Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss
Rajeev Balasubramanyam
Vintage, £12.99, pp288
Professor Chandra is approaching his 70th birthday. This eminent Cambridge economist has been overlooked for the Nobel prize, again, his wife has left him for a west coast hippy and relations with his three offspring are tricky to say the least. It takes a spiritual retreat in California (when he arrives, everyone is naked) for Chandra’s moment of clarity to reveal itself. Impressively, Balasubramanyam – something of a Zen exponent himself – balances satire and self-enlightenment in his first novel in nearly 20 years – a surprisingly soulful family tale that echoes Jonathan Franzen’s Corrections in its witty exploration of three children trying to free themselves from the influence of their parents.
Sal
Mick Kitson
Canongate, £8.99, pp240
Sal, 13, one of the most keenly drawn fictional characters of last year, flees a violent home near Glasgow for the Scottish wilderness with her younger half-sister, Peppa, armed with little more knowledge than snippets from YouTube videos. But she certainly knows how to survive. This convincing force of nature, created by fiftysomething debut novelist Kitson, is nothing short of remarkable, but Kitson, a teacher, has a sharp eye for the resourcefulness of children, making for a gripping, emotional adventure story shot through with humour and compassion that cuts across age and genre.
Last Train to Hilversum
Charlie Connelly
Bloomsbury, £20, pp336
When Charlie Connelly is given the chance to watch Corrie Corfield read the shipping forecast in the Radio 4 studio, he likens it to being at Sun Studios in 1954, “when Elvis was knocking out That’s All Right Mama”. That’s how important radio is to him, and this wonderful hymn to the glory of the wireless explores everything from the classified football results to The Goon Show. Weaving in personal history, Last Train to Hilversum is – perhaps necessarily – very British, but (counterintuitively) a joy to read too. Hopefully, the audiobook will be serialised… on radio.
To order Professor Chandra Follows His Bliss for £11.43, Sal for £7.91, or Last Train to Hilversum for £17.60, go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £15, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99
