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Book reviews: New novels from Fatima Bhutto, Max Porter and Dave Eggers

The Runaways by Fatima Bhutto
The Runaways by Fatima Bhutto The Runaways by Fatima Bhutto

BOOK OF THE WEEK

The Runaways by Fatima Bhutto is published in hardback by Viking, priced £14.99 (ebook £9.99). Available now

FATIMA Bhutto, whose father and prime minister aunt were assassinated, has refused to enter her family trade of Pakistani politics. But with this, her sixth book, she explores the undoubtedly political topic of Islamic radicalisation. Three young runaways – Anita Rose and Monty in Pakistan, Sunny in England – each make their way to Iraq, having abandoned family and friends to join the Islamist cause. Half the book describes their lives before Iraq, giving the reader enough time to appreciate that their backgrounds couldn't be more different, nor their reasons for leaving. But as their stories slowly spiral together, Bhutto avoids preaching. Instead, she explores the complicated nuances of grooming, familial expectation and societal pressure, of social media, sexual desire, wealth, poverty and power. It's a careful, unflinching look at the repercussions of generational ambition and betrayal, made all the more timely by the Shamima Begum story. A difficult read, but a very important one.

9/10

Natalie Bowen

Lanny by Max Porter is published in hardback by Faber & Faber, priced £12.99 (ebook £8.99). Available now

FOUR years in the making – and already optioned for film – Lanny is an idiosyncratic study of childhood and parenting, at once richly poetic and emotionally acute. Lanny is an eccentric little lad, a born artist who lives in an imaginative world. He spends his time roaming the woods and building dens around the rural village where his stay-home mum Jolie and his dad, live. Lanny and Jolie befriend an eccentric artist, Pete, who gives the boy drawing lessons. But when Lanny goes missing, Pete the misfit loner is immediately prime suspect. Dead Papa Toothwort's eye holds the book together – through him we hear random snippets of conversation that help form the chorus to this very English symphony. The links between creativity and countryside, tensions between town and village, a mother's thwarted grief, a father who doesn't know how to feel, the dynamics of a community under pressure, the enduring power of myth... all these and more are tackled in an absorbing, richly evocative tale.

8/10

Dan Brotzel

The Parade by Dave Eggers is published in hardback by Hamish Hamilton, priced £14.99 (ebook £9.99). Available March 21

PULITZER Prize-nominee Dave Eggers's latest novella, The Parade, picks up the dystopian themes of some of his other works. Set in a nameless land in the aftermath of a brutal civil war, our main characters are known only by the numbers 'Four' and 'Nine'. Their job is to build a road connecting the two main cities in time for a big parade. This is made difficult by the turbulent nature of the postwar landscape, and the fact Nine is a wild card and a liability, whereas Four is used to doing his job by the book. The book is a short read but gripping – Eggers knows how to build suspense, and everything that happens fills you with more dread for what's to come. As it's so short, as a reader you may feel like you want a bit more, both about the characters and the country they're in – but there's frustratingly just not room to cover that.

7/10

Prue Wade