascinating people, navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams."

* * = starred reviews

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