Acquired via BookCrossing 25 Apr 2009 – at the Birmingham BookCrossers’ meetup

It seems everyone has read this except me. In fact, I think I had the author mixed up with Rosie Thomas.  Anyway, this is a meticulously researched, affecting and engaging novel about a man from an unnamed Eastern European country trying to make it in the UK.  The descriptions of London life are both familiar and skewed, as we look at them from an outsider’s point of view, and as heartbreaking as I found it to live there.  The book seems bleak, and there are indeed dark moments both in the UK and back home, but redemption is possible if you look in perhaps a different place, and the kindness of strangers is a slim, true strand. Excellent stuff.

Picked it up to read and release at Uncon, ended up finishing it on the train journey home and leaving it on the train – thanks for the emergency postit, Jen!