We begin our reading year with a bumper crop of tales that will have your TBR pile teetering. And rightly so. From surreal tales of crossed lives to sharp-eyed critiques on the judgement of strangers in the age of social media, via toxic motherhood, a near-psychopathically ambitious fashion journalist and more than one questionable sexual liaison, there’s plenty here to keep you reading all the way into spring. And with more than one of these already being tipped for this year’s literary gongs, you’ll be able to say you read it here first…
Funny and incisive, Waidner’s latest piece of genre-busting fiction is a surreal tale of two men with an uncanny resemblance to one another who cross paths and, essentially, swap lives. Lewis is a once-famous actor whose grief for his late wife might just be about to ruin his chances for another run at success. Disillusioned husband and father Korine, meanwhile, has walked out on his family and busy trying to avoid having to decide what to do about it. The answers for both of them might just be in the lives the other has left behind. But as the coincidences stack up, the question remains: are the pair mere physical doppelgangers or in fact true ‘doubles’ who are each holding up a mirror to the lives the other could have had? A very clever exploration of alternative lives and paths not taken.
