jon mcgregor

His debut novel, if nobody speaks of remarkable things, was an extraordinary debut. Longlisted for the Booker in 2002, it "presents a "day in the life" of an unnamed inner-city street. Like one of the characters, a young man who collects litter and junk and obsessively documents his existence with Polaroids, McGregor records people's ordinary lives through a series of snapshots on a late summer day. " (Guardian, 20 Aug 2002) Early on you become aware that something dramatic is going to happen, but he maintains the narrative suspense right to the end. It is wholly original, and it was disappointing that despite the Booker connection it received little notice amongst reviewers and readers.

I hope the same thing does not happen to his latest, so many ways to begin. About a man in search for the truth about his origins, it spans four decades in the lives of two families. As the blurb says, his "lyrical, intimate novel explores what happens when our lives fail to take the turns we expect, and the ways we learn to let go of the people we might have been". For the middle aged reader, perhaps, but I guarantee that this novel will prove one of the best you've read in ages.

Guardian article about Jon McGregor: http://books.guardian.co.uk/bookerprize2002/story/0,12350,777549,00.html